Ever since humans developed their curiosity for knowledge, the more experienced individuals have passed their skills down to their pupils.

Back in the day, people met in person, did experiments together for the first time, observed the results, discussed them, and wrote them down.

Later, students and teachers also gathered face-to-face but, since others have already done the practical work, most of the time they only talked about the theoretical.

Nowadays, we can meet remotely and display both our theoretical and practical knowledge through interactive visuals, videos, 3D images, and so on.

And even though technology has made our lives much easier, it has also decreased our attention span due to the information-saturated world that we live in. So, what can we do about that?

First things first, what is virtual training?

It is important to highlight that there is a significant difference between virtual training vs online training.

The online training is entirely computer-based. Students rely predominantly on asynchronous communication to ask for assistance or clarifications.

All materials are available to the student 24/7 and it’s entirely up to them how to approach the study plan. They decide on the time and pace of their study as long as they meet the final exam requirements.

Meanwhile, virtual training is the same as regular study sessions with the only difference being that they’re held in a digital environment via video conferencing tools.

There is a determined time slot in which pupils and teachers gather virtually. And the teacher is in control of how the conversation goes and what the topic of discussion is.

Similar to high-schoolers passing on notes, chit-chatting during class, and generally not paying attention to what is being said, virtual educators sometimes also struggle to keep their audience attentive.

That’s why our 3veta team has taken on the mission to provide you with 8 hands-on tips on how to make virtual training more engaging.

Avoid the PowerPoint death

Who hasn’t been bored to death during a virtual presentation? Most of the time it is due to the poorly made slides.

Almost every virtual training program requires creating a bunch of presentations because that’s how educators communicate what’s important to their students.

However, it is not a simple job.

To make an effective presentation, one should plan and organize its contents, prepare an agenda in a form of bullet points, and create slides. Every step matters.

As we’ve mentioned people have a short attention span. Nobody likes reading long texts for a short time. Even less, if that text is put on a slide, which is presented on a tiny screen.

One of the virtual workshop’s best practices is to ensure that your presentations are interesting by using visuals that are related to what you are saying.

Don’t rely on people to read, speak and verbally inform them.

Take for example how news companies inform the public about a recent event.

First, the anchor is introducing the topic, then, some footage helps the narrator illustrate the story.

It is all very dynamic. Try to achieve the same pace and don’t spend too much time on one slide.

How you speak matters

Another key element of the best practices for virtual training is your tone of voice and pronunciation.

When you are presenting and the slides are taking up most of the attendee’s screen, it is very important to make yourself visible in another way.

Radio hosts don’t rely on images at all, how do they manage to capture our attention and make us listen for hours? It’s all about your intonation.

If your tone of voice is monotone, you’ll be doomed no matter how great your slides are or how important what you are communicating is.

“Clients tell me that some of their staff speak too loud and intimidate their customers. And others speak too soft, lacking energy and enthusiasm.” – Maria Pellicano says to back up her claim that voice tonality can either repel others or engage them.

Don’t speak under your nose, and don’t read fast if you’ve prepared some materials, instead stress the sentences that are important and show the participants that you are invested in the conversation. Through your voice!

Show attendees your pretty face

For an effective virtual training session, you have to turn on your camera.

Don’t be shy!

When working remotely, you might be worried that your workstation is messy or you haven’t freshened up. But your video calling software should have the option to blur your background and probably offers some filters to make you look better.

Showing your face plays a huge part in forming a bond with your students, which also helps with all the virtual training activities that you’ll go through.

Seeing each other while speaking prompts active participation and better communication. Also, it shows preparedness, responsibility, and dedication.

In case something is unclear, people will feel more confident to ask their questions, and if the host is the one asking, they’ll feel the pressure to respond.

There are also other pros of asking your students to turn on their cameras.

“Instructors benefit from receiving nonverbal cues from their students such as smiles, frowns, head nods, looks of confusion, and looks of boredom, so that they can evaluate their teaching in real-time and adjust accordingly to improve student learning,” Castelli and Sarvary write—emphasizing the value that comes from being able to read students’ faces.

Speak to them, not at them

Another gem in the list with remote training strategies is to give people the opportunity to speak.

That’s how you’ll make sure that everyone is listening to you, has understood what you’ve said, and is ready to get to the next point.

The best way to achieve interactive video sessions is to start by asking informal and simple questions.

It could be anything, but here are some examples:

1. How many of you are already familiar with this topic?
2. Have you ever seen a good/bad example of X and what was so good/bad about it?
3. What comes to your mind when we speak about X?
4. Should I repeat the concept of X or is it already clear enough?

Small questions like these pass the ball to your audience and encourage them to participate more. If you are working with a larger group of people, you can use the chat function of your video calling software to get the answers.

And in case your audience is too shy, you can reformulate those examples into yes/no questions. Or if they’re open to a conversation, start asking harder questions and engage their mind.

The best part about it is that you can use their responses as examples for your next session. This will show your students that you are genuinely interested in what they have to say and you take notes.

Give students personal attention

Another tip on how to conduct virtual training sessions more efficiently is to give your students an adequate dose of personal attention.

Say hello to those who join with their camera on and use their first names out loud. If you are not sure about the pronunciation, ask.

Always express your gratitude when someone asks a question or adds something valuable to your arguments.

When you are asking questions, wait for a response. Make attendees know that you are willing to wait a couple of minutes so that they can gather their thoughts or write down the response in the chat.

After that, make sure to acknowledge their responses. “Jimmy says that he understands what X means, but Camilla mentioned that she is a little bit confused.”

You should not only be asking for their input, but you should be also making use of it.

Engage them with breakout rooms

Engaging attendees with a breakout room is the most practical one out of all virtual training ideas for employees.

It has many benefits to it, such as allowing students to interact with each other, discuss in greater detail the material, give each other feedback, and offer new ideas.

It not only helps them set in stone their knowledge but also makes them more familiar with each other.

To make sure everyone is staying on the right track, give detailed instructions so that everyone knows what the breakout room is about.

Stephanie Rothstein says that when it comes to breakout rooms, “Having specific roles for students is a wonderful way for everyone to understand what’s expected and be part of the process”. Before assigning the roles, you may ask your students if they would like to volunteer for any position. This way they will have the freedom to choose whatever they enjoy the most and won’t consider the whole activity as an obligation.

Visually highlight the important parts

If you want to perfect your virtual training skills, make sure to use annotations.

Remember the point we made about people not liking complex slides? Sometimes you’ll inevitably have to include them in your presentation.

No matter if it’s a graph, a scheme, or some other way of data visualization, do your best to make it as clear as possible.

As we’d like to say, do it as if you’re following the how to make a slide for dummies manual.

Arrows, pointers, bright highlighting colors, underlines, and different font sizes and colors. Make what has to be seen and remembered as visible as possible.

But also, be mindful of the colors and fonts.

In an article that advises on how to make your slides better, a TED presentation expert named Jurczynski is quoted. He says that “Color is a key way to communicate visually and to evoke emotion”. And as you may also know from personal experience, feelings and emotions make us remember facts and stories better and for longer.

Beware of your video conferencing tool

We’ve already mentioned quite a few video conferencing tool features that you should take advantage of for your effective virtual training.

The good video quality will allow others to see your shiny smile. Screen sharing for displaying your creative slides. A chat section where teachers and students interact with each other. And breakout rooms that will encourage people to critically think and debate.

But there are also many other useful options that you should look for.

For instance, at 3veta, we use in-call polls and reactions for those moments when the virtual training activities require the audience’s opinion on the matter.

They could be very efficient for engagement and also participant feedback if you’re having a larger audience or if you want to save up some time.

Also, it would be great if you can benefit from cloud recordings which allow you to store your meetings after they’ve ended and share them with those who couldn’t make it.

How to make virtual training more engaging – completed

If you follow our advice and employ most or a few of the strategies we’ve shared with you, you should be able to offer a top-notch virtual training program.

Essentially, it’s all about knowing the affordances of your technology and employing some of the techniques that public speakers use.

Our number all ‘umbrella’ tip which could be applied to all types of virtual meetings is to show your audience how much time and effort you have invested.

Rely on a positive and active approach and your attendees will mirror your attitude.

The post 8 Strategies on How to Make Virtual Training More Engaging appeared first on 3veta.

We have heard of hybrid cars, but these days, the term “hybrid” has also found its way into various organizations around the world in the form of the “hybrid workplace.”

Hybrid working means that employees of a company can perform some or all of their tasks in different locations such as the company’s office, at home, or at other various places.

As long as there is a stable internet connection and the task doesn’t require physical presence, it can be sustained with hybrid working.

However, coping with hybrid working will require employees to master hybrid learning.

If you’re confused about why hybrid learning is essential in this regard, we’ll be covering this topic below.

5 Reasons Why Hybrid Working Requires Hybrid Learning

Research has been done on making hybrid work as productive as possible.

As mixed working becomes more likely to be the future for workplaces worldwide, we must also consider hybrid learning. Here are five reasons why:

• It makes it easier to find time for learning
• In-person meetings are usually hard to organize
• Hybrid education is accessible and inclusive
• It is safer than physical-only learning
• Such learning is cost-efficient

Let’s review these reasons in more detail.

It makes it easier to find time for learning

One major thing that came out of working on a hybrid schedule was the blurring of work time.

Traditionally, work ends when stepping out of the office for most people.

However, it is becoming common for employees to work on a task outside work hours.

This means it is also challenging to find time to learn new things.

For instance, if you would like to go back to school, you might find it difficult to work on your college papers, which is why many people use paper writing sites  due to their convenience and affordability.

Professional writers are also very qualified, so you needn’t worry about paper quality.

When you consider that these days even your early morning commute can be used to set up a meeting with work colleagues, it becomes important to change the way we learn to match the current times.

You can schedule the time needed to teach employees new technologies and resources with hybrid learning.

This can be done through live webinars, lectures, and Q&A sessions allowing workers to increase performance and learn new things with ease.

In-person meetings are usually hard to organize

Trying to organize in-person meetings can take a lot of time and preparation, and include logistical issues.

Online activities might clash with on-site learning sessions.

