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The Ultimate Small Business Guide To Setting Up A ‘Work From Home’ Or Remote Network Access System For Your Staff
Critical Facts And Insider Secrets Every Business Owner Must Know Before Installing A 'Virtual Network' To Allow Employees To Work From Home, On The Road, Or From A Remote Office
If you are the owner of a small or medium sized business that is thinking about implementing a “work from home” program for your employees – or if you want to install a virtual network to enable you and certain key employees and managers to work on the road or from a remote office – DON’T - until you read this eye-opening guide. This report will explain in plain, non-technical terms: the best practices for setting up remote access for you and your staff, as well important questions you should ask any computer consultant to avoid the most common, costly mistakes made when setting up the technology for a work from home program.
You’ll Discover:
Dear Colleague, Imagine being able to get double the work out of your employees while simultaneously slashing overhead costs, padding your bottom line, and securing incredible loyalty from your staff. Sound too good to be true? I assure you it’s not… My name is Marcus and for over 10 years, I have provided business and technology consulting services to hundreds of small and medium businesses in the Dayton area. While it may seem like I’m making radical statements, I want you to know that I’m not a “radical person.” I’m a very grounded and conservative-minded technology consultant with a long track record of helping my clients enjoy more stress-free productivity, lowered costs, and competitive advantages. That’s why I am sharing this business advisory guide. There is a fast-growing trend among small and medium businesses that is drastically increasing productivity, cutting costs, and driving more profit to the bottom line. Is it a new management style or marketing trend? No - it’s telecommuting, which is a $5 word for allowing your staff to work from home, or while on the road. Sure, it doesn’t sound very impressive when you first hear it, but when you see the bottom line impact it has on profits and productivity -and when you talk to business owners who rave about how much money it’s saving them -you’ll start to see what all the excitement is about.
What Is Telecommuting And How Is It Going To Help My Business? Telecommuting is a fancy way of saying your employees are working from home, in remote offices, or while on the road. While this is not a new concept, recent advancements in remote access technology and security have made it very affordable and easy for even micro business owners.
Why would a business want to do this? Some businesses are being forced to because they’ve run out of office space, or to accommodate “road warriors.” But many are doing it for these reasons…
Common Myths, Mistakes, and Misconceptions About Allowing Your Employees To Work From Home One of the biggest fears many business owners have about allowing people to work from home is the loss of "control" they have over that person. They believe that without someone standing over them, employees will goof off during work hours and become LESS productive. But the hard results prove very different… Telecommuting has grown at a steady 3% per year for more than 15 years. Currently, more than 23 million people are working from home at least one day a week. The increase in teleworking programs is no accident – it really IS working. Admittedly, original telecommuting experiments were “do-gooder” projects focused on being earth friendly and generating business savings by reducing use of high priced big city office space. However, when businesses started seeing how it drastically improved turnover and productivity, this “fad” became a hot trend. Take the Los Angeles Bank for example; they decided to test telecommuting to see if it would help their 33% turnover rate. Here were the results… The experiment worked, and within a year the turnover rate was cut to nearly zero and much to everyone’s surprise, productivity went up 18% - saving the regional bank more than $3 million dollars per year. Since then there have been numerous, well documented, program studies reflecting promising results. For instance AT&T allowed employees to telecommute on a regular basis from home in a New Jersey office of 600 people. Over a 5 year period, a region of AT&T saved more than $11 million annually. Half of the savings came from real estate savings while the other came from a measured increase in incremental work hours from employees who were able to have a higher level of concentration with fewer interruptions.
You’re probably thinking, “But I don’t have 600 employees…how does this apply to me?” No matter how small your business or your real estate situation, you can save money. It’ll just be a bit smaller than AT&T. For instance: On average, small businesses report saving $85,000 to $93,000 per year in lower turnover, reduced operating costs (gas, utilities, office space) and increased productivity after implementing teleworking programs. (Source: International Teleworking Advocacy Group) Of course, telecommuting might not be right for every employee on staff, but it is a great option (and reward) for key managers or employees who are self-motivated and measured by results, rather than hours worked.
The Single Most Important Thing You Must Have In Place Before Starting A Work From Home Program Or Setting Up Remote Access For Road Warriors Before you go “whole hog” with a telecommuting or remote access, we recommend conducting a small test where you (and possibly a couple of managers) are set up to work from home. Once you are comfortable with the concept, you may start allowing a few key employees to work from home one day a week, or a couple of days a month. Or, you can simply allow employees to use it while traveling, or if they are forced to stay home to take care of a child - on a snow day, etc. But, the single most important thing for you to do first... is find a very experienced IT consultant who will recommend and implement the right technology to support YOUR specific situation and needs. This is unbelievably important for avoiding expensive mistakes and unnecessary frustration.
