Eight tips for successful

remote working

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In the current crisis, many businesses are now being encouraged to work from home, and for a lot of people, this is a case of ‘business unusual ’ as one of our contacts put it. But Pixooma has been a ‘virtual agency’ since the very beginning. In doing so we’ve learned a lot of ways to be more effective. 

Our eight simple tips for remote working are…

Keep calm. If you’ve been a business owner for any length of time then you are used to the idea that the unexpected crops up quite a bit and that the buck stops with you. This is just another one of those unexpected events, a big one sure, but you can adapt. We’re always happy to chat if you need help. Simply contact us – we have a wide-ranging network of experts.

You’re not on your own. Whether you take part in formal networking groups or not, you’ll have a number of people who you can turn to: Family, friends, ex-colleagues, suppliers, and other contacts. Anyone of them may have the skills to help you, or just as importantly know people who do. And feel free to ask us, we probably know someone who can help. The Business Community has set up daily Bulletins with experts on a range of topics to help us all get through this.

Don’t disappear. This might seem a good time to just give up on the madness and catch up on some box-sets. But if you stop being visible now then your work will dry up shortly after. You need to keep that funnel of potential projects as full as possible. Using the free version of Canva or taking advantage of the Two months free for Adobe Creative Cloud will keep costs to a minimum. And to help you produce better materials you could subscribe to our Design Tips emails.

Be disciplined. Sure, you can get up at noon, and work in your pyjamas till the wee hours, but it has to be sustainable. It also needs to fit in with some semblance of ‘normal’ business hours so you can be contacted fairly easily. It may help you to switch off your phone/PC notifications and only open your emails at set times in the day. And try not to get distracted by funny videos on social media – one or two are great for boosting morale, but you can easily disappear for 30 mins or more down a YouTube black hole! We’d be happy to share the tools we use to keep organised just give us a call.

This might seem a good time to just give up on the madness and catch up on some box-sets. But if you stop being visible now then your work will dry up shortly after

Keep talking. Keep in contact with your staff, keep on top of client work, follow up with proposals and keep in touch with your customers otherwise they’ll lose confidence in you. Perhaps you could produce a regular email bulletin for staff that are working remotely, or for your customers and suppliers? You can do this yourself with Mailchimp’s free plan or we can put a package together to help you with it, simply let us know what you need in our newsletter questionnaire.

Keep organised. Don’t put undue pressure on yourself – be realistic on what can be achieved in a single day including breaks and any unforeseen phone calls. Having a CRM, a calendar tool and/or a project management system will help here enormously. The Business Community ‘Resources’ page has lots of stuff that is free or low cost. You could also subscribe to our useful tools and apps emails where we talk about the tools that help run Pixooma.

Look after your PC. You don’t want to find that the vital file you need was accidentally deleted a week ago so get at least one backup of your files running. And install an antivirus or malware programme, as your home network needs to be as resilient as your office network. There are several of these programs available at little or no cost. If you don’t have a friendly IT expert then we can put you in touch with several.

And finally… look after yourself. To minimise health issues, ensure your new ‘office’ has a comfortable and supportive chair, your desk is at a sensible height, as is your monitor, and that the room is well lit. And take regular breaks, even if it is just to get a drink.

More than anything else, working remotely takes discipline – you just need to find a routine that works for you and enables you to be productive. Happy remote-working everyone!

If we can help in any way simply contact us ????

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