In cases where it is difficult for some participants to commit the time to be physically present at a learning session, mobile learning would make it possible for them to connect from their various locations effortlessly.

To save time on finding the right time for your hybrid training session, we recommend you use a scheduling tool.

With 3veta, you can have a full overview of your team’s availability which makes it so easy to find a free time slot for team meetings, workshops or trainings with on-site employees or your virtual team.

When managing remote employees, this is something to consider to get the best performance.

Video call can be easily accessible from almost anywhere with a stable internet connection. That makes it an excellent choice for the ultimate convenience of all workers and higher-ups.

Hybrid education is accessible and inclusive

It can be hard to get the most from on-site learning sessions for people with special needs, disabilities, etc.

For instance, a training session is being organized for hundreds of employees on some new and vital technology to be used in the company.

However, some participants with hearing disabilities might find it challenging to consume the provided information at the same pace and via the same means as other employees.

This is something to consider when looking to host remote-friendly meetings.

With hybrid learning, there would be the opportunity for all the employees to be able to learn and participate.

Machine learning has allowed live sessions to be transcribed in real-time, so people with hearing disabilities can also learn.

And if the participants have low vision, high-resolution images can be broadcasted directly to their laptops, making it easier to learn.

All in all, hybrid learning is a lot more personalized than regular learning, so it can be more beneficial for offices that cater to the needs of every employee.

It is safer than physical-only learning

The pandemic has made it challenging to organize physical meetings because of the health risks of crowding people in one place.

However, most organizations like to show their employees that their safety is paramount.

One way of doing this is to encourage a hybrid approach to organizing learning sessions.

Doing so will help reduce the number of physical participants, which means live sessions are likely to be much safer.

This is one of the potentials of hybrid learning that many people can benefit from.

In addition, by making hybrid learning a priority makes it easier for employees who are ill to stay at home and learn at their own convenience.

The pace of hybrid learning is also adjustable, so one can resume their education once their health improves.

Hybrid learning is cost-efficient

It can be difficult and costly for many businesses and organizations to rent a venue for a learning session.

One must account for a safe distance between participants, power supply, learning materials, seating, technologies for presenting the information, and other related factors.

However, one can tend to a much smaller crowd of participants with hybrid learning by creating a virtual classroom, which is among the trends in hybrid learning in the workplace.

In many ways, this would lead to a reduction in costs.

As a result, a department’s budget might be used for other pressing issues.

Bottom Line

More and more organizations are coming up with plans to return to the workplace.

However, with remote work being so common, companies find the hybrid work model a great alternative that minimizes the challenges of fully virtual teams.

The benefits and flexibility of hybrid working and learning are abundant and diverse, so it is clear that blended education can be of great use in any progressive, modern in-house team or online workspace.

The post Why Hybrid Working Requires Hybrid Learning appeared first on 3veta.

It’s no secret that working remotely holds many pros for both companies and employees but it could be quite tricky for the ones who occupy leading positions.

Many business owners are interested in going fully or partly remote and that’s why in this article, we’ll be sharing with you all the benefits of remote and hybrid work as well as some tricks for handling your team better.

What’s a virtual team?

A virtual team is a group of skilled professionals who have the same responsibilities and functions as regular teams but they do everything online.

A virtual team doesn’t have to be physically present in order to get the job done efficiently.

All of the communication, project management, scheduling, booking, and collaboration happen in a virtually organized environment.

Thanks to many different platforms and apps which automate and facilitate the workflow, virtual teams can even prove to be more productive and efficient compared to in-office teams.

However, team leaders need to consider different challenges that come with remote work, such as having team members in different time zones, relying on asynchronous communication, keeping everyone in the loop, handling technical malfunctions, and avoiding miscommunication.

Even so, professionals usually deem all the efforts worth it, considering how many benefits virtual teams can bring to the table.

1. Flexibility

Probably the biggest benefit of virtual teams is giving people the freedom to work from anywhere. Team members don’t have to be tied to the office chair for 8 hours straight anymore.

They could be chilling and working comfortably from home while having enough time to spend with their kids in the morning or during their lunch break.

No rushing back and forth to the office, no worrying about who will pick the kids from school. The elimination of the commuting factor equals a better work/personal life balance.

2. Productivity

Some people would argue that in-office productivity is better because everyone is one desk away and you can do a quick consultation with someone to easily solve an issue together.

However, virtual team members are one click away. And similarly to the in-person practices you still have to keep in mind others’ availability before asking for help.

Employees will be able to choose their working hours, meaning that staff that’s feeling comfortable, energized, and motivated will result in greater overall productivity for your company.

3. Collaboration

As you can imagine, every team’s top priority is having good communication and collaboration.

With the help of different platforms, virtual teams can work on projects simultaneously and have all the documentation needed in one place, safely stored in a cloud.

No lost data, and no misunderstandings, because everyone can see the progress of others in real-time.

Since most of the working processes are automated by different programs, the team has more time to spend on the finishing touches of the projects, instead of dealing with paperwork.

4. No physical office

Another great advantage of remote-first teams for employers is not having to rent and maintain a lot of physical space for your workers. In fact, there are remote-only teams that don’t have a physical space at all!

This is great because the money you save from rent, supplies, and other expenses can be repurposed for salary bonuses or equipment upgrades.

You won’t be distracted by trivial issues such as “The coffee machine is not working again” or “The Internet is too slow, maybe we have to change the supplier”.

5. Access to more talent

As we already mentioned, remote work means that you can be anywhere in the world. Therefore, employers are not limiting their recruitment to just one city or even one country anymore.

They have access to a global talent pool and can find the most suitable team members to become a part of their firm.

No compromises on the basis of location should be made when it comes to a quality workforce.

And that goes both ways.

Employers don’t have to settle for someone who is not a good fit for the job but lives nearby and is available.

And employees don’t have to change their residence merely because they want to find a better job that satisfies their needs.

6. Improved retention rates

When your employees enjoy the freedom of working from home and the improved work-life balance that comes with that they’ll be less likely to search for a new job.

On the contrary, there’s a good chance they’d want to stay at their current position longer than they might have otherwise.

And this is a pretty sweet advantage of virtual teams as it means that you won’t spend money on looking for a new employee and training them for the job.

7. Saving money from almost everything

No office means no commuting, no hiring staff to look after the place, no food and drinks supplies, no bills to pay, and so on.

Your only major investment would be to pay for the right digital working environment software and, eventually, to place high-tech devices at your workers’ disposal if their job requires advanced equipment.

Also, it is a good idea to find software that provides 24/7 tech support and benefits from their services.

After all, all of your business operations will rely on technology and you’d want to have someone to turn to in case something out of your competencies suddenly happens.

8. Remote teams are available around the clock

Speaking of solving issues 24/7…

Having people working from countries in different time zones means that you’ll have colleagues available at all times in case something goes wrong when you are off.

An international team has many advantages to it but this one is probably one of the biggest because it also means greater productivity.

Your business won’t be operating just 8 hours per day, you’ll have people on the other side of the globe that will start their working day just when you finish yours.

9. Transparency

In terms of online communication, there are amazing apps and web-based platforms that allow virtual teams to keep in touch constantly.

What’s awesome is that you can create group chats or channels where everyone in the company or everyone on the team will be able to see what’s happening.

Furthermore, tools such as Google Docs Editors can show you who changed what on the project and when did that happen.

This way you can follow your team members’ work closely and without any confusion.

How to manage your virtual team?

Believe us, it’s not as hard as you might think!

Managing your virtual team is all about being organized and knowing which tricks and tools to employ.

Video calls

With good video meeting software, you’ll be able to communicate with clients and co-workers just as well as if you were in the same room.

Make sure to pick a meeting management platform that not only provides you with high-quality video and audio but also facilitates as much as possible the process of creating a meeting room.

Imagine you manage a remote sales team. Having this key functionality will make scheduling and organizing client demos so much easier.

Shared team calendar

A shared team calendar is a must when you work in a remote team. You have to be aware of what the others are doing and when shared projects are due.

This way team members will be able to see their co-workers’ availability and arrange meetings without any back-and-forth communication.

Schedule meetings

Managing virtual teams sometimes also means managing people’s schedules.

Some platforms allow users to schedule meetings on behalf of someone else after that person has given them permission.

You’ll be able to organize someone else’s schedule by accepting meeting invitations or by creating events.

To summarize

Virtual co-working makes work from home more efficient.

So, we hope that you find the benefits of virtual teams quite compelling and that you might consider the remote work model, in case you haven’t done so yet.

Truth to be told, working remotely has its challenges and peculiarities but with the help of the right tools, it could change your business for the better.

And if you are not sure where to start, you can check 3veta’s offers because good online communication is the basis of any virtual team.

The post 9 Benefits of Virtual Teams and How to Manage Them appeared first on 3veta.

The benefits of remote work and remote first work for employees and employers are countless and it’s not a surprise that more and more organizations offer it as a permanent perk in their contracts.

Since this trend doesn’t show signs of slowing down any time soon, we decided to compile this How to master remote work – the complete guide to success to help you enter the world of working remotely.

What’s remote work?

Remote work is an adaptive working style that allows professionals to be flexible and work outside of a traditional office environment.

The core of the remote work concept is that it enables employees to work on their tasks from anywhere – be it their home, a co-working space, or a private office.

In addition, remote work provides people with a generous dose of flexibility and creates a better work-life balance which naturally leads to increases in productivity.

Why do people work remotely?

There are many reasons why people work remotely. However, the most common one is convenience.

This is especially true for family members with young children and/or elders who need care. Also, more than 60% of younger employees say they prefer to work remotely more often and use video conferencing tools instead of going to the office every day.

It all boils down to the pros and cons of remote work. And the pros are definitely much more prominent.

Among the biggest benefits of working remotely for employees are more flexibility, less commuting, more time for your friends and family.

However, what makes remote work truly appealing globally is that employers also have much to gain. First, they’ve got the same perks as employees but also increased employee productivity and lower operating costs.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into them.

What are the benefits of remote working?

The benefits of remote working are numerous both for employees and employers.

More and more companies seek to reduce their expenses on office rent and utility bills and decrease their carbon footprint.

