Virtual teams and the use of them, have become increasingly more popular with the growth of the Internet, but the idea in general can still be a blur to employers and employees. What does it mean to work with a virtual team? To set the record straight, virtual teams are not rows of robots pumping out paperwork, but regular people who enjoy working together virtually. This could mean a group of people in the same town or team members from different countries, who communicate through virtual pathways like e-mails, telephone, videoconferencing or websites.

Companies began introducing virtual teams into the work force mainly to provide flexibility among employees. Employees that preferred the lifestyle-driven scheduling approach to making a living are the main reason for this growth. Being a part of a team that doesn’t follow the basic 9am-5pm work day allows not only for great flexibility in hours, but also provides variety as well as options for applying specialized skills and knowledge. It allows companies to put together a successfully collaborative and creative team.

Being a part of and employing virtual teams can produce a lot of pros, with minimal cons. Aside from providing flexibility, virtual teams can also lower costs in certain areas (less company utility bills and eliminating certain office inventory) and cause green effects for the company (no more commuting.) If you’re part of a team that includes individuals from different countries, the time zone factor can be both a pro and a con. On one hand, you will have people working around the clock on projects, but it may become difficult to facilitate an online meeting that everyone can attend. Another downfall may be that, while you believe in everyone on the team, some people may be less motivated or focused than others. This can be hard to monitor when the team is not meeting face-to-face on a regular basis. For virtual teams, trust can only be measured by the reliability of each team member.  A major pro of working with remote teams is the chance to work with professionals you may not have been able to work with previously, which could create a collaborative team that is successful and creative.

So the question is not what is a virtual team, but instead, is a virtual team right for you or your employer? The trend of giving employees control over how, when and where they work, as well as the importance of flexible hours is growing exponentially in various services, and it might be about time you and your employer take the leap into the virtual world.

© Zoe Begopoulos, DemGen Inc 2013

Many entrepreneurs find that as their company grows and they spend more time working on their business, they feel they are losing touch and the business is starting to suffer because of it. They realize they are no longer clear on the crucial elements of the business, have lost sight of where they want their business to go and have a hard time communicating with those they’ve hired to work IN their business.

If this sounds familiar, you CAN work in your business while you work on it. The first step is a major organizational overhaul of where you spend your time. Many business owners work only as managers. Once they take a closer look, they find that a lot of this time is wasted. After all, just how much time can you spend managing? Do the extra hours actually show anything for the effort you have put in?

By working in your business more than you have and spending time with your employees, you may find that they have many creative ideas that you weren’t aware of. Because small business is constantly evolving and also extremely competitive, keeping up on new industry ideas and techniques may fall by the wayside while you are expanding. Others find that as they spend less time working in the business, their enjoyment level drops accordingly. What they once loved to do has just become another job. By once again engaging themselves in day to day marketing and hands on work, the spark that first interested them in entrepreneurship reappears.

Feedback from your team is important. Immersing yourself, at least part of the time, in the same tasks as they perform, gives the business owner a hands on idea of where his business actually stands at the time. It also may help you delegate tasks more efficiently and become more aware of your team’s genius abilities. Supporting your employees by being more accessible means better productivity and more room for growth.

Become part of your team. It will keep you more involved in what is going on and where your industry is headed. Balancing both parts of the business may not be for everyone. One size doesn’t fit all, but for a huge percentage of small business owners, it gives them back the part of being a business owner that they miss the most.

© Chris Draper, DemGen 2013