Setting up a virtual business is no easy task. The cost of doing so may be little, but there is a lot of effort to it. All the information, files, documents – soft IP will have to be protected. If I were a consultant – this is of more importance than anything, as that is my leverage tool. Here are a few things I’ve learnt along the way, and I thought I’d share them with you…
Keep ALL files in one single location & backup regularly – If you work on two different computers, you will most likely have two copies of a document. Avoid this, either by syncing or using only one computer – and backing up to the cloud, or some secure location (frequently). By using only one computer, you only have to worry about backing up. By using two or more, you need to worry about syncing all files. My solution to this is DropBox (they have apps to install on Windows/Mac as well as a web-based interface, in case you cant install – use the DropBox Portable).
Keep Your Business & Personal Files Separate – If you’re running a virtual operation, you need to keep your files in separate folders. You dont want to accidentally provide access to your business files only to share the wrong personal diary! It’s healthy.
Email – I could write a entire book on Gmail and the use of email. It serves as a record, database, knowledge, blogging platform, chat, collaboration. No other software has such great features (yet). Add to this the integration with Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Tasks and Google Chat – and you have a killer communication platform. Go for Google Apps for Domains – this way, you can user your own domain / website to manage your entire virtual enterprise.
Use Tag/Label, Filter, Shortcuts in Gmail – a big time saver for organizing your emails, enabling them to be searched faster, tracking conversations threads.
Blog – I’ve learnt one important thing from blogging and that is expression of thought. Depending on the field of your specialization, I can only suggest having a blog. I use WordPress to create a private membership site – that publishes everything regarding my operations, track record, newsletter, updates, alerts etc to my members. You can have a mix of both.
Aggregate – I gather information, bookmark and research stuff using Google Reader (by subscribing to an interesting site’s rss – you create a database aka archive that can be searched later on). I use Evernote again to keep a copy of any full webpage that I want to visit or read about later.
Share – I distribute information/links on Twitter now. If I see something interesting, a bookmarklet – allows me to share the site as a shortened URL with a short comment. The short message gets distributed to those who follow me (targetted broadcasting i.e. narrowcasting), whilst also appearing on a public domain (twitter site) – means if anyone is searching for something – they can also see what I’ve shared.
Bookmarks – I no longer use delicious, instead, bookmarks I like to revisit are stored locally, and synced using xmarks.com (addon for mac & pc). But since sites can go down in the future, I like to keep a copy of the text with me. Evernote serves the purpose.
Network – with all the social media hype going on – I only found LinkedIn useful. I found it useful, because I know that people who at least update their profile – are serious about some kind of professional relationship. You can meet an interesting set of people. I just wish LinkedIn had a built in CRM feature (with Gmail Integration). Read Never Eat Alone.
Measure – Always measure whatever you do. There’s a saying by famous Management Guru Peter Drucker – if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Accounting – which is based on the above point. Gotta keep those books uptodate – use Xero.com – a New Zealand based group, offering web-based accounting. Good enough for now. (I needn’t say this, but get a good accountant! Luckily, I work with some great guys in my bank – who are willing to help me keep the books!)
This is just the “start”… let me know what you’d like me to cover.