At the same time, employees look for greater control over their professional and personal lives.

Additionally, some studies have shown that people who work remotely are more productive and less stressed because they aren’t constantly surrounded by distractions.

Employers, on the other side, record fewer absentees and more dedication to the job.

That said, let’s have a closer look at the benefits remote work brings to employees and employers.

Embrace flexibility

Working remotely means you can work your own hours, so if you want to nap during the day, get kids from school or wake up at 5 am to start with your tasks, you can.

Plus, it helps people find their groove with their work style.

For example, some people are more productive late at night and others early in the morning. Following their own schedule lets them be more productive and efficient.

Indeed, remote workers often work on their own schedule, take breaks when they need them, and have lunch at any weird time they want.

Empower productivity

The flexibility that comes with working remotely significantly affects and increases productivity.

Orthodox mindsets still believe that working remotely means you are too lethargic and not responsible enough to hold a “real job”.

However, pretty much every survey and research on the topic comes to the same conclusion – remote workers report higher job satisfaction and stronger work commitment. And that naturally leads to higher productivity levels.

During a fixed 8-hour shift schedule, people often pass through periods of low energy. This is the “I need a coffee” time of the day we all have. Remote working fixes this issue byletting people identify when they have the most energy to focus on completing their tasks and removes the judgmental looks on your colleagues’ faces in the office.

Remote work has also decreased the negative effects of micro-management, helping increase the productivity of both micro-managed employees and their micro-managing managers.

Furthermore, remote working people have more time for themselves and for their families, which means they’re healthier and happier. This, in turn, means they are more productive at work.

Get rid of the daily commute

Commuting is a huge burden and often causes stress and anxiety. Remote workers are less stressed compared to their in-office counterparts that commute to work daily.

More and more people opt for remote work as they see it as a great alternative to going to the office every day. By eliminating commuting, people can work from an environment that they’re comfortable being in and save time.

Imagine spending 1 hour per day on public transport or in your car. That’s 5 hours per week – a big chunk of time taken away from your family, friends, and favorite activities.

To quote a comment from a popular remote work community:

The back-to-office pressure is probably my main motivation for switching careers. My 8-hour shift becomes a 10-hour shift when I add in commute time.

While time is what’s most important in the end, money is also a factor. Not having to commute saves commuters a non-trivial percentage of their salary. It also allows them to live further away from big cities, where rent is much lower.

Work from anywhere

One of the sweetest perks that come with remote work is that people can work from anywhere.

This eliminates the need for people to be bound to a city or location that doesn’t meet their standards.

As long as you have a decent internet connection, it doesn’t matter if you live in a village in the mountains or a bungalow near the sea.

Hiring remote employees is also beneficial for companies as they don’t need to limit their search to a specific location.

Having a wider pool of talent means they won’t miss out on the most qualified candidates.

Veronica K. from ultroNeous shares that: “Hiring remote web developers and designers has helped us find the valuable talents around the country. We were hesitant about going for remote hiring, but it worked out in our favor.” Moreover, she adds that: “the tech team managed to finish work efficiently, bugs were down by 28%, saved time, and job satisfaction was off the roof”.

Lower operating costs

If this hasn’t been made clear yet – people crave flexibility.

Companies that took this into account now register less anxiety and better mental health among their employees. Besides, the remote work model allows companies to save money they would instead have been spent on office rent.

Employees also feel the economic impact of working remotely. No commuting means fewer expenses and more personal time.

How do people work remotely?

To work remotely, you need a clear remote work strategy.

It’s usually prepared by the company you work for to ensure that all remote employees are aligned with the expectations and objectives of the organization.

The core of this strategy is providing a virtual workspace.

That includes all the tools the staff needs to communicate and collaborate efficiently, as well as dedicated cloud storage, online project management tool, etc.

Besides a remote work strategy, you’ll need to find а place to work from.

It could be a spare room in your home, a cozy cafe nearby, or a local co-working space. A place where you feel comfortable and where you can focus on your work without distractions.

Lastly, you need the right gear and accessories – a laptop, external monitor, keyboard and mouse, and everything else the job requires.

All these are usually provided by the employer.

What jobs are available to work remotely?

Thanks to the growing interest in remote work, a huge number of jobs are available for people who want to work remotely.

According to Indeed’s Hiring Lab, remote work opportunities have increased during the pandemic and continue to do so.

People who seek a career in customer service, sales, web development, and marketing fields have a great chance to find a remote position.

What are the challenges of remote working?

When you work remotely, you are your immediate boss. You are first person in the line of responsibility and accountability of your tasks.

You have to make sure you’re completing all of your tasks on time and that they’re high-quality. You’ll also need to be more organized, as deadlines will no longer follow a strict and set pace.

But with these challenges come great rewards too.

First… you are your own immediate boss! You’ll be able to work in peace, without having to commute or spend hours each day in a noisy office.

There are also fewer distractions at home than at an office where people are constantly coming in and out to chat with coworkers or just stop by for a quick talk about the latest news.

Here are some of the most common challenges remote workers experience.

Communication feels fragmented

For remote workers, communication can be a difficult issue to navigate.

Different time zones and schedules might cause problems with the workflow.

According to Buffer’s 2022 State Of Remote Work, 59% of the respondents report that they want to work from home. With such a high number, employers and remote team managers must take the initiative and establish a structure for good communication and collaboration.

There are various tools out there that can facilitate sync or async team communication – 3veta, Slack, and Zoom, to mention a few.

Just test them out and see which one best suits your team’s needs.

Isolation

Working from home is great when you’re not stuck in traffic, but sometimes it can be lonely.

The virtual world depersonalizes our connections and interactions which leads us to miss the face-to-face time with coworkers and/or clients.

To manage the feeling of isolation, one should first start talking about it.

Doing regular video or stand-ups offers an opportunity for everyone on the team to catch up with each other’s progress, ask for help or help others get around any bottlenecks that they might be facing in their work.

Jason Yavorska, the founder of SynuraHQ, adds that another clever way to overcome isolation is to replace work friendships with local connections: “volunteer in your community, lunch with people at the local coworking spot, and that sort of thing can help”.

Overwork

It is important to eliminate the barrier between home and work, which often causes employees to have a hard time “turning it off” after they clock out for the day.

Remote workers are usually attached to their devices at all times (conferences calls, emails, etc.). And these don’t stop at end of your workday if other team members are working across different time zones.

To solve this issue create a commute from home that you can do before the actual one – even if it’s just going down for coffee or something.

Spend some time in the morning before work: take showers, eat breakfast, and read some news.

Then, once done with your day, shut down your computer and take a few minutes to wind down.

What are best practices when working remotely?

When you work remotely, it’s crucial to stay productive.

This can be a challenge, because you’re likely to feel more isolated or lonely and not as connected with the team.

For this reason, it’s important to set daily goals and make sure you’re getting enough sleep, eating healthy, exercising, and having fun.

However, if you are new to this type of setting, it can be difficult. For your sake and the success of your team, here are some tips to help you out.

Create boundaries between work and life

Working remotely comes with its own set of challenges that you might not have faced in an office.

Remote workers need to establish boundaries between work and life. You might have to take time off on the go, or you may find yourself working while sick.

To be a successful remote worker, you need to make sure that your work doesn’t start to infringe on your life. Set working hours and make sure that you’re sticking to them.

Setting boundaries is important because it will help your company (and co-workers) know what’s expected from you as well as give you a sense of direction for what is allowed and what isn’t.

Here’s a great video by CGP Grey on setting these boundaries.

Take regular breaks

Taking regular breaks is important, especially if you don’t get out and are staring in front of your screen all day.

You should strive to take at least a 5-minute break every 25 minutes throughout the day.

A quick walk or 10 minutes outside can help clear your head and let you focus when it’s time to get back to work.

Connect with your teammates

One of the most important things that you need to do to succeed with remote work is to stay connected with your teammates.

Start conversations about weekend plans, ask for movie recommendations or share interesting news.

That’s a very easy way to build relationships and stay connected with your colleagues.

Tips and tricks for working remotely

If you’re new to working remotely, whether because of the Coronavirus or as a result of successfully finding a remote job, it may be necessary for you to change your habits and routines to make this style of work successful.

Maintain regular hours

Part of achieving a better work-life balance while working remotely is having clear guidelines for when to work and when to call it a day.

Automatic tracking apps like Rescue Time will help you monitor how much time you or your remote employees are actually spending on productive tasks versus slacking off during the day.

You can use that data to your advantage. For example, if you are most productive between 9 AM and noon, don’t schedule meetings during that time.

Create a morning routine

Setting a specific amount of time to work is one thing, but creating a routine that leads you into the chair is another.

Think about something in your morning routine that indicates you’re about to start working. Look for an existing habit like making a coffee, brushing teeth, or coming in from walking with your dog, and tack on starting up work as well.

Habits are hard to break and make positive changes in your life.

If you want to master the remote work game, pick something you like doing and turn it into a habit and change your approach to your working day.

Create an evening routine

Similar to the morning routine, you can also create an evening routine. For instance, at the end of the day, you can clean up your kitchen or living room.

Sounds unrelated to work but bear with me.

You usually work in the morning. It is proven that if you enter a workspace that is clean and tidy (especially if you cleaned it yourself), you’d already feel you have accomplished something. Your productivity will be higher and you won’t lose any time in the morning doing chores.

Alternatively, your evening routine could also be used to set the boundaries. It could be an activity you are looking forward to all day and marks the end of your workday. For parents that’s easy, e.g. take the kid from school. For me (as a dog owner) this is the evening walk of my dog. This is great for me because I cannot push this event too late in the evening and at the same time, I cannot skip it completely.

Set clear ground rules with other people in your home office

Set ground rules with other people in your home to avoid conflicts and distractions.

If you share the space with another person, discuss quiet times and meeting times. If you have children, make sure they know your working schedule and negotiate what they can and cannot do when they come back from school.

And lastly, just because you work remotely doesn’t mean you are always free to take care of all domestic responsibilities.

Doing everything by default may lead you to feel taken advantage of and that decreases productivity.

Dedicate a space for work

Having a dedicated office or space for work at home is a must.

