Ever fancy waking up when you wanted to, having time to make a light breakfast, sip on that steaming cup of coffee while gazing out of the windows at the calm skies or the high-rise buildings ... on a Monday morning?
Well, yeah, that ain’t gonna happen. Pandemic or not — every day is a hustle. However, you can master the art of working from home.
The line between work life and personal life disappears quicker when WFH, so establish your hours and try your best to stick to them.
Many of us have had to take a crash course in working from home over the past month or so. We’ve learned that it’s not all just a juggling act with the cat jumping on your keyboard, your kids making you pull your hair, or making sure your boxers aren’t exposed in the next Zoom call. It’s much more than that.
After having built my career in various industries like manufacturing, retail, advertising, marketing, food, beverage and telecommunications, I decided to jump into the world of ecommerce, and I was at a very unusual crossroads. Over the course of the last seven years, I am fortunate to have somewhat mastered the art of WFH. Between running operations across seven seas, managing teams in four countries/time zones, and occasional international trips, we have built up our operations from the ground up to be sturdy, efficient, lean and profitable.
Let’s take a look at the pros of WFH:
- Cuts costs of real estate/office rents and maintenance
- Reduces commute time
- Makes you more efficient as you start your day earlier and work flexible hours
- Improves time management skills
Assuming you are already established in your business model, the following tips can be adapted or modified until you arrive at a WFH model that’s suitable for your lifestyle:
1. Set business hours for yourself: No matter if you are working from home, set your work hours. It is easy to get absorbed in your tasks and the line between work life and personal life disappears quicker when WFH, so establish your hours and try your best to stick to them.
2. Set rules for communication: If it's a detailed discussion that needs follow-up, use email. Shorter discussions that may require back and forth, or quicker responses, use IM or any chat app. Get on the phone only if absolutely necessary. Communication is always best handled in written format. Set your communication preferences with the team, so they know when and how/when to get ahold of you.
3. Make a list: Yea, this old-school formula always works. You could list your tasks for the day, and group them by priority — such as 9 a.m.-1 p.m. for top priority, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. for the mid priority and save low priority for at the end of work shift.
4. Have a virtual wall: Maintain your work within a designated work space.
5. Organize smart meetings (when needed): When you have to get the team on a meeting, it can be accomplished by many of the audio/video conferencing features built in most communication apps, else try Zoom, Google Hangout, etc. Set a proper agenda for the meeting, which has the topics to be discussed and the flow of information, along with an intro that summarizes the purpose of the meeting.
6. Team Management: Use a project management app that centralizes communication, discussions, timelines and task assignment along with priorities. Try to switch off from using emails for task assignment and management and use the PM apps instead. My recommendation is Basecamp, its one of the simplest, most intuitive and easy to figure out PM apps.
7. Use dropshippers or fulfillment warehouse: Yes, buying in bulk is probably economical, but if you have good sales volume, work out a deal with your distributor and ask for discounts that equal to the value they provide by warehousing, packaging, stock management and shipping. Usually if the price you pay is about 20-25 percent on top of wholesale costs, that's a good partnership and eliminates a major time intensive activity of operations. We use Entrenue, Holiday Products and WIlliams Trading. They all do a great job and offer competitive pricing.
8. Outsource/Collaborate: We decided to keep only the core team inhouse, which is customer service, sales and operations. The rest we have been outsourcing and collaborating with experts who have good reputation and reviews. Try Fiver for the most suitable bunch of freelancers and professionals alike.
With the time and cost-savings that WFH brings, I have been able to offset three or four of my international trips every year.
Stay safe my friends, and look forward to a new era of doing business. We are lucky that we are the ones who get to shape it for the coming generations.
Raj Armani is the COO and co-founder of online retailer ImBesharam.
