With the advent of the century of entrepreneurship, there has been an ever growing demand for the latest and the most modern office management systems. In today’s multidimensional business environment, it is perfectly possible for a startup to hire employees at different locations and set up a virtual office to run the business as usual. This new trend is because of many good reasons; first of all, a startup cannot afford to have a fully functional office and secondly the scarcity of talent sometimes requires such businesses to find talent in some far located places and eventually they need reliable software and IT solutions to connect with their employees.

Managing teams

Managing teams might be tricky when your choice is virtual teams. Virtual offices are not run in the same fashion as physical offices. However, all the latest software and IT tools can replicate a real office environment, interaction, guidance and thus the results. By applying common sense, latest IT solutions and at least a few free tools like Skype, Google drive etc. you can easily manage your mobile workforce. All you need is a strong work philosophy and total integration of your workforce. All employees connected to each other with smart IT solutions and webcams, can work just as amazingly as in a physical office.

Virtual teams and their problems

Although, virtual teams have their own problems and there is a lot of gray area between white and black, hypothetically speaking, it should not make any difference whether you have a mobile workforce or you have all your employees in a physical office, as long as the quality of work, communication and desired results are just as expected. You should remember that no success can be achieved without teamwork and team spirit, and although you work at a virtual office, you may easily stir some team emotions and spirit among your working force. Managing teams only becomes a headache when there is a lack of trust between employees and the employer; we believe that with a reliable infrastructure and result oriented business practices, trust can easily be maintained between a boss and his virtual team.

Handing mobile workforce with ease

An online business or virtual office can be run successfully using virtual tools and solutions. One thing that should not be ignored about a business is the way of managing teams. A business is all about infrastructure, organization and discipline. A mobile workforce can still be made subject to stern discipline, rules and supervision.

For instance, John a rising entrepreneur in the niche of app development, has made it obligatory for his far located employees to ping through Skype sharp at 9 AM to let John know that they are at work. He uses FreeConferenceCall to get in touch with his virtual teams and a very well integrated system of video chat, IT infrastructure, software and file transfer keeps him connected with his employees.

Here is how a virtual team can be made as good as real team:

• Making employees available at work hours, through phone or skype
• Using smart entrepreneurial tools like Dropbox
• Synchronizing all computers in order to ensure smooth, fast and safe transfer of data
• Smart use of cloud computing to connect distanced employees with employer and each other

A virtual office is only limited by an entrepreneur’s own imagination. If your imagination is rich and you have the curiosity to reshape a new business model, you can go from free tools to highly paid IT solutions and handle your business virtually.