If you don’t have a spare room, equip a desk or table with all the peripherals you need for work.

Pay attention to ergonomics as they can help you avoid neck and back pain, which can impact your work.

Choose a comfortable chair and don’t hesitate to put a pillow to support your lower back.

Give your working space some personality add plants or your favorite art.

And last but not least, try to keep your workspace as neat as possible to free yourself from distractions.

How to manage a remote team?

Remote work doesn’t come with a brand new set of management challenges. In fact, many of the same principles as managing an in-office team still hold.

So, what are the most important things to consider if you manage a remote team?

Prioritize effective communication

As a remote or hybrid team manager, you need to be transparent in your communication with your employees. You want them all on the same page so that there is no room for confusion or miscommunication.

Encourage them to communicate with each other through chat and video conferencing tools.

Keep in mind it’s not enough just to delegate tasks and provide feedback via these types of software. Regularly jump into discussions or start one yourself from time to time.

It’s crucial that you set aside time to chat with your team members throughout the workday and make sure they have everything they need to be successful out of the office.

Run effective meetings

The best way to boost team communication and collaboration when managing remote workers is through scheduling effective meetings.

These virtual meetings empower your team to share updates, brainstorm on new ideas and define clear priorities.

The benefits of these virtual meetings are immense as long as they are held properly.

Find a time that’s convenient for everyone.

That’s usually a tricky one but with a powerful tool like 3veta, you can have a full overview of your team’s availability. Just open your shared team calendar and find a free time slot that suits all your team members.

Also, make sure to turn on your camera.

Turning on your camera during virtual calls improves engagement. It also prevents others from multitasking (for example reading random emails) and not paying attention to the conversation.

According to this poll in a remote work community, it seems that the majority of people expect and/or prefer the camera to be on during meetings. Make sure you are mindful of other people’s expectations and not only your preferences.

Take the time for small talk.

It doesn’t need to be much more than an introductory sentence about how someone’s day or week was going. This will allow people to feel comfortable enough speaking up.

How to build a remote work culture?

Remote work is a culture of its own.

Sara Høyer Kragelund, the co-founder of Insightment, shares that: “Remote work will never work without serious employee involvement. One of the biggest threats to a successful remote workplace is the lack of company culture and sense of belonging. Employees generally love the flexibility that remote work offers. But at the same time, many employees struggle with a declining attachment to the workplace.”

In the following lines, we are going to go over different aspects that need to be considered if you want to build your remote work culture successfully.

Build trust

First and foremost, you need to make sure that people who work remotely do as much as they can to feel like they are part of the team and not just sitting in their own office with no human contact all day.

In live interactions, your body language, tiny gestures, a tap on the back, bringing chocolate to the office, or paying for lunch can all help build rapport with your team.

When working remotely that cannot be done. There are other ways to build trust and they are mainly work-related. So you’ve got to approach work with extra care.

You can do this by making them feel welcome and assigning projects they can help with or that they would be interested in.

Ask for feedback, show interest in their work, and ask them to be proactive.

All these small steps will help build trust and engagement.

Set mission and goals

It’s easier to create a high-performing remote work culture when every team member understands the company’s mission and goals.

The easiest way of doing this is by allocating time for regular and meaningful discussions about what it means to work at your company and how that shapes every decision you make.

This reminds people of why they are working together, which can help strengthen culture or motivate your new remote employees who just joined up with you.

Organize ‘water cooler’ meetups

Host weekly virtual “water cooler meetings” where all remote team members are encouraged to join.

Discuss not only business-related matters but also personal life. This allows everyone to get together even though they work remotely.

If you remember, at the beginning of the pandemic, many companies were organizing Friday drinks over Zoom. What happened to those? Well.. we got bored of them, I presume. However, such meetings can help build a team so you should not forget about them altogether.

How to boost remote team performance?

At the last count, there were over 20 million remote workers in the US alone, and they make up a significant portion of the total workforce at many companies.

The key to success with remote work is all about communication and collaboration.

When it comes to that, you will have to invest time in making your team as connected as possible by giving them access to the same data and allowing them to communicate easily across any device or platform.

To keep your remote team members engaged, you should also make sure to offer them innovative tools for their day-to-day tasks so they can be more productive and do their job better.

You should make it easy for them to stay creative and motivated by providing them with opportunities for professional growth through training and development programs.

Besides those opportunities, Dr Evi Prokopi suggests that offering perks like a new laptop, free snacks, courses, or subscriptions to your virtual and hybrid employees is a great way to show appreciation and trigger motivation.

In order to boost productivity, you first need to study their needs and find out what works best for them individually.

We recommend creating a detailed employee engagement plan that meets their needs on both a personal and professional level.

This means investing time into developing a comprehensive onboarding process where they are introduced properly into your company culture and given everything they need (e.g., remote training, work equipment) to succeed right away.

How to engage remote employees?

The best way to engage your remote employees is to keep communication open.

Communication is key to every successful remote team.

Having regular meetings is the most effective way to engage your remote employees. Weekly or monthly meetings with each of your team members are a great way to make sure work is on track and if they have any issues or needs.

You can do this by checking in via video chat, sending regular email and text messages, and generally making sure that you are present in the lives of your remote employees. As a manager, I try to spend 1 to 1 time with everyone on my team.

Make sure that you are listening to their feedback and concerns as well because they will have different needs than someone who works in an office.

Their needs might include more flexibility or different communication preferences giving them a better work-life balance.

There are also interesting tools that can help you with that. For instance, the Donut app for Slack sets up workspace members to have a 1 to 1 meeting every week. In a team of 10, there are 45 different pairs of 1 to 1 meeting! In a team of 20 people? 190 such pairs. You will be meeting for 3 years before you exhaust all the possibilities! Certainly, it is not about ‘exhausting all possibilities but it is extremely important to start exploring them.

Streamline the communication process

Streamlined communication processes are a great way to ensure that your remote employees are happy and productive.

Considering how often do you want to communicate with them and come up with some ideas on how do you want to interact with them.

Some people prefer to have a chat every day while others might be more comfortable with less frequent chats.

Show appreciation

Another way to engage your remote employees is to tell them how much you appreciate their work.

There are many benefits of doing this, including boosting morale, creating a better work environment, and fostering a sense of appreciation for the employee.

Some ways that you can do this include:

• Send regular emails
• Write positive notes on their performance reviews
• Thank them in person when you see them or send a personalized thank you note.

Organize team buildings and social events

Team buildings are a great way to stay engaged with your remote employees. This will help your employees feel connected to the company as well as their teammates.

Make sure you have a plan for when you organize team buildings and social events.

You should make it casual, but still productive (here are some virtual team-building ideas).

You can also arrange for some of these activities to be done in person, such as taking a group out for lunch or doing an informal meeting together.

If you are fully remote and cannot really meet, consider organizing a virtual team building. Those could be quite fun, too!

Ask for and give constructive feedback

The more you interact with your remote employees, the more it will benefit you. You can ask for feedback and give constructive feedback just like you would with someone who is in the office.

Keep in mind that remote employees might have different needs than someone who works in an office setting.

For example, they might want more flexibility or they might want to communicate via video call rather than email.

Try to accommodate those needs when possible so that they feel comfortable working remotely.

Be flexible and empathetic

You should also be flexible and empathetic to the needs of your remote employees.

For example, if they need to take a sick day or they can’t join a video chat. Make sure that you’re understanding of their situation.

Another way to engage remote employees is by working with them on their work-life balance.

Be understanding of the challenges they are going through and make accommodations for them if possible.

Set clear expectations

The best way to make remote work successful is to set clear expectations. If you are not in the same physical location as your employees, you will need to set guidelines and policies that they can follow while they are working from home.

You must establish clear boundaries of what is expected from them so that you both know what is and is not acceptable at all times.

This shows a sense of trust with the remote employee and makes it easier for them to do their job.

Is it easy to get remote work?

Getting a remote job is not that difficult nowadays.

The only thing you need to consider is that some remote work platforms might be overcrowded since many people are applying for remote jobs.

However, if you’re patient and work on your skillset you’ll get an offer in no time at all.

Something to keep in mind tho is that remote working requires some extra steps such as investing in a good laptop with a solid security system, having Wi-Fi in every room of your house, having a free space to set up your working spot, etc.

To master remote work, you have to take these considerations seriously.

If you do so, you’ll be able to enjoy all the advantages that come with remote work like living anywhere in the world.

This can be very beneficial for people who want to travel or just don’t like their current living situation.

It also allows people with families to move without uprooting their children’s lives as they can start telecommuting instead of moving far away from their family members.

What skills do remote workers need?

There’s no doubt that the skills of remote workers are different from those of people who work in an office.

Self-discipline and adaptability

Remote workers need to be self-motivated and disciplined, as they don’t have someone looking over their shoulder. At the same time, remote workers need to be adaptive and reliable.

Time management

Remote work requires a high level of time management. That’s why remote workers need to be good at organizing their time, setting goals and deadlines, and working without supervision.

Communication skills

Remote workers also need great communication skills as they are constantly interacting with people on both ends of the internet – through email or video conferencing systems.

Legal considerations for remote workers

Is there a remote work policy?

Employers with a remote work agreement or policy will often have their own expectations for productivity and time spent working remotely.

These policies are crucial to understand and review carefully, as sometimes they can differ greatly from the original employment contract.

For example, an employer may only care that you complete your tasks while allowing you to choose when.

Alternatively, they may prefer that you come in every day during certain hours to report what’s been done so far.

Who owns and pays for remote work equipment?

Similarly, in an office setting, your employer needs to make sure you have all the tools necessary for completing your tasks.

Remote employees need to remember that any equipment provided by the employer belongs to the employer. Often that means you cannot use them for personal use.

Is your remote workspace safe?

When you work from home, your employer is required to ensure the workplace is healthy and safe. This includes making sure every employee gets an ergonomic assessment completed if they experience an injury while working remotely (for example, developing wrist or back pain).

Legal considerations for remote team managers

Wage and hour compliance

Wage and hour compliance is a delicate issue, one that is amplified in remote work settings.

Exempt employees are paid their set amount regardless of the number of hours they have worked each week.

