Making a profit is only one aspect of running a successful business. If you want your firm to reach its maximum potential, you must consider growth and scalability from the start. If you want to achieve long-term success, you must learn how to expand a firm.

Remote working has grown in popularity among IT professionals as well as small and startup businesses in recent years. And the worldwide epidemic has played a crucial role in its rising popularity. 

First, let's look into some game-changing research gathered by www.thedailymba.com, which will help us to effectively understand the benefits of having a remote team.

• 30% of remote workers report savings of as much as $5,240 per year simply accounting for expenses
• 26% of remote employees earn more than $100,000 annually whereas only 8% of onsite workers earn more than that
• Full-time remote workers say they’re happy in their job 22% more than people who never work remotely
• 91% of remote workers report better work-life balance as their main driver behind working remotely
   

The environments in which these companies operate are ever-changing. As a result, they recognize the clear benefits of not making a large investment in a physical work site.

Expanding the remote team

When considering how to expand a remote workforce, it's important to remember why they opted to work remotely in the first place. 

Consider the following scenario

you have a few months to create a new IT business. Remote teams have been shown to save firms a lot of money on staff expenditures. This is due to the fact that they do not require real office space.

This means that the company doesn't have to invest a lot of money in the beginning.

according to a Gartner poll, 82 percent of businesses aim to enable workers to work from home at least part-time after the pandemic – it's critical that corporate owners and managers understand what smooth scaling for a remote workforce looks like.

How to scale a remote team: 6 simple steps

1. Prioritize good communication

Communication is frequently cited as the most difficult barrier for remote teams, particularly those operating across several time zones. 

Despite the fact that there are several solutions aimed at making this element of remote work simpler, many teams still struggle to keep in sync.

Good communication is a crucial part of remote job efficiency. You must discover a means to stay connected at all times because your team members operate from different places. Fast and secure communication channels are vital for smooth project cooperation.

All critical information should be communicated to your staff, and they should feel free to contact you if they have any concerns or issues that need to be handled.
 

2. Create an onboarding system

Every team member must grasp the jobs they must do on a daily basis as well as how your organization functions. A solid onboarding strategy will assist all of your new workers to understand what is expected of them so that they can start to work immediately.

Onboarding is a typical issue with remote teams. 

The idea here is to walk new employees through the most important components of their job, gradually increasing the difficulty of the duties and offering frequent feedback along the process.

 To make it easier we can use onboarding templates like this one which was done by Bizmerlin.

Traditional onboarding programs usually last for 8 weeks and include both theory and practice. 

Some of the activities that fall under the first week of the onboarding process involve, 

• Regular feedback sessions with the mentor
• participation in team meetings
• enable new recruits to see the broad picture
• understand their function within the business, 
• and form ties with the rest of the team.

Its primary purpose is to provide new workers with the necessary information and abilities to allow them to function effectively on their own without continual monitoring.

3. Allow flexible schedules

It's difficult to maintain a traditional 9-5 weekday when you have remote staff, notably if a few of your people work in other time zones. 

Allow your employees to schedule their own time and understand that performance is far more essential than attendance.

In this manner, you may considerably boost employee happiness, as many office workers dislike typical schedules, according to Zenfits, 

In fact, 54% of them say they would leave their current job for one that allows them to work from home, so don't insist on a 9-5 schedule unless it's really necessary.

There's no need to impose a rigorous work schedule on all employees as long as all jobs are performed before the deadline.

4. Remote Teams Can’t Thrive Without the Right Tools

The importance of technology on remote work uptake cannot be overstated. After all, it is what enabled remote work in the first place. However, it might have a significant influence on the productivity and efficiency of your remote crew.

Despite the many advantages of remote work – less time spent traveling, less office interruptions, the flexibility to employ talent from anywhere, and flexible scheduling,

– if your remote workers feel left out, you're unlikely to establish the high-performing team your company desires.

Powerful communication and collaboration solutions are essential to ensure that all of your remote employees feel like they are a part of the team and have everything they need to do their tasks.

For virtual training and meetings, high-quality video conferencing is necessary, as is secure file sharing and unified communications for easy collaboration, and a simple link with all of your business tools for increased productivity.

You can find some of the tools here to enhance your communications!

5. Provide cybersecurity training on day one

Remote employees must be able to log in safely from various places. If your firm doesn't have a virtual private network (VPN), make sure your employees know how to access business apps through secure networks.

According to Purplesec and their research,

• 20% of ransomware victims are small to mid-sized businesses.
• 85% of MSPs report ransomware as a common threat to small to mid-sized businesses.
• 29% of small businesses had experience with ransomware, making them more likely to be unprepared for the threat.
• The average size company of a ransomware attack in 2019 was 645 employees.

You should also go through recommended practices including

• changing passwords on a regular basis
• implementing multi-factor authentication,
• keeping your devices up to date and more

Remember to talk about the technologies your company utilizes to defend against data breaches and to stay safe! 
 

6. Analyze and make modifications as necessary

Remote employment entails more than just a shift in location. It might be a change in lifestyle. If your new recruits are working remotely for the first time, they may need some assistance adapting.

Provide time management advice, as well as advice on setting up a quiet workstation and establishing clear work-life boundaries. 

It's crucial to make new team members feel welcome, whether you're bringing on a few or many.

Connect new workers with existing staff by using virtual team-building activities.

Assist in promoting industry standards throughout your whole workforce. To become more adaptable, your organization will need to monitor developments in a proactive manner.

You should be mindful of the potential of change in order to succeed in any endeavor. To be successful, a corporation must continually watch market developments and adjust its strategy accordingly.
 

I hope this blog post will help you to scale your remote team and uncover your startup's full potential.

You will find below blog posts to be helpful as well.

If you have a killer pitch and aren't confident in how to pitch it, This will help you!

If you want to pitch a deal and ace that deal, this guide will help you!

and if you aren't familiar with what common pitch deck errors to avoid while creating yours, check this blog post.

And if you still need more assistance,

and don't know who to reach out to, Don't worry!

Here at CreativeHub, We help startup founders all across the world to kick-start their startups and we help existing start-ups take their dreams to the next level!

Check out our success stories here. 

Send us a message at any time to discuss your start-up.