8 CRITICAL Characteristics You Should Absolutely DEMAND From Any IT Professional You’re Considering To Set-up Your Remote Office Technology; DO NOT Trust Your Infrastructure To Anyone Who Does Not Meet These Criteria!
There is no "one size fits all" solution; the best solution is greatly dependent on your specific business needs, the applications you use, how many people will be accessing your systems remotely, the available equipment and dozens of other factors. That's why you want to look for a consultant who meets the following criteria:
Do you really want to be the person who “pays” for your consultant’s training? I’ve found that the price to correct problems created by novices is much greater than the cost to do it right the first time with an experienced technician. Ask for recent references and call them! Past performance is generally a good gauge of future performance.
If your consultant doesn't’t insist on doing a thorough evaluation BEFORE handing you a proposal, do NOT hire them! If they don’t do their homework they could easily sell you the wrong solution, causing you to have to spend MORE money, MORE time, and have MORE frustration getting to what you really need. Most consultants will do a quick, cursory review and provide a free recommendation (proposal) because they want to close the deal fast. Here is a short list of the things they should investigate or ask you:
Many computer consultants are great at installing the “stuff” but fall short on training you and your staff how to use the great “whiz-bang” technology they just sold you. Make sure you hire someone who is able and willing to do the “hand holding” required when installing any new process or technology…we’re only human after all.
One of the main appeals to teleworking is the ability to work at night or on weekends; that means you need someone to be “on-call” during those off-peak hours if you or your employees have technical problems logging in or accessing the network. Bottom line, if your consultant doesn't offer after-hours support, don’t hire them to do the job. There is no benefit to having remote access if you have to wait until Monday or 9:00 a.m. of the next day for support.
Virtual office networks require more 'care and feeding' to make sure they work properly and stay secure. You cannot "set it and forget it” or you’re asking for problems. Only hire someone who is prepared to perform regular check-ups and updates of your network, usually under a maintenance or managed services plan.
If you want your work-from-home employee to be able to make and receive calls and APPEAR as though they are in the office to the caller, then look for someone who can set up your phone system to work with your remote employee’s home phone or cell phone. Usually this can be accomplished with VoIP technology (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Confirm that whoever you hire can either provide these services or has a partnership with a reputable vendor who has this expertise.
It’s amazing how many critical applications work fine within the office network, but then slow down or shutdown when accessed through a remote location. It’s important to ensure your consultant is able and willing to confirm your applications will operate efficiently remotely, which means they may need to get on the phone with the help desk of one or more of your software vendors. Some consultants do NOT offer this service, or will charge you extra for it.
It’s more difficult (but not impossible) to protect company secrets and proprietary information when it’s stored on a location outside of your office. Therefore, make sure the company you hire has expertise in setting up and managing content filtering and security for remote machines.
Not Sure If You Are Ready To Set Up Remote Access? As a prospective client, we’d like to offer you a free Remote Access Consultation. At no charge, we will come to your office to review your current situation, business practices and needs and provide recommendations on how you can quickly and easily set up remote access for you and your staff. We will also discuss your options, clarify any gray areas, and answer any questions you have. We will also map out the costs and steps involved so you know exactly what to expect. You are under no obligations to do or buy anything; this is simply our way of introducing our services to you and demonstrating how we can make your remote access project a complete success. Plus we’ll give you a FREE “Home Office Action Pack” just for meeting with us! This package includes:
What To Do Now To request your Free Remote Access Consultation and FREE Home Office Action Pack,” do one of the following:
Megan, from our office, will call you schedule a convenient time for us to meet for 20 minutes. Remember, there is no obligation for you to buy or do anything – this is simply a discovery meeting to see if remote access is right for you.
Sincerely, Marcus Thompson Director IT Consulting Expedient Technology Solutions 937-855-7659
P.S. If you would like to speak to a few client references prior to our meeting, simply contact us and we’ll be happy to provide the names and phone numbers for several clients we’ve worked with.
P.P.S. Please make sure you browse around here our web site to see the incredible 100% Money-Back Guarantee that we put on our services. You won’t find another IT consultant in Dayton who is confident enough in their services to put as bold a guarantee in writing as the one we have.
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