Non-exempt employees generally must be paid at least minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay for any additional time.

Employers usually capture an employee’s weekly scheduled working hours without any issues, but it’s when small “off the clock” tasks occur that make up hidden time.

This can be especially concerning with a remote workforce.

To better protect against potential violations of these regulations, employers should have strong policies concerning expectations about performance (e.g., only performing a task during scheduled hours or working less than X number of total hours per week).

Out-of-state workers

Another common issue that comes with remote employees is navigating state and local laws when they work in a state different from the main office.

When all employees work in a single location, employers will know they are covered by the laws of this state and locality.

When an employee is working from another place (or even area) it can cause nuanced issues about which law applies to them.

Furthermore, employers need to become aware of potential tax implications for workers who might live across different borders.

Performance management

Even though remote employees are not physically present in the office, they must still meet company policies.

This is extremely vital for any employer to defend against a dispute.

Documentation is always necessary evidence in employment disputes, which can mean the difference between a defensible case and risky litigation.

Therefore remote team leaders need to learn how to recognize informal remote complaints (for example, through an informal message) and must immediately report them to the appropriate individual at the company.

Final Thoughts

There you have it – the complete guide to how to master remote work.

As you’ve seen above, there are many benefits for employees to be working remotely like increased productivity and morale as well as lower stress and increased happiness.

Remote work also proves to be advantageous to employers since they can save office costs or supply costs, hire more engaged employees with higher retention rates, and promote environmentally-friendly approaches toward work.

All that thanks to remote workers.

It’s easy to see why people call remote life “the future of living”.

The advantages that remote life overshadow its limitations.

However, one thing worth remembering is that: “Remote work” actually does not provide flexibility and work-life balance. Companies that do it well can provide for that. Sending people home and calling it “remote work” does not necessarily result in flexibility and work-life balance. It’s the specific policies of individual companies that can create the trust and accountability necessary to really reap the benefits. As usual, the magic lies in the details.”, as Valentina Thörner, a remote leadership expert, notes.

Working remotely is easier and more efficient when the right tools, equipment and strategy have been chosen.

With a proper setup and management, you can leverage this opportunity to its full potential.

The post How to Master Remote Work – The Complete Guide to Success appeared first on 3veta.

As more and more companies shift to remote work models, the ability to conduct effective and productive remote meetings has become increasingly important.

However, remote meetings can present unique challenges and often require a different set of skills than traditional in-person meetings.

In this article, we will give you some practical tips and strategies on how to host remote-friendly meetings to maximize efficiency and collaboration, regardless of your physical location.

What’s a remote meeting?

A remote meeting (or online meeting) is a virtual event that enables people to collaborate and join discussions from different physical locations.

With the rise of remote work, remote-first work, and distributed teams, remote meetings started to gain more and more popularity. Moreover, they have successfully proven to be an effective method for achieving a variety of goals, such as gathering your remote team together, hopping on a sales call with a prospect, or organizing workshops and training. 

So, if you have wondered how to run and host remote-friendly online meetings, check out the points below.

Before the remote meeting

Pick the right video-calling software

The key to conducting an effective remote meeting is having the right online conferencing software.

Luckily, there is a variety of online meeting management software out there.

Make deep research and choose a tool that suits your business needs the most.

Consider the fact that good video conferencing software should allow you to host high-quality and engaging video calls, integrate with your calendar, and send automatic reminders to minimize no-shows.

Platforms like 3veta also allow you to handle payments.

Find a time that works for all participants

Conducting a remote meeting is not as simple as it looks.

The first thing you need to do is to make sure all your co-workers and whoever is involved in the meeting are available to join.

You’ll need to know your co-workers’ schedules or have access to their calendars to determine a suitable time.

That said, having a tool that not only allows you to host video calls but also gives you access to your team’s calendar is an advantage you definitely need.

Design an agenda for your remote meeting

The next thing to do is to design a remote meeting agenda.

A meeting agenda is a list of topics, tasks, and activities to be addressed or tackled during the meeting.

A virtual meeting agenda allows your team members and other participants to have an outline for what will be discussed during the meeting so they can prepare ahead of time.

That on the other side ensures a productive and effective online collaboration.

Prepare meeting materials and presentations

The next step is to prepare all the materials you want to present during the meeting.

Presentations are a great way to make any video meeting more appealing and interactive.

Keep your presentation simple. Avoid filling the slides with a lot of text and instead, use bullet points and add pictures or graphics.

While you prepare your presentation, think of all the points of interaction with the rest of the participants – questions, polls, etc. Make sure you give everyone a voice.

Prepare for technical issues

Technical issues are a crucial part of conducting effective online meetings.

As a virtual meeting host, it is essential to always check up on your equipment, internet connection, and the software that you use, so that your online meeting can run without any issues.

‍80% of businesses experience internet connectivity problems. Make sure you are getting good internet speed and run speed tests to check how your connection performs.

Set time limit

Limiting your meeting time can significantly increase your productivity and help you get more value in the limited time you have.

For example, you can set the meeting to 30 minutes and assign 10 minutes to each agenda item. This way, participants will stay focused and the meeting won’t get off track.

During the meeting

Start the online meeting with an icebreaker

Meetings, where hosts start with an icebreaker, have proven to be more effective.

You can start by playing a small game, quick trivia, or watching a short-funny animation video. It helps your audiences to be more motivated and brings a joyous atmosphere to the meeting.

That way, when the meeting starts, participants can receive the materials better and keep the materials in their minds for the long term. Icebreakers tend to help participants feel more comfortable and even help to strengthen interpersonal relationships between remote team members.

Be facilitator

Remote meetings may not be as easy as meetings in person since you cannot control people when they are in different locations.

In order to run a successful online meeting, there needs to be good coordination between hosts and participants.

If there are any issues during the meeting, your job is to resolve them so that the meeting can proceed as planned.

After the meeting

Follow up and share online meeting notes

Once your virtual meeting is complete, make sure that a summary of all the important points discussed during the call is sent to the participants.

You may also want to share the presentation slides and videos, or any other file that you shared during the online meeting.

That way any participant will have a reference to get back to any time they need it.

Another thing to do after the meeting has ended is to share meeting minutes with the rest of the participants. That way everyone would be aligned with all the decisions and what actions to take.

Takeaway

Remote and hybrid team meetings save money and offer flexibility and are a handy solution that’s been adopted by many companies around the world.

They are a very effective way to connect with your team members and clients.

However, sometimes conducting online meetings with clients or employees from different locations can be difficult to manage.

But, if you prepare ahead of time and ensure that your meetings are well structured, moderated, and well communicated there’s nothing to worry about.

The post How to Host Remote-Friendly Meetings appeared first on 3veta.

It provides people with the wonderful opportunity to leave the material world behind and follow their dreams and passions with the help of a single device – their computer.

Nowadays, every company, every professional, freelancer, or entrepreneur has to organize their own virtual workspace in order to live up to their full potential.

Why is that and how do you do it, you may be wondering? In this article, we will be answering.

What is an online workspace?

A digital workspace is a virtual environment that is usually hosted by one main platform and allows co-workers, employers, and employees to manage tasks, projects, and all the communication among them in one place.

Its main focus is to facilitate collaboration between service providers so that the working process is as efficient as possible.

To achieve that, apps that provide conditions for creating a digital workspace allow integrations with other platforms as well because businesses usually have many different aspects. It could be hard, if not impossible, to offer solutions to all of their needs.

Online workspaces have become an invaluable asset to any type of business because their functionality is not determined by location.

You don’t have to be in one particular city to dedicate yourself to your dream job anymore. And communication with your international partners or colleagues should not be an issue, no matter the time zone.

The public workspaces are accessible to everyone within the company.

As for the private ones – they could be employed by different departments because they’ll focus on subjects that are of interest to a particular group of people. And all members of the said group should be granted permission to join.

What are the benefits of virtual workspaces?

We’ve already established some of the main perks of online workspaces but the list is never-ending.

Collaboration and efficiency

Some of the most frequent issues encountered in teamwork are related to miscommunication and disorganization.

However, it’s much easier when all the data is securely stored in one place and everyone gets to see who is doing what or follow up on their progress.

Updates, feedback, new information, and weekly reports could be shared at any time with everyone in a matter of a few clicks.

Easy communication via video calls, team channels, or 1-on-1 messaging keeps everyone in the loop and ensures that there’s no confusion.

All of that results in greater productivity and better time management.

Flexibility

Every person would love to be free to choose where to work from, during what hours, and in what environment.

This is as important for CEOs as it is for their employees.

Well, as long as you have your computer with you, all of this could be made possible.

Thanks to your digital workspace, you’ll have all the freedom regarding your working conditions.

Your job requirements don’t have to collide with your personal preferences anymore. No need to make significant compromises in order to grow in your career. Remote work is the solution.

Inexpensive solution

Usually, business offices are quite expensive to maintain. Rent, cleaning services, bills, and other supplies constitute a great expense for the owner.

This could be completely unnecessary if the company is still new to the market and the team is rather small.

As for the employees, some of them are commuters, some of them use public transportation, others rely on personal vehicles.

The point is, all of them pay a notable amount of money to be able to get to the office.

If that office is online, the expenses would be significantly lower for both sides.

Tools you can use in a digital workspace

Doing everything online instead of in-person might seem a bit overwhelming in the beginning. The first thing to do is to find the best software that will provide you with a space to gather your remote team and start working together.

You’ll also have to rely on a few tools to achieve seamless interaction without being in the same room.

Video calls

Video calls are the most important feature of your online workspace.

It goes without saying that you’ll need a scheduling platform that provides you with the best video and audio quality for your virtual business meetings.

3veta, for example, is a web-based tool that helps you create video meeting links and rooms for seconds without downloading anything.

Furthermore, 3veta comes with live polls and reactions to make your video calls more interactive.

Screen sharing

Your conferencing platform will have to support screen sharing as well. This way you’ll be able to share files, documents, slides, or other visuals with all the attendees.

Your presentations or discussions will be far more effective if others see what’s happening on your computer.

Shared team calendar

A shared team calendar is one of the essentials that your digital workspace needs, since it allows you to schedule tasks, set priorities, deadlines, and manage your remote team easily and efficiently.

