How it all started
In the last 5 years digital nomads have become a global cultural phenomenon. Since we first read about Nomadlist (best places to live and work remotely) on websites such as Wired, we were inspired by the potential of working with global clients from anywhere in the world and the profound impact this could have in the quality of our working life.
Even setting aside the nomadic lifestyle for a moment (which is not for everyone and also not a prerequisite for doing remote work), we found that working from a virtual office can alleviate a great deal of work-related stress. Moreover, having a distributed team and no formal workplace allowed us to negate a great deal of mental and emotional strain that comes from the intricacies of running a company.
The benefits
1. More flexibility equals less stress running a company
When starting a business you are bound to quickly realize that overhead expenses, and especially the flexibility to lower them or increase them as you go, is one of the most crucial things for keeping your company afloat and your stress levels in check.
These are all the types of ongoing expenses such as renting an office, paying for accounting, social contributions etc. that although they are not directly related to the cost of paying your team, building your product, or providing your service; end up being the majority of your monthly burn rate.
By building a fully remote, distributed team of top talented people, we made our business leaner and more flexible, while minimizing the stress from the responsibilities that come with it.
2. Remote work relationships are equally (if not more) purposeful
It might sound counterintuitive at first, but by setting aside people and opportunities that naturally happen to be around you, you get to connect straight to those people who can make a difference in your life. Are you looking to work with tech-savvy entrepreneurs, enthusiastic micro-brand owners and generally the type of people that are driven by passion and dedication to succeed?
You will find that in business (just like in life), like-minded people tend to attract each other, and even more so when you remove the location proximity filter. Culture and values matter. And having an intellectual and cultural affinity to the people that you work with, is a recipe for meaningful, long-term business relationships.
3. Getting to work with a diverse pool of top talent not available to traditional employers
For most companies and job seekers, recruiting is a difficult and draining process that spans across weeks or months at a time. By tapping into a talent pool not available to traditional employers, we managed to streamline our process, save ourselves the stress, and get to work with some incredible top-talented individuals.
We believe that the idea of “acquiring” talent is a thing of the past. From our own experience, people working in 9 to 5 traditional jobs are often under-utilized. Because of that, it matters little what their actual level of skill is.
As a fully virtual digital agency, we do not aim to selfishly “acquire people” and take them off the market for a flat rate. Instead, we build long-term working relationships with a team of top talented individual contributors, that are often based in different countries.
4. Building your work life around your personal goals helps increase productivity
It’s undeniable that our professional life is a big part of our personal identity and consumes the majority of our time each day. Building a successful professional life around your modern lifestyle and personal goals should be the norm, not the exception.
If you as an individual cherish diversity, strive for better work-life balance, and have an urge to see the world through your own eyes, then working remotely will give you the flexibility to achieve your goals and provide a platform for better time utilization and increased productivity.
5. Operating from a virtual office saves you the daily work commute and unlocks opportunities
Daily work commute is one of the biggest sources of work related expenses, daily stress and underutilized time each year. The worldwide average for daily work commute is 40 minutes with people in many major cities (such as London) spending almost twice as much each day.
By operating from a virtual office you can maximize the use of your time, avoid the unnecessary traffic jams or subway noise, and