Save Money with Remote Workers

Are you looking for ways to save money in your business? One of the smartest is to use remote workers. No, this doesn’t mean a group of noncommunicative employees -- it simply means people (either independent contractors or employees) who work for you off-site.

Using remote workers isn’t feasible for every business. If you have a retail store or run a warehouse, for instance, you need some employees physically on-site. But if you can use remote workers, you’ll save money on overhead expenses such as utilities.

The amount you save will vary, of course, depending on the degree to which you can go remote. At the low end, you could offer employees the chance to telecommute. Most people will consider this a perk and jump at the chance. To maximize your savings, designate one day a week as work-at-home day for everyone so you can close down the office.

You’ll save more if you can take all your employees remote. With this setup (sometimes called “virtual employees”), you don’t need an office at all because everyone works from home.

The biggest savings of all are realized by companies that rely solely on remote independent contractors. There’s no need for an office -- and no need to pay benefits, perks, or payroll taxes.

The challenge with remote employees and contractors is keeping everyone on the same page. Fortunately, there are plenty of options for doing this -- many of them low-cost or even free.

Some of the tech tools you’ll want include instant messaging for quick communication. AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger are the main options. If you don’t want customers to know you’re using remote employees, get one phone number they can use to reach anyone at the company. You can do this with virtual phone services such as Grasshopper or RingCentral.

You’ll also need a way to store and share files among remote workers, to coordinate projects, and to let multiple people collaborate on files. Some popular tools to consider for these tasks include Basecamp, Box.net, Google Apps, and Zoho.

Sometimes you’ll need to have meetings with your remote staff. If you’re all in the same general area, you can meet up in person at someone’s home, at a local Starbucks, or at an office rental facility (Regus is one company that offers short-term meeting rentals).

You can also teleconference, but if you’d like to get more personal, look into videoconferencing and Web conferencing. Lots of laptops have webcams built in, or you can buy them for less than $100, and they generally come with all the videoconferencing software you need. To take videoconferencing one step further, Web conferencing lets you share computer screens. Popular Web conferencing services include Citrix GoToMeeting and WebEx.

Before deciding to go remote, take the costs of equipment into account. If employees can work on their personal computers and already have all the software they’ll need, that’s great. But what if they don’t have the right software or other technology?

Also consider security issues. Will company data or customer information be adequately protected on employees’ personal computers? Talk to an IT consultant about these issues. Also talk to your business insurance agent to make sure you’re covered for injuries or security breaches that occur at a worker’s home.

Karen Axelton is chief content officer at GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Read more of her insights on small business at SmallBizDaily.