Everyone will be aware of what follows next and it’ll be much easier to coordinate with your colleagues.

Scheduling meetings on behalf of someone else

Outlook, for instance, offers the possibility to manage someone else’s schedule after that person has given you permission.

Usually, this feature is used by administrative assistants whose job is to edit someone’s calendar by managing meetings, events, and responding to requests.

Final thoughts

Many people have reservations about technology because devices could be unreliable and break down, the Internet crashes down, and batteries run low.

However, one of the major pros of doing business virtually is that you have everything “on paper” and, thanks to the implementation of different tools, excuses such as “I didn’t know”, “Nobody informed me”, or “You told me differently” are forever gone.

Your online workspace might not be the solution you prefer, but it is the solution your business needs.

It saves money, offers flexible working conditions to employees and employers, and facilitates the process of task distribution and time management.

The post All You Need to Know About Having an Online Workspace appeared first on 3veta.

However, professional independence also means that you have to do the management yourself. Luckily, it doesn’t mean you have to do everything. The technology is there to help.

If you own a small business providing consulting services, you are in the right place. In this post, we are delving into consulting software and the potential it has to help you grow your business.

How to Outpace the Competition With the Help of Consulting Software

Usually, independent consultants are professionals making a living out of their knowledge and expertise. Since the Internet allows access to more people and markets, these professionals often work online.

Their businesses are commonly small or medium-sized and are run by a handful of people. Or, in most cases only by one person – the business owner.

Therefore, once an online consulting business starts developing, the tasks and responsibilities start piling up. How to keep the high quality of service while having to deal with admin work, managing multiple projects, and building meaningful relationships with your clients?

One of the most efficient and cost-effective solutions to this common dilemma is using some kind of software to streamline the workflow. These tools help SMEs (small and mid-size enterprises) survive in the contemporary fast-moving business environment. Besides, having a smart digital solution is a great opportunity to innovate and stay ahead of the competition.

What Is Consulting Software?

The term online consulting platform refers to a variety of tools that help freelance consultants service providers and home-based businesses

• plan and execute their tasks
• have video meetings with their clients
• manage their bookings and appointments
• process payments
• build a consulting website
• personalize their content and build their brand

Thinking about using consulting software, but you are not sure how beneficial they actually are? Here is a list of ways these tools could boost your performance and take your business to the next level.

Consulting Software Helps Your Business Grow

However, all businesses share one common thing: they need efficiency to thrive. And consulting software contributes to business efficiency in multiple ways. We will now discuss how exactly.

Consulting software allows you to have a full grasp of your workflow

Running an SME can be challenging. In order to flourish, the business requires top-quality service and careful management at the same time. It is no wonder many SME owners often feel overwhelmed with all the daily tasks they need to do.

At some point, a notebook will no longer be enough to keep track of all the meetings, deadlines, and assignments. When that moment comes, you may need a digital notebook like OneNote, or better – a fully-fledged consulting software that can be of great help when it comes to planning and scheduling for your small business.

The software will automatically create your weekly or monthly agenda. In such a way, you will have the big picture of what you need to do. Once you have your schedule in front of you, your working time will be much more structured and organized.

In turn, you will be able to prioritize tasks better and plan your time ahead. And better planning means timely delivery and higher chances of successful completion of tasks.

Be more efficient

Most consulting software will have a feature that will help you with resource management. On the one hand, they can help you keep an eye on your budget.

On the other hand, you can automate the process of getting paid for your consulting services. For example, platforms like 3veta ensure that you get paid fast and securely. It enables you to create invoices and send refund requests. All payments are processed via Stripe, protecting your funds and sensitive data.

Also, with consulting software you are increasing the efficiency of communication as well. They will store details about each client, making it easier for you to personalize your approach and email correspondence.

Save time

Consulting software can help you schedule meetings much more efficiently. With effective planning, your schedule won’t have any holes, and you will never forget a meeting again.

Furthermore, enhanced efficiency and proper scheduling will enable you to deliver the same amount of work in less time. In turn, you will save many hours, allowing you to focus on additional projects or private issues.

Increase productivity

Procrastination is one of the major threats to productivity when working remotely. And we tend to procrastinate when we don’t know where we stand or where we’re going.

However, when you are using consulting software such as 3veta, you are never alone. Your digital assistant keeps all of the important information only a click away.

The real-time insight into your availability allows you to run your consulting business more efficiently. Furthermore, it helps you be ready for every meeting and make more balanced decisions.

Boost customer experience

The golden rule of performance optimization is give users what they want as fast as possible. So, the key indicators of high performance are quality and speed. Consulting software helps you with both. While doing admin work for you, it lets you focus on making your clients happy.

Apart from that, you need to make sure that you

• respect agreements
• communicate any issues on time and in a proper way.

As you can guess, achieving all of the aforementioned isn’t easy. Luckily, consulting software can help you boost your deliverability as well.

For example, you can use one to schedule calls and have in-browser virtual meetings. How easy is that? Your clients won’t have to install any apps or programs in order to see you.

Remember that a happy customer is the one who always comes back. And, on top of that, happy customers will gladly recommend your services to their friends. Therefore, elevating customer experience is actually investing in the most powerful marketing strategy: the word of mouth. This is especially true for SMEs, because they have limited marketing resources.

Brand building

In a world where people are exposed to so many products and offers, you have to find a way to stand out. How about turning your booking page into a stunning website with exciting and engaging content?

Some consulting software can even help with your branding. You get to have an opportunity to brand your video calls with a white label, choose custom backgrounds, and customize video calls. It is something not many other video-call platforms have. In such a way, you are working on brand loyalty while impressing your customers with a convenient service at the same time.

Reduce risks

Every endeavor in life, business included, carries a dose of risk. In order to succeed, we have to be able to predict, prevent, and tackle the risks.

While big companies have entire teams whose job is risk management, SMEs have to find alternative ways to reduce exposure to uncertainty.

In the case of consulting businesses, some of the greatest risks are miscommunication, canceled meetings, and failure to deliver on expectations.

Furthermore, consulting software will help you with rescheduling, reducing the risks of having gaps and idle hours. If one client cancels a meeting, you can offer the slot to another person who needs help at the moment.

Conclusion

Online consulting apps have a great potential to help you run your small consulting business more efficiently, no matter, if you are a virtual health coach, online tutor, psychologist, therapist or you provide online chess lessons.

They enable you to structure your time and communicate with your clients. In turn, watch your productivity and customer satisfaction grow, along with your reputation and earnings.

Once you find a consulting software that fits your business needs, take advantage of social media and start promoting your business.

The post How Consulting Software Can Help you Grow your Small Business appeared first on 3veta.

And once you group the employees according to their skills and you like the way each team operates, you’ll have to figure out how to help those teams execute a task collectively.

Especially when your business is run remote-first and your people interact either remotely or in a hybrid work model.

What is cross-team collaboration?

Cross-team collaboration is the process of communicating, synchronizing, and working together with team members from teams other than yours.

People work in teams. And companies have various teams (sometimes departments) – Marketing, Design, Sales, IT, HR, Finance, etc.

Let’s speak figuratively for a second. A business structure is similar to a bike’s composition. Different parts are working simultaneously so that the bike is up and running, right?

Each part of the bike has its own purpose; some are essential, others are complementary but they create the perfect conditions when they’re all combined. And if the breaks are damaged, the chains aren’t oiled, or the handlebars are misaligned, then your bike won’t function at its full potential.

The same applies to your company. Even if your tires are great (e.g. Marketing team), if you don’t have breaks (usually Finance team) that can be disastrous for your bike ride. In other words, if your teams don’t communicate with each other, if there is poor time management, and if misunderstandings occur regularly, your business probably won’t prosper.

The idea of cross-team collaboration is to gather professionals from different teams to work collectively toward the completion of one common project. As Teamwork put it, you’ll be bringing the skills and talents of each department together to build a better result.

The benefits of collaborative practices are endless; employees learn from each other, multiple ideas are being shared, projects are completed faster and with attention to every detail.

So, what steps should you go through to achieve seamless cross-team collaboration?

Use of software tools that improve team collaboration

The most important advice we could give you is to find remote collaboration platforms and apps that facilitate most of your day-to-day workflow and also allow others to join you at any time.

Chat and general communication

Sending numerous emails to colleagues from other departments just to keep them updated is time-consuming and annoying. In fact, that’s an already solved problem and thousands of teams are using software like Slack for sending messages to their colleagues.

Task tracking and project management

Next, if you’ve got more than 2 people on your team, you must consider project managing software. That will make collaboration between co-workers a lot easier. Trello, Jira, ClickUp, Monday are just some of them.

You’ll be aware of what others are working on at the moment, what progress they are making, and whether they need your help or not.

Keeping up with the deadlines is also important. When it comes to cross-team collaboration in online businesses, in particular, it can be messy trying to arrange meetings, reports, time limits on projects, and so on. Moreover, processes in one department often block others.

Video calls

When it comes to getting on calls in your organization several issues come to mind.

First, stay on top of your teams’ availability. It could as simple as syncing the calendar of everyone on your team. Or it can refer to allowing work across different time zones and the ability to combine all your calendars so that you can see all of your upcoming events in one place.

It can also be about the possibility of team members and external partners booking themselves in your calendar.

Second, there should be reminders in place and there is nothing better than automated email reminders. Even if you forget to check your calendar, receiving a simple email reminder can do wonders for your meetings.

Finally, make sure that you can integrate whatever video-calling software you use with your already existing tools.

Encourage open communication

We cannot stress enough how important good communication is for every type of business.

No matter whether you’re a self-made online entrepreneur or chief executive officer of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise you should be aiming for transparency.

For instance, in Stripe, almost all emails are available to be read by all employees. While private emails are not forbidden, they are an exception.

However, such a system is one bit too drastic. Should look for ways to improve cross-team collaboration, and make sure to create at least some transparency.

If you are using Slack for communications for instance, (Slack is one of the major apps for work-related communication because it allows you to interact with colleagues one-on-one), you must create separate channels for each department, or put different teams in one shared space.

