Successful Blog

How I Overcame the Challenges of Starting a Company With My Spouse

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By Alycia Hawkins

Some may call me crazy for choosing to work with my husband Chance Hawkins, but that is the easy part. My husband and I worked together these past two years at an online marketing company and it was actually great! The crazy part came when we decided to start our own online marketing company called Digital Hawkins 3 weeks ago. I guess we thought it would be just as easy as working together…boy were we wrong. I could write a novel on the ups and downs of our short venture so far into starting our own company, but for your sake I am summing it up into my top three struggles of starting a company with my spouse and how I overcame them:

1. Financial instability

The scariest part of starting a company is always money related. Not having enough to invest, not producing enough to be worth it, worrying about paying the bills, etc. When you start a company with your spouse it is DOUBLE the instability and risk. Here are a few things we did to help lessen our expenses in the beginning stages.

  • Utilize trades. Go back to the way of elementary school thinking and trade your Jell-O for a Snackpack (or in our case online marketing for business cards, beautiful graphics, etc.).
  • Get crafty. Now that we traded for our business cards, we had to get our name out. I am no sales person and cold calling just will not do for me. Since we didnt’t have money to hire sales people, we got a little creative. It was right around Christmas time, so I went to Dollar General and bought small christmas boxes and lots of chocolate goodies. I found local businesses that I knew I could help and created personalized Christmas gift boxes with our business cards stuffed inside and offered a free site analysis. This paid off greatly and gave people a positive and personal experience associated with our name.
  • DIY as much as possible. This may require learning a new skill. The amount of graphics we needed for our site was insane and we didn’t have the money to pay our designer for everyone. So I started to watch photoshop tutorials and do them myself. Not only does this save money, but who doesn’t like learning something new?

Even though we found a lot of ways to save money, there are some things you just have to pay for. But it was so hard for me to let myself invest any money into our company knowing it might not pay off. To overcome this it took a small obvious revelation. If I didn’t believe in my own business’s success, no one else would. But having to believe in my own capabilities lead to a deeper struggle my husband and I had to face…

2. My OWN insecurities

As embarrassing as this is to reveal, starting this company made me realize how insecure I really was. It is so easy to portray being strong, independent, and having it all together when you’re working for someone else and they take all of the risks…not you. I hate the idea that so many have about woman being weak, incapable of owning a business, not entrepreneur material and so on, but when the pressure was on me, that was all I could think! My poor husband would ask me questions like what I had done that day or what my next plan/strategy was, and I would suddenly lash out at him. The problem with starting a company with your spouse is keeping work problems and marriage problems separate. It took numerous arguments before we both realized the real issue. I was insecure and overwhelmed. This was by far the hardest struggle to overcome and it is a process of overcoming it daily (or just on those bad days). Here are a few things that helped me.

  • Reading inspiring articles on other women business leaders.
  • Setting reasonable goals, timelines, and daily tasks.
  • Praising small accomplishments and learning from failures rather than beating myself up about them.
  • Learn something new every day. Whether it was by reading an article on the latest online marketing practices, or learning a new trick in Google Analytics, it’s harder to feel insecure when you are continuing to grow.
  • Making sure my husband and I are always on the same page.

3. Time management

Because we are relying on our business to pay the bills, it is very important that we spend our time wisely. In the beginning stages it is easy to get lost in the never ending to do list. We both found ourselves bouncing around from one project to the next and not knowing who was working on what, instead of setting daily tasks for each other. I found this great article on time management that helped us overcome this obstacle. It talks about being productive instead of busy, focusing on one task at a time, reducing interruptions, and more. Once we started following these tips, we saw an improvement on productivity, insecurities, and were on a road to quicker financial stability.

Even though there were both pros and cons to having my husband by my side through each of these struggles, I would do it all over again. I love my husband being my business partner. It has been a short journey so far, but I have learned so much and cannot wait to learn more (knock on wood).

Author’s Bio: Alycia Hawkins writes about online marketing at digitalhawkins.com/blog. She is the Co-Founder of Digital Hawkins and Online School of Dance. You can find her on twitter as @Alycia_Hawkins.

Book Review: Absolute Value, By Itamar Simonson & Emanuel Rosen

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What happens when marketers get naked?

Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers in the Age of (Nearly) Perfect Information, is the answer to that question.

