Many business owners have learned, (usually the hard way), that they can’t do all of the work of running a business by themselves. Burn out, disorganization, missed deadlines and forgotten clients have led them to the conclusions that it’s best to work with a virtual team if they want to succeed.
But virtual teams come in all shapes and sizes. There are virtual assistants, who usually work alone and then there are teams that collaborate together in order to work for a number of clients. Figuring out which one is best for you comes down to answering several questions about your business and about yourself.
Once your business is growing and is no longer small enough to be run by one person, you are looking for a team with a balance of virtual skills. The best teams will be mid-sized, neither too small (unable to offer a variety of packages), or too large, where at some point they become unmanageable and disorganized or have too much work to dedicate their attention accordingly.
You want the team you are working with to be motivated and made up of strong communicators. They need to be flexible, in order to work on various projects simultaneously and they also need to have the initiative to direct themselves without constant input from you. An effective virtual team has members with crossover abilities,that learn as they go. Their technological skills provide them with the base to build upon previous experiences, so the longer they work as a team, the more they improve and this can only be done with a team that isn’t too large.
One of the most important requisites of any team that you hire should be the ability to grow a close relationship with you. Rather than working as boss and employer, team members should work with you as mentors and suggest ways in which you can improve upon what is already a good thing. The team should understand you and what you would like to do with your business and they should also care about it as if it were theirs.
Finding a team that is just right, with services that are useful to you from infancy to maturity is what you are looking for. Their abilities should be varied and you should be able to find everything you need in one place with one team.
Success for your business means looking around and picking the team that is not too big, not too small….but just right!
© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2014
image courtesy of redbubble