What Slack also solves (without even trying) is this transparency issue. You know the phrase “There are no dumb questions” or “Ask your question out loud, because if you have it, probably half the audience also has the same question”.

Well, abide by this rule and encourage your virtual co-workers to ask questions in group chats. Especially when a question is work or project-related. This can lift some weight from the (project) manager by allowing other team members to help.

Once answered publicly, the question is answered by everybody on the team. This also makes sure that everyone in the organization is included.

Go beyond asynchronous communication

The phrase of 2020 was “You are on mute”.

The “thought” of 2021 was maybe “Why am I on this call”.

This sparked a great discussion about the need for everyone to be on a call. Frankly, people who don’t want to attend so many calls have a point. But not if you are the manager.

A manager’s job is to be on calls. To make sure everyone is up to speed with everything.

As a remote employee manager, one must rely on good video conferencing software that will give you the opportunity to keep in touch with team members that work remotely or are on a work trip.

Async communication such as texting and emailing is becoming a challenge to teams. In the strive to “not be on that call”, many teams are becoming less effective and more confused.

To get away from the async communication trap, there are a couple of types of calls that can help.

Daily catch-ups

Doing daily catch-up sessions is a must because once the project has begun, you’ve distributed the workload, and everyone has a task to attend to. However, you should still keep in touch to assure everything is going smoothly and that everyone has understood their part in the bigger picture.

Bottlenecks, technical issues, and unmet targets are normal occurrences, however, to solve them you’ll have to be vocal about them. That’s why the daily catch-ups give the perfect opportunity to share your struggles, ask for someone’s expertise, or simply inform others that there’s an ongoing problem that might slow things down.

Cross-team collaboration is also about giving credit where credit is due. During the daily sessions, you can pat someone on the back for a job well-done or express your gratitude for their help.

Weekly cross-team collaboration

As a manager, you’ll have to communicate with the other team leaders to inform each other on how your team’s doing and address any issues that you might be having.

If you are not having weekly cross-team meetings, you should start.

The purpose of the weekly meetings is similar to the daily catch-ups; the only difference is that the topics are on a higher level. Their goal is to update many people in the organization about the progress in different teams or on different projects.

Also, that is the time to recognize bottlenecks and ask for help from other teams.

Quarterly executive meetings

It is a good idea to have a quarterly meeting between executives, in this context – managers of other teams. This is the high-level version of cross-team collaboration.

Simply, get together, discuss the high-level goals of the organization and find a way to achieve them. That’s the place where different teams get to understand the final goal of their cross-team collaboration.

Final words

Usually, good communication is about listening carefully to others but also being heard by them. It’s a form of teamwork.

And it goes hand in hand with the realization that you can’t possibly do everything on your own.

As Michael Jordan has put it, ‘Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.’

Consider your business projects as championships and focus not only on team collaboration but also cross-team collaboration to blow your competition away.

The post What is Cross-Team Collaboration and How to Excel in it? appeared first on 3veta.

The process of digitization of businesses might be quite beneficial in terms of flexibility, new opportunities, time management, and working conditions, but it is also very problematic when it comes to teamwork.

In this article, we’ll address a few of the most common challenges of virtual teams that you may encounter. We will also give suggestions on how to deal with them.

1. From synchronous communication to asynchronous communication
2. Miscommunication
3. Time differences or preferences
4. Managing the feeling of isolation
5. Security
6. Finding the perfect solution for your remote team

From synchronous communication to asynchronous communication

The first major issue is the expectation of teams to have synchronous communication.

Remember when you would go to the office, nudge your colleague and ask them a question? Well, virtual teams don’t have this luxury.

The closest you can get is to organize a video meeting. But it is not a great idea to schedule a meeting for the slightest issue or inconvenience that pops up during the day. This is highly ineffective and breaks the workflow.

That’s why it has become the norm for remote workers usually to rely on asynchronous forms of communication.

What is asynchronous communication?

In short, async communication is all communication that is not synchronous. Each participant in the communication can reply on their own time. A staple of async communication is that when you send a message, you are not expecting an immediate real-time response.

Why is async communication becoming the norm?

Slack, among other remote tools, has been the main driver of this change.

Researchers have proven that the lack of pressure to respond right away actually boosts your team’s productivity.

The number of interruptions caused by meaningless, never-ending meetings and informal chit-chatting is cut down to the minimum.

People ask their questions briefly and concisely over text messages and receive straightforward answers whenever the other person is free to respond.

The delay in response could be seen as an inconvenience but it doesn’t interrupt the workflow and is something that virtual teams should get used to.

How to deal with the expectation of synchronous communication?

First of all, start using a tool like Slack or Discord. One of the most important consequences of moving to such a platform is that they are designed for async.

The embodiment of this is the absence of the ‘seen’ sign.

We are so used to this that we check all the time if the other person has read our message.

Well, Slack and Discord don’t have this option.

Why? Because it is better.

Start educating your team to communicate asynchronously and employ tools that facilitate this.

Мiscommunication

Async communication has been game-changing and probably you are already engaging in it. Maybe you are even going towards radically async communication. It’s less demanding and it takes seconds to write a short message as opposed to attending a one-hour meeting. And let’s face it… there is no meeting shorter than 10 minutes.

However, having one conversation in the span of 2 days can be a bit problematic. Chatting and sending emails back and forth could also be confusing and insufficient when your team is working on a bigger project. It is not uncommon to miscommunicate something.. or everything.

How to avoid miscommunication?

You guessed it. With more communication.

But you should not rely solely on chat. It’s simply is not enough to replace real-life interactions.

Video calls are a great way to maintain good communication with your virtual co-workers.

Keep those meetings short and interactive as long meetings usually are neither fun nor productive.

After each important meeting send a summary of what you’ve discussed and concisely write down what task your teammates are expected to complete next. This way there won’t be any confusion regarding task distribution.

Preferably, create a public channel or a group chat where you and your team members will be able to address questions and matters that could be of common interest.

The one-on-one form of communication is more personal and is the norm, but virtual teams can easily avoid miscommunication if most of the interaction is happening in a shared, seen-by-all space.

Time differences or preferences

Obviously, if your team is distributed, it is quite possible that your teammates are available at different times. You should be well aware of their availability in terms of their time zone.

Moreover, parents are often busy after 6 pm – getting their child from school, making dinner, etc. You cannot expect them to work outside of their usual hours.

Also, some people have specific productivity hours – that’s when they feel the most motivated and focused to complete more complicated tasks.

When you are in the same office, all these subtleties are quite obvious. Naturally, if Karen says:” Bye, guys, I’m going to get my kids from school” every day… you’d anticipate this around the end of the day. However, when working remotely that’s not always obvious.

How to deal with time zone differences and preferences

Be aware of the needs of your teammates and address topics that improve productivity. Ask them about their specific working hours and set response time limits.

When it comes to time zone differences instead, you can plan your work with a tool that has been specifically designed for remote teams. One such example is 3veta with its superior scheduling capabilities offers calendar synchronization across all platforms and time zones.

Managing the feeling of isolation

The pandemic was not only the time when we started working remotely. It was the time when we started talking about emotional intelligence much more.

Working from home means that sometimes it seems like you are on your own and this could be quite lonely.

The virtual world depersonalizes our connections and interactions and we become nostalgic for real-life experiences such as getting coffee or going for lunch with your teammates.

You’re all the time in front of a device that doesn’t show emotions, doesn’t make jokes, and doesn’t sympathize with you when things go wrong.

Loneliness and the feeling of isolation are the challenges of virtual teams that aren’t caused by a technical malfunction. It’s important to address them because the human factor is at the core of staying productive and shouldn’t be neglected.

How to manage the feeling of isolation?

The first and most important step is to start talking about it.

Doing regular video catch-ups and daily stand-ups offer a 3-in-one solution because

• you can track everyone’s progress, help others get around any bottlenecks and feeling of helplessness
• you get to see each other’s faces and cheer up someone who feels down, even though through the screen
• and you get to engage in short discussions to clear the air and avoid miscommunication.

If you are looking for a technological way to deal with it, we highly recommend Moodlight. Moodlight is a great tool that you can use at the beginning and end of each meeting to survey the emotional state of your team. This makes everyone on the team much more aware and helps your meetings in unexpected ways.

Security

Online security is a luxury nowadays because you never know who might be interested in stealing your personal information or some sensitive data you work with.

We always imagine an outsider, hacking your servers. The truth of the matter is that almost always ‘hackers’ have access to a device or a person who is authorized. In fact, in the age of remote work when you don’t know your teammates and you may never meet them, it is quite possible that the person with the malicious intent is already in your firm.

How to make your remote organization more secure?

If you manage a virtual team we strongly encourage you to use a VPN and makes sure that every activity is tracked and every document is accessed only by authorized individuals.

Virtual Private Networks are usually used for telecommuting because you can easily detect if someone is trying to tamper with your messages or files and it protects you from attackers by encrypting your data.

Last and not least, VPNs protect the owner of the business. A VPN places a unique identifier of every action done on the team cloud. Through it, you will always know who is stealing sensitive information from your company.

Finding the perfect solution for your remote team

While there are a bunch of challenges, technology can help.

And there comes your last struggle.

How to choose the right platform to help you ace remote or hybrid work in the vast sea of apps?

Well, we made a list of the 31 best software for remote scheduling.

If you can’t be bothered to read, here is our recommendation.

The right solution for your remote or hybrid team

If you need a neat, smart, and modern video conferencing and scheduling solution, then 3veta could be the right choice for you.

3veta is designed especially for remote teams. It provides a great way to:

• collaborate with your teammates in a shared calendar (no matter if you are using Google Calendar, Apple, Microsoft Exchange, or anything else)
• schedule meetings with external partners with a booking page functionality
• you can even add your custom branding – logo, virtual background, custom domain

To wrap it up

There are different types of challenges of virtual teams depending on the nature of your business. Even so, there are some universal steps that you can take to make sure that you’re all on the same page and everything goes without a hitch.

Make use of the technological affordances that automate the working process and save yourself some time and effort.

But also don’t forget to be present and take note that humans are not machines and they need to feel supported, encouraged, and cared for in order to perform better.