Stripped of their exclusive access to broadcast media, stripped of their information monopoly, stripped of their banner ads, stripped of their SEO tricks, marketers in 2014 have awakened to a new reality. Consumers have access such a diverse array of data that they can (if they choose) make much more informed purchasing decisions.

This book explores how this state of affairs came to be, how consumers are dealing with their access, and how marketers might still be able to add their voice to the mix.

“In a world with improved access to high-quality information, more and more decisions will be based on absolute values, resulting in better choices overall.” Absolute Value, Simonson & Rosen

The Marketer is Being Stripped, Bit by Bit

Tools like positioning and persuasion are less effective because consumers can see behind the wizard curtain by reading blogs, talking to other consumers, and reading reviews.

The value of brand and loyalty is disappearing as consumers are able to rely on a huge amount of actual information from experts and weak-tie fellow consumers. Simonson & Rosen suggest that a consumer’s decision to buy is affected by a mix of three related sources: individual preferences, beliefs, and experiences (P); other people and information services (O); and marketers (M). Marketers need to be aware of where their audience lies on the POM continuum so that they can respond accordingly. Which information does your typical customer rely on most heavily?

The power of advertising has been undercut as well. There must be a shift away from random banner ads to get “top of mind” awareness, and toward ads that are closer to the decision point and provide actionable information to the person as they are about to buy. Top of mind ads are less effective because they get overwritten by other info that comes along in the noise stream.

Another tool in the marketing arsenal was the traditional funnel. There used to be a reliable, predictable path from awareness to action. The new consumer doesn’t care about the funnel. He/she will now often employ what Simonson & Rosen term “couch tracking,” accumulating lots of information over time, even before the need for a product is identified. Marketers need to focus more attention on the couch-trackers, who frequent online communities and forums as they have a certain product or brand “on their radar,” because they are likely to make a decision before marketers are even aware of them.

What Happens Now?

When power is taken away from the marketers, does it come at the expense of good business decisions? Will consumers use the big data available to them to support good decisions or will it lead to more irrationality as they choose the sources of data they want to use?

Will consumers with limited or no access to the additional data be more susceptible to manipulation because they don’t have access? Will marketers be hip to that and use it to their advantage?

Perhaps we will end up with “less sugar in our information diet” and “less sugarcoating” as real-world reviews and referrals take the place of rotating banner ads.

The release of this book could not be more timely. Within the conversations about big data, content shock, and influencer marketing, there must be a discussion of the absolute value proposition.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received an advance copy of this book free from Harper Business. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Taking Being a Business Owner to Heart

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Stress in the workplace can take its toll on your health.

As a small business owner, lowering your stress level is vital to your health.  It is also crucial to your performance and ability to work effectively over the long haul.

Follow along as we look at the effects of being a business owner and what you can do to turn things around.

As Big of a Threat ‘As Smoking or Not Exercising’

This characterization from the University of Maryland Medical Center describes the body of research studies that look at job-related stress.  The threat of job-related stress to health is comparable to smoking or not exercising, it proclaims.

The document also states that nearly half of all American workers say that their jobs are “very stressful.”

While some of the biggest job-related stressors don’t affect business owners, such as having no control over one’s responsibilities, lack of job security, and others – these factors still affect owners in other ways, such as making sure the business has enough work/clients.  Other stressors still apply to business owners, such as too much time away from home and family and pay concerns.

One of the most important effects of stress is that of the heart.

A recent study analyzed data from thousands of responders, and it found that those who believed that stress significantly affected their health had twice the risk of coronary heart disease.

It highlighted some other staggering claims of stress and heart health, including a statistic that women in highly stressful jobs are 40 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack.

All of the data suggests that stress can have a significant impact not only on your heart – but your overall stress. Bottom line, the risks are great.

Ways to Overcome Stress

It might not be possible to completely eliminate stress.  But by paying attention to it inside and outside of your work environment, you can certainly alleviate its effects and help both your career and your health.

Here are some ideas that can help you work on overcoming stress:

• Delegate –  It’s OK to let some of the responsibilities go to ease the burden on yourself.  This is a key step to growing the business as well.  Put together a plan for easing the workload to lessen the stress and improve the efficiency of your business.

• Go over your processes, technology, and how your business runs –  Examine inefficiencies that can be improved upon to eliminate unnecessary time, resources, and steps.

• Don’t underestimate the value of a good support system – Talk to family and friends on a regular basis, and don’t be afraid to ask for help – regardless of the situation.

The issue could be that you have too many priorities, responsibilities, and that the overall workload is simply too much.  It may be time to hire an additional person or find a way to help balance it all.

Take a long, hard look at the situation to see if you can get to the heart of the matter.

Photo credit: under30ceo.com

About the Author: Joyce Morse covers an array of subjects, among which include marketing, small business and social media.

10 Tips: How to Stay Focused through the Coming Year

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By Robert Morris

We are already almost one month into the new year, so it’s time to really buckle down and make sure we can stay focused in 2014. Many people make resolutions and they promise to realize them every New Year, but somehow those aspirations tend to fade away after the first few months.

Don’t you wish to do things differently this time? The following practical tips will help you work on your habits that will help you stay focused on the aims you set.

1. You need daily rituals

No matter how spontaneous you want your life to be, sticking to daily routines is what will get those things of the list realized. You cannot have high levels of focus if you don’t follow a routine that will keep you within the boundaries of productiveness. Pay attention to your sleeping and eating patterns, plan some time for personal satisfaction and make sure to plan breaks that will give you more energy to tackle all daily challenges.

2. Visualize your goals

Creating a vision board will give you a great presentation of your dreams and goals, making them more real. You can add images, as well as souvenirs, articles, or quotes related to your great yearly goals. When you visualize your aims clearly, you will work harder towards their achievement.

3. Don’t set too many BIG goals

Your list has to contain one or two big goals that you plan to accomplish. Don’t set too many of these big goals, because you will overwhelm yourself and then end up disappointed, but don’t leave your list without any great expectations either. Check in on those goals every month and think about what you have done up to that point.

4. Don’t leave things uncompleted

The only way to stay focused on your goals is to complete everything you start. Don’t give up on a task you have started, because that will weaken your mental strength and leave you with diminished self-confidence. Stay determined and always do your best to complete every single task you start. Success in life is guided by a simple rule – without doing your best, you won’t achieve the best possible outcome.

5. Give yourself some daily time alone

No matter how active your life is, you won’t get anywhere without spending some time with yourself and your thoughts. Constant involvement in social life depletes you and results in an inevitable burnout. If you are overly active, it’s only a matter of time when your body and/or mind will give up. Spend some time doing things you love – take long walks, listen to good music, read great books, meditate, do yoga, or whatever else that pleases and relaxes you.

6. Multitasking is good, but do it less!

Multitasking is sometimes a beneficial skill to master, but the truth is that you cannot accomplish your best at everything when doing too many things at once. When you focus your brain on a single task, you will devote yourself fully to it and the outcome will be much better.

7. Make daily to-do lists

Making daily to-do lists is a great strategy to train your brain to stay focused. When you end the day with all tasks crossed out on the list, you will have a feeling of accomplishment and you will be happy to repeat that every single day. Plan your goals by organizing your tasks into a few categories and separating the things you need to do today, tomorrow, this week, and this month. Making to-do lists is also a great way to make priorities and keep your energy focused on the most important tasks.

8. Have goal buddies

When you have people with similar goals, you will support and motivate each other to stay focused on their achievement. Your “goal buddies” will remind you about the things you promised to achieve, and their success will push you to keep up.

9. Learn how to avoid distractions

You convince yourself that checking your e-mail, Facebook and Twitter every few minutes relaxes you, but the truth is that this bad habit is a huge distraction from the really important things. Make sure to complete every important task you have for the day before you allow yourself the luxury of spending time on Facebook. When you finish everything faster and more efficiently, you can reward yourself with virtual socializing.

10. Learn how to be focused on staying focused

Staying focused is a skill that’s really simple to explain: you concentrate your mind on a single thing and don’t allow it to be disturbed by anything else. It’s not impossible; it just requires a lot of practice, commitment, and dedication. Your daily relaxation or meditation will help you free your mind of all distracting thoughts, and you will soon notice how you are getting better in controlling your habits and emotions and staying focused on your goals.

Be prepared for the fact that the upcoming year won’t be free of distractions and problems no matter how hard you work on your goals, but the most important thing is to stay within the routine you establish and don’t attach yourself to the results.

Author’s Bio: Robert Morris is a freelance writer from essay writing service NinjaEssays. He loves writing tips and tricks for students. He is interested in improving his writing and learning through technology. Follow @Ninjaessays on Twitter!

Reclaiming Her Voice: Liz Strauss on Overcoming Cancer and the Future of SOBCon

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By Angel Djambazov

A year ago, I had the privilege of speaking with Liz Strauss as she began her cancer treatment journey.

We wanted to update you on the challenges, triumphs, and surprises she’s encountered over the last year and to let you know how much she appreciates all the support she’s received.

Liz told me she felt like she had been through a crucible with the treatment. Unexpected health and personal complications made the journey even tougher than she imagined. But with the help of family, friends, and the SOBCon community, Liz has emerged cancer free, energized, and literally giddy with enthusiasm for SOBCon 2014. Here’s our interview.

On behalf of the SOBCon community, welcome back Liz. How are you feeling?

I’m at 95%. I expect to be at 100% very soon. The cancer is gone, I’m feeling more like my pre-cancer self, and I’m excited about the things I’m working on.

Where are you in your recovery?

Every four months, I get a PET scan and a CT scan, and they continue to show no signs of cancer. Luckily for me, the doctors at the University of Chicago have an eighty-five percent success rate with larynx cancer. Funny enough the doctors at Cedars Sinai, where the movie stars go, told me I’d have to lose my larynx completely and start with some mechanical way of talking. Thankfully we didn’t opt to go the route of surgery.

You’ve described the treatment to me, and the subsequent events that followed, as a crucible, why do you use that word?

It was way more difficult than I expected.

Beyond the issues normally associated with cancer treatment, I also suffered a fall that broke both my shoulder and my hip. My recovery from both the breaks and the cancer took longer because one exacerbated the other.

After six weeks of chemotherapy, I lost my hair in January then I broke my shoulder and my hip during the second week of radiation treatments. Radiation lasted every other week, ten times for a week, then a break week. Because of my injuries, I couldn’t come home, both because I physically couldn’t care for myself and because my husband also ended up in the hospital at the same time.

For several months during the radiation treatments, I couldn’t even talk on the phone because my voice wasn’t strong enough. My best friend came and took my phone calls for me.

Even after I completed radiation, a severe infection developed and lasted from March to November. I didn’t really feel my energy come back until the first week of December.

After all that, I now have the pleasure of talking to people on the phone or in person they tell me, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard your voice this strong,” or “Gosh, it’s so nice I don’t have to lean forward to hear what you’re saying.””

What impact did the treatment have on you emotionally?

Emotionally, it was rough. I’m great if people manage my expectations but I had no point of reference for this experience. There are things the doctors couldn’t cure. When my mouth was covered with sores inside it from the therapy, I expected them to fix it, because that’s what doctors do, but there wasn’t a fix.

I was naive enough to think that on the day that radiation was done I would start getting better. I didn’t realize that radiation is a lot like a microwave; it keeps cooking you for another month after the treatment. Even though it was awesome to attend SOBCon last May, I was embarrassed by how weak I felt and sounded.

I never really expected or thought I’d die from this. I find it curious now, but it never crossed my mind that I might die. I did experience extreme fear. At one point, I’d spent so many days in the hospital, I cried and begged when I had to go back in. I suppose that was because I had to give up so much of my freedom.

I also found out some things about myself. I know a lot of people who think I’m really, really kind but under that pressure, I found out what a bitch I can be. I worked to my own detriment. I don’t ever want to live that again. I’m nicer now, let’s put it that way.

It’s hard to give up your independence. How did you handle going from being so independent to being dependent on others?

I have an inherent personality trait, no matter how unrealistic it is, that I somehow believe when I get up tomorrow I can fix a problem. Giving up that independence to others was part of the process. Just say, “Hey, I can’t do this.” Terry, Carol, Britt, Eric, so many people worked to put together last year’s SOBCon so I could focus on recovery.

Of course, I felt that all I was doing was sitting and being miserable. But if I had to try to take care of all the business and life that needed to be managed, it wouldn’t have been possible. Thankfully, there were a lot of people around me who wouldn’t let me fail.

My lifelong friend, Nancy, was amazing. She lives about 100 miles away, but she drove in to take me to every appointment. She would argue for the hospital when I felt so bad that I was fiercely angry at about what I’d lost. And at those times, I was deeply worried that I’d harm our relationship, but she hung there and kept telling me not to give it a thought. Nancy even moved in with my son and me for several months because it was easier than driving back and forth from her home. She pushed me around in a wheelchair just as much as anybody in that hospital. She was a godsend.

My stylist, J-D, was the best too. He’s one of the top stylist in Chicago. He’d only cut my hair once before I got sick. We knew each other online but not in person. But as soon as he found out about the cancer, he just sort of adopted me. First he made sure I had more wigs than I needed. He cut and styled the wigs so expertly that they looked natural hair; taking care so they looked good on me. He was a master at checking in once every week or two to see if I felt like going to a movie or to lunch just so I’d get aired out. You can’t pay for friendships like that.

In what ways did handing over your independence to others impact your outlook?

It was an amazing experience to have to hand things over to others and realize how unimportant I was to the bigger scheme of things. It’s redefined my sense of what quality is. It has gotten me out of my head and more into the heads and hearts of the people that I do all this for.

As a result, I’m listening more to that core community, [who are like] the fans who would drive fifty miles to see your rock band play, because they are the ones who will always be with you. It was that core SOBCon family that challenged me after the treatment. Asking the hard questions and holding my feet to the fire. People like Becky McCray to Mark Carter to Jane Boyd, all asking questions like, “Are you well enough to even do the event in 2014?” Then, when I insisted I was, saying,  “You’re going to have to prove it to us that this is the smartest thing for you to be doing right now, after what you’ve just been through physically, psychologically, emotionally, and economically that a SOBCon event is the right thing for you to do.” Of course, I just told them all just to be quiet (laughs). But those questions were worth their weight in gold.

I’m having more fun now. I’m back to where every day is a good day in my mind and I’m enjoying the creative part of things. I think there has been an attitude shift. It’ll probably take me a year to figure out what it is. I am certainly more focused on tasks than I’ve ever been in the past, and decidedly so. For me, it’s back to where it was in the days of the early event, you know the, “Get out of my way because this is going to be happening whatever it takes.”

As you started to get stronger how did it feel to step back into the swing of things?

Oddly, I was sort of afraid to get back in the swing of things again, which is an unfamiliar experience. If I could describe the best vacation ever, I would go sit on a beach and watch the ocean until I got bored and then I’d be ready to go back to work. I don’t think it would take very long. But by going back to work you are giving up the luxury of time. It has been my experience in the past that once you decide to step back into this there was nothing to be afraid of or worried about.

The fundraiser the community put together helped so much because it was something to hold onto. It meant I didn’t have to worry about the complete loss of income. For a few short months, I could just focus on getting better. I also didn’t want to worry about my son having to take care of us.

As nice as it was to have Eric there, it’s not nice to think about the interruption this is in his life. At his age, I was doing a lot of the same things for my mother so I was kind of reliving it from both points of view, except he had it more complicated because there was only one week that my dad was in the hospital while my mom was sick.

Now that I am back everyone is saying, “Hey, it’s great to see you!” so that doesn’t hurt either. It is affirming, especially online where I don’t have to get self-conscious about it.

What are you looking forward to most in 2014?

Wow, I have high expectations for 2014 because it has to be good enough to cover two years! I am actually looking forward to putting on my high heel shoes again, once my physical therapist says my hip is fixed. I’m looking forward to spring. I’m looking forward to watching and taking pictures of the sunrise every morning again; it’s a most wonderful way to start the day. I’m looking forward to going out to eat and enjoy what I’m eating and to be hungry again.

What direction is SOBCon heading?

For a conference to survive, it must evolve. With every evolution of SOBCon, we’ve tried to distill our message. When we held the first event, it was because 125 people who knew each other very well online decided that they wanted to meet in person, and you can’t replicate that. We called that first event the “Relationship Bloggers Conferencing Network Event.” A bit wordy, but pretty clear who it was for and what you’d get out of it.

For our next evolution, we decided to take a more business focus because there were so many people building up blogs and then saying, “I want to make money,” which was kind of backwards. As a result, the idea came that we should link all the content to an actionable plan to build a revenue stream, except for the financials, because you couldn’t fit those into a day and a half, and so we called it “BizSchool for Bloggers.””

When I think our focus got murky was when we decided to take the word “blogger”out of our tagline, to keep the online to offline relationship, so we called it, “Where the Virtual Meets the Concrete.” But I think looking back it wasn’t easy to define and I don’t think that anybody actually got the message we were intending to deliver with a tag line. So as a result of our history as a “Blogger conference” the event got named a social media event when in fact it’s always been a business event that is meant to serve the people who were from the blogging and social media communities.

While planning for this year, I was caught saying it was an event for online businesses. It was pointed out to me that so many who attend run face-to-face businesses. Carol Roth runs a face-to-face business. Les McKeown runs a face-to-face business. Tim Sanders, Steve Farber, and all of these people who are part of the SOBCon community are all in a face-to-face business. It made me pause and, with the help of my friends, rethink what we are trying to do, what our focus is. For me that process was truly reinvigorating!

It’s why I’m excited to introduce you to the SOBCon Leverage. Why leverage? Because you need two things to be successful in business: 1) Strong and deep connective relationships, and 2) actionable plans and ideas. That is what SOBCon provides for anyone who attends. Leverage to build your business or brand. Leverage to help keep your business or brand growing towards its goals. Because you need leverage to succeed whether you’re in a corporation or on a team of one.

There are dozens of folks who will testify, myself included, to what a transcending experience SOBCon can be. Will focusing on Leverage change SOBCon?

Well, no, that part of SOBCon is not going to change. We’ve got that right. During our process of selecting presenters, I’m always focused on being sure they understand the ethic of the event. The SOBCon rule about presenters is, somebody has to present the content, and certainly that person should be someone that people want to see, but just because you present the content doesn’t mean that you’re smarter than anyone else in the room. SOBCon is not the kind of event where your ego can enter the room before you do. Those egos are not welcome.

I love how Lisa Horner describes it. “You immediately walk into a room and you feel this sense of community. It’s a good feeling that you belong to. But then they put on these brilliant speakers with brilliant ideas and, because you’ve been opened up to this sense of trust, you experience learning in a whole new way.””

Or as Mark Carter said the other day,  “After you reach a certain point in your industry you don’t go to events to go to the sessions. You go to the event to network with people. But when there’s thousands of people at a show, you have to negotiate through them to even find that one influencer/that one person you want to meet.” My response to that is, why not just go to the room with 144 people you want to meet? At SOBcon we bring them to you.

It’s that high-trust environment that makes the magic in the room happen. It’s something that I guard, protect, and work very hard to cultivate at the very beginning of every event to insure that all the right pieces are in place so that the magic happens again. After 10 events, I’ve become a pretty good magician.

Hearing you talk about SOBCon you sound vibrant and giddy. It is good to hear you that way.

I’m just looking forward to putting SOBCon together this year that I can’t get over it! When I say it’s the best year, I’m sure of it! You know the chemo-brain thing has gone away, and the fog from the treatment has lifted. I’m beginning to take my brain out and play. For me SOBCon is the ultimate expression of that. Both because of what I get to do to build it, but because of what everybody gets to experience it when they come. Few things are more powerful then when 144 people take out their brains to play and to actually get work done.

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You can find your own SOBCon Leverage by purchasing tickets here: SOBCon Leverage, Chicago 2014 takes place June 27-29, 2014 at the Summit Executive Center. Will you be in the room?

Author’s Bio:Born in Bulgaria, Angel Djambazov has spent his professional career in the fields of journalism and online marketing. His career path led to online marketing where while working at OnlineShoes he earned the Affiliate Manager of the Year (2006) award at the Affiliate Summit, and In-house Manager of the Year (2006) award by ABestWeb.In 2007 Angel started Custom Tailored Marketing and became the OPM for Jones Soda for which he won his second Affiliate Manger of the Year (2009) award at Affiliate Summit. Angel also was the lead evanglist for PopShops.com which was awarded Best Affiliate Tool (2007 & 2008) award by ABestWeb. In 2010 he won his third Pinnacle Award from Affiliate Summit for Affiliate Marketing Advocate of the Year.

How Managers and Business Owners Can Better Engage Remote Employees

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By Miles Young

Working remotely is both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side, it gives employees more freedom, reduces absenteeism, and lowers employer overhead. However, it creates communication challenges, causes a lack of team bonding, and lowers productivity in some cases. If you’re thinking about adding remote workers to your business, or if you already have a handful, here are some tips to keep them engaged and profitable for your business.

Hire the Right People to Work Remotely

First, make sure you hire people who will excel in a remote position. Working from home doesn’t work for everybody, and you need to be able to assess if a person is capable of staying engaged with your business in this type of position. To do this, look for people who are self-starters, computer savvy, and who don’t have distractions at home.

Some people think they can watch their young children and work from home at the same time. In most cases, this isn’t a healthy situation for your business unless the employees are compensated based on deliverables. When hiring remote employees, make sure you emphasize that watching children at home isn’t a possibility because you expect them to do the same quality and quantity of work you would if they were working from an office with direct supervision. Additionally, you can require remote employees to have a dedicated office space in their home to minimize distractions.

Hold Face-to-Face Trainings and Orientations

Once you’ve hired remote workers, it’s important to quickly establish a strong relationship between employee and supervisor. This is critical to the success of a business, because the supervisor acts as a motivator and a role model. Without this relationship, remote workers can get lost or confused and not know how to engage with your business. It’s easiest to establish this relationship in person. Therefore, hold face-to-face trainings and orientations, when possible.

If your business cannot afford to hold in-person trainings, a video conference call is the next best thing. Remote employers will have an easier time establishing trust and a good relationship with their supervisor if they can attach a face to a name and converse naturally.

Do Frequent Performance Reviews

Traditionally, businesses hold semi-annual reviews for employees. Remote workers need more frequent reviews to keep them motivated and on task since they don’t have the daily interaction provided in an office setting. Performance reviews are a good way to measure the productivity of remote workers and keep them accountable. As a remote worker, it’s easy to slack off without the proper supervision and review cycle, especially in positions where it’s more difficult to measure productivity, such as customer service positions.

On the other hand, burnout can be a problem for some remote workers. This is partially because supervisors cannot directly see how much work and effort their remote workers are putting in on a daily basis. Plus, it is hard to separate work life from home life in a remote position, leading some people to feel like they are constantly working.

During performance reviews with remote workers, ask how they’re doing and if they need anything. Make sure that your remote workers have a workload that is neither too much nor too little. This will help remote workers stay engaged and profitable for your business.

Conduct Meetings Over Video Conference Instead of on the Phone

Video conferencing is the best way to hold meetings with remote workers, because it provides face-to-face interaction and helps everyone feel more involved. Meetings over the phone cause many remote workers to become disengaged, especially when there are a lot of people on the phone. Video conferencing requires remote workers to be alert because they know they’re being watched by everyone else in the meeting.

With the technology available today, it is easy for businesses to implement video conferencing. There are several companies, such as GoToMeeting, that help facilitate video conferencing for businesses. Additionally, large companies can spend money to create their own in-house conferencing systems that are more secure.

Use Multiple Channels of Communication

In addition to video conferencing, it’s important to engage remote employees through multiple channels of communication. This should involve frequent phone calls, emails, and instant messaging. Software that makes working collaboratively with others is also important. Remote workers need more regular communication than on-site employees to foster a sense of belonging.

Instant messaging is one of the best things a business can implement because it gives remote workers instant access to their supervisor and team mates. Remote workers can reach out with questions as if they were working in the same room. This eliminates the wait for people to return phone calls and answer emails, which increases productivity and employee engagement.

Recognize Remote Employers for Their Performance

Sometimes, remote workers do not feel valued for their work. This leads to lower productivity and engagement with your business. This is something that is hard for supervisors to recognize because of the lack of in-person communication. Therefore, you can promote remote worker engagement by giving recognition where it is due.

There are lots of things you can do to recognize remote workers. For instance, you can send gift cards to employees who exemplify an above-and-beyond attitude. Or, if you don’t have a lot of money to spend on recognition gifts, you can order useful promotional gifts like custom pens and send them to your employees as a token of appreciation. It’s better to do something rather than nothing so that your remote workers feel valued and engaged. Having items with the company logo in their workspace will also help them feel like they’re a part of the company and team.

Remote workers are on the rise in the U.S. According to CNN Money, work-at-home jobs have surged 41 percent in the past 10 years. If this is a trend you’re noticing in your business, you need to learn how to keep your remote workers engaged and profitable for your business.

What challenges have you faced with remote workers? Leave a comment below.

Author’s Bio: Miles Young is a tech geek, business blogger and all around cool person. Follow him on twitter @mrmilesyoung.