Ready for business No boundaries.

“Telecommuting, one of many forms of work-life flexibility, should no longer be viewed as a nice-to-have, optional perk mostly used by working moms. These common stereotypes don’t match reality — allowing employees to work remotely is a core business strategy today… We need to de-parent, de-gender, and de-age the perception of the flexible worker.” - Cali Williams Yost, Founder and CEO, Flex+Strategy Group

The trend towards work-from-anywhere isn’t a short term fad borne out of sudden necessity. It’s been trending for years, for a variety of reasons including intolerable commute hours, more flexible working options to support a better work/life balance and the flexibility to live and work from any location. Recent events have only accelerated this trend, and all indications are that remote work is here to stay.

At the same time, the digital economy and remote working presents a previously unforeseen opportunity for small businesses: reaching beyond the physical boundaries businesses have traditionally operated in and taking advantage of a global digital economy.

Remote work was once a challenge to businesses of all sizes. Today, it is an opportunity, part of a successful business strategy to thrive in the digital economy. Operating a business without boundaries is now key for businesses to differentiate themselves and get ahead of the competition.

Generally, employees have become more productive with remote working, and that trend has helped businesses expand and grow. But it has also helped businesses attract and retain key talent. As a business, you no longer need to rely on geography to attract top talent, as they no longer need to be in the geographic location. And with so many people now relocating because they can continue to work remotely while settling in a location they prefer to live in (as opposed to a location they are required to live in to access work), this opens up a lot of possibilities for small businesses to recruit the employees they want from a widening list of available talent regionally, nationally and even globally and at more competitive rates. Strategic hires can be made to ensure you have employee coverage to support longer business hours because they live in different time zones and even local language proficiency for businesses expanding beyond their national borders. In a nutshell, remote work is great for business and now must become part of any small business strategy to expand and grow.

Enabling a remote workforce means investing in the right technology, because technology now becomes central to onboarding remote employees to work in the digital economy. A survey by GGV Capital emphasizes that there is no better time for small businesses to move to digital forms of communication and commerce, and 75% expect their technology spend to increase through 2021.

With communications being a key part of this digital transformation, small businesses want to make sure that they are partnering with an industry leading communications vendor that can support this transformation and provide them with the communications essentials they need for their teams to stay in touch with their customers and with each other. Only a modern cloud communications vendor can offer this, for these reasons:

• Virtually unlimited scalability for companies of 10 or 10,000 users
• A truly global presence allowing employees to be located anywhere in the world and allowing a company to do business anywhere in the world
• Guaranteed and transparent communications quality and service uptime SLAs so that your business can focus on its core competency and not troubleshooting and resolving communications issues
• Security and compliance that has been independently verified to ensure your business communications remain secure and encrypted throughout
• A single app that can run on any device, desktop or mobile, making all communications simple and easy to access and use from any location
• Flexible pricing plans to give small businesses the maximum in flexibility and cost predictability when it comes to paying for a communications solution
• Future proofing, with a solution that is constantly updated with new features and capabilities and that will never be discontinued or end of lifed

The term “local business” has been radically redefined and the opportunity to extend the reach of a local business beyond the physical boundaries it traditionally could operate in is unprecedented.

A recent Inc. study identifies several key areas where consumer behavior is changing. The study concludes, “Consumers have largely shifted their attention and spending to digital channels, marking a major opportunity for brands and retailers to capture the interest of shoppers open to exploring new and different options.”

More consumers are looking for online shopping options and are also exploring shopping online for options they never considered before. The digital economy has created a level playing field for businesses that are looking to expand their reach beyond their geographic location. A business operating in San Jose, CA now has the opportunity to be discovered by customers in Boston, MA or even globally such as in France or SIngapore, for example. This means looking at new ways to scale your small business to serve those customers.

Both ecommerce and remote working are helping small businesses redefine what “local” actually means, and making them accessible to a broader set of customers. This also means being on top of your business’ communications strategy. As the Inc. report suggests, these same customers are demanding better communications. With the increased remote nature of commerce, with some customers being geographically distant from the business, comes the increased demand for timely and clear communications. Small businesses need to be able to keep up with the communications demands of its customers as well as ensuring its employees can continue to effortlessly collaborate with each other regardless of their location.

Communications solutions must provide a way for small businesses to operate from anywhere, providing them with the tools they need to implement communications strategies internally and with their customers.These strategies include:

• Ensuring unhindered and effortless employee collaboration regardless of location and device
• The ability to handle customers in and out of business hours
• The ability to link communications with context to provide the best possible customer experience
• The ability to scale dramatically so that your customers can always reach you
• The ability to integrate with your business applications and work

An all-in-one cloud communications solution provides all of the above in a simple and easy way for small businesses to quickly customize and enable for their employee teams and their customers.

The right cloud communications solution allows you and your employees to communicate with each other and with your customers on any channel and to move seamlessly amongst channels. It should be effortless to move any chat or call to a live meeting when needed and seamlessly continue the conversation live. Without limits.

A solid cloud communications solution should provide business owners and managers with rich analytics to help gain insights into how your employees are communicating with each other and to proactively identify any issues and help resolve them before your employee or your customer even notices there is one.

In this chapter, we focused on how to thrive in the new digital economy by making remote work and expanding your “local” reach a key part of your business strategy.

Helpful Resources

USSBA: Top Business Trends for 2021

Crunchbase: Discovering A Path To Business Growth Amidst A Global Pandemic

FlexJobs: Remote Work Statistics: Navigating the New Normal

The Fool: How to Create a Remote Work Policy for Your Small Business

In our next chapter, we’ll build on what we learned in this chapter to provide you with helpful tips on keeping your business nimble while facing adversity and sudden change.