The post 6 Challenges of Virtual Teams and How to Overcome Them appeared first on 3veta.

But, let’s be honest. Starting something on your own is always daunting. And a sales consulting business is no different.

This is why we’ll break down each step for you in this article on how to package your services, find clients and build a profitable sales consulting business.

Why should you start a sales consulting business?

One question you might find yourself doubting is why you must start a sales consulting business. While one of the reasons to start your business is flexibility, there are a few more reasons you can focus on:

• Companies mostly trust people who have the expertise, so a sales consultant is their go-to choice.
• A sales consulting business involves skill and selling “that” skill. This means you can start a consulting business at the cost of your skill and with no overhead expense besides.

Choose your Consulting Business Model

Identify the type of business you want to start. Do you want to start as a solo consultant or would you like to grow a sales consulting firm?

A consulting model is based on mainly 3 consulting formats:

Solo Consultant Model

When you work closely with clients and complete the projects and deliverables on your own while managing the business aspects like lead generation and accounting, it is a solo consulting model.

Firm Consultant Model

When you work with a sales consulting team that works on all the client projects and deliverables while you manage people, it is a firm consulting model.

Productized consulting Model

When you create products based on your knowledge like e-books and courses and sell them at a fixed monthly cost, it is a productized consulting model.

Define your niche

As a beginner sales business owner, you can start by exploring different areas of sales consulting. Once you understand the industry, it is better to niche down and create your authority in one to three areas you want to consult in.

Ask yourself:

• What industries do I know well?
• What niche aligns with my passions and business goals
• What does the market need?
• What are my current areas of expertise?
• What is the price people are ready to pay for my expertise?

Answer these questions and find your niche based on your knowledge, interest, demand and the pay people are ready to pay you.

Identify your target audience

Once you have identified the industry you want to work in, narrow it down further by identifying your target audience.

To find out the target audience you want to work with, conduct research and find the kind of people you resonate with and enjoy working with.

Are you a sales consultant who works with:

• coaches and podcasters
• female-owned small businesses
• Service-based businesses
• Product-based business
• Something else which is so niche I can’t come up with it. But you can!

While finding your target audience, make sure that this audience qualifies your client persona.

Package your services

Packaging your services is the first step to monetizing your skill-based business the right way. To package your services, you need to identify two things:

1. The main services that you offer to your clients.
2. The add-on service that resonates with your clients.

To find out the add-on services that your client might need, identify what your clients demand from you. Here’s one example.

Let’s say, you are a digital marketing sales consultant who focuses on generating leads for your clients through social media. Now, your client also needs content creation services to leverage their social presence along with generating leads. Content creation could be additional services that you could package and offer to your clients.

Build up your network

Building up your network is crucial for running and scaling your sales consulting business.

Having a strong network of contacts (online or offline) will help you get quality leads to turn them into clients.

Moreover, staying in touch with your professional network will keep you up with industry trends and news. And this on the other hand will help you identify new opportunities.

Attend trade shows, take part in online or offline workshops, and join communities with like-minded people. All that will help you to meet and connect with other professionals and industry leaders.

Pricing Structure: How will you charge your clients?

There are three pricing models you can implement in your pricing structure: hourly, per project, and retainer.

Hourly Rate

When you choose the hourly rates to charge your clients for your services, you get billed for the hours you spent time working on the project.

Such a pricing structure is tricky because you can both underestimate and overestimate the time you spend on the project. It often turns out that you put in more hours than your report, while your client thinks you are putting in fewer hours than you’ve reported, making both sides annoyed.

Project Rate

When you choose the project rate, you get paid a fixed amount for the scope of work and the deliverables that you submit for the project. This means you get paid for the efforts, and the time you spend on the project.

A project then requires an extremely well-defined scope and your new struggle as a business owner would be to prevent any scope creep (or charge additionally for it).

Retainer

When you choose retainer, you get paid a fixed rate for a fixed duration until the contract ends or terminates. You can think of it as a type of SaaS, in this case: Sales-as-a-Service.

In my opinion, this is the best pricing structure right now. Here’s what you get:

• Increased scope – a retainer usually spans over more than one project, meaning that you are practically upselling your existing clientele from day one with as many add-on services as they need
• Predictable cashflows – you know exactly how much money you will be paid in the next couple of months. The same applies to your client, who is very much interested in how much they are paying (as opposed to per-hour pay)
• Fewer agency problems – with a retainer, the feeling of your client is that you are a part-time employee, however, a highly motivated one. In a way, this makes your availability much clearer and contributes to your relationship

Things to consider before setting your price

One of the trickiest questions you might struggle with is how should I price my services.

The simple answer is there is: it depends. Each project and each client is different.

What you can do is consider 3 things while setting up your price:

Listing your expenses

List down all your monthly expenses. This gives you clarity on your fixed monthly expenses and how much you spend in a month. A good rule of thumb is that your charge must be 3X the expenses so you can cover the expenses and also pay yourself a good amount each month.

Checking competition and industry rates

Find out what other sales consultants are charging in your industry. You can do this by asking about it fellow sales consultants. Some other good ways to do this is by checking the salaries of sales consultants on Glassdoor. You can also check the state-based salary on LinkedIn.

Deciding your monthly financial goal for the month

Start your month with a fixed financial monthly goal. Your income goal is a fixed figure that you want to earn. Let’s say you have decided to make $5000 every month. Now, to achieve this income goal, divide it by the number of clients you would need. If you divide this amount by 4, i.e. $1250, you need 4 clients billed at $1250 per month who will help you achieve your income goal.

How will you get clients?

The big elephant in the room is how to get clients for your online sales consulting business. There are several popular ways you can try to find clients:

Cold emails

To send out cold emails that get accepted, you need to follow a 3-step framework:

Cold emailing is one of the best ways you can find the ideal client you want to work with. While this might seem easy, sending a cold email that gets responded to is something people struggle with.

1. Your introductory statement should be about the prospect and not you. It could be an appreciation or a problem statement.
2. Next, introduce yourself.
3. Give a call-to-action

Pro Tip: The appreciation could be an interview, a podcast, a blog, not a social media post you read about them on their business and something you linked about it. Make sure it’s genuine and not flattering.

Here’s an example to clarify what a super personalized cold email looks like:

Template:

Hi Nidhi,

I read your post on LinkedIn on how LinkedIn groups can be beneficial in reaching out to your prospects. I really loved the insights you provided.

While you have great expertise on LinkedIn, I found you are not very much consistent on Twitter. Maybe, I could help you in this area.

I’m Maria, a Twitter Sales Consultant and I help entrepreneurs like you to leverage the power of Twitter to find clients and increase your revenue.

Would you like to get on a quick call to discuss it?

Social Media

The key to leveraging social media is to be present in the same social channel where your ideal target audience is.

Here’s how you can leverage each social channel:

LinkedIn

Find your target audience using the LinkedIn search bar. Then, send them a personalized note along with the connection request telling why you would like to connect them. When they accept your connection request, introduce yourself and engage with their posts. Interact with them in DMs, ask them about their business, and ask them to get on a short networking call.

Instagram

Follow people who you want to work with. Use Instagram stories to give mini-training where you give them a free tip or a short lesson that will help them improve in their business. Leverage the power of Instagram DMs and talk to them about their business. If you find they need your services, pitch them.

Twitter

Follow your target audience on Twitter using the Twitter search bar. Create a specific Twitter list with your target audience inside it so you can see their posts. Engage with posts regularly so they can recognize you. Then, DM them and ask them if they would need your services.

Slack Communities

Slack communities are a great way to network and find your ideal clients. You’ll find slack communities that are free and paid for both. To find slack communities, simply search “slack communities” on Google. It works.

You’ll find a bunch of them. Explore the communities and identify which communities have your target audience.

Don’t enter just one. Enter many. Quite a lot of the Slack communities are not really active, so you might have to wait before you find the right fit.

When you become part of these communities, the first thing you must do is introduce yourself. Your introduction should include who you are, the kind of work you do, and how people connect with you.

Some of the great communities are Superpath, Online Geniuses, and Marketers Chat.

Tools you can use to leverage your consulting business

While working as a sales consultant, you might need multiple consulting tools to stay organized, and here are a few web apps and tools that you can get started with:

Streak

Streak is a useful sales consulting tool integrated into your Gmail account. Every time you send a cold email to your ideal prospect, you can label them. Doing this helps you keep track of the people who you have sent the emails to. Further, you can set follow-up reminders to send them after your first email.

3veta

When you ask someone for their time, it’s likely they would agree to a fixed date and time and might forget it later.

Use 3veta to schedule a call so your prospects can find the right time to book a call with you.

Further, you can send automated email reminders to them for the call, conduct video calls, and get paid through integrated payment methods.

Snov.io

When cold emailing your prospects, you need their email address to reach out to them. But how can you find their email addresses without asking them?

That’s where LinkedIn and Snov.io come in handy. Search for people who you want to reach out to on LinkedIn and, snov.io pulls all their data and provides you with their email addresses.

Adobe Sign and Fill

When working with clients, you need to sign the contract sent by your clients. For this, use Adobe sign and fill for signing the document with digital signatures.

FAQs

Can you start a sales consulting business with no prior experience?

You can start a sales consulting business with no prior experience.

Generally, the main requirement is that you are good at sales already.

If you don’t have experience, upskill yourself by learning more about your industry. Participate in workshops, and webinars, learn from books and interact with people. The more you do this, the more you’ll understand your industry. Learn and execute.

How much money do you need to start a consulting business?

You need $0 to start your sales consulting business. You can do this by opting for a solo sales consulting model. In this model, you only need to invest in your skills and sell those skills to reach out to your ideal clients.

Do I need an LLC to be a consultant?

You do not need to set up an LLC to be a sales consultant. You can file taxes and start your sales consulting business as a sole proprietor. You can either run your consultancy under your name or a business name. When running the business under your name, start as a sole proprietor. Under this business structure, all the income and losses must be filed under your personal tax return.

An alternative to this is setting up a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in which your company is taxed separately.

The post Sales Consulting Business: How to Start your Consulting Business the Right Way? appeared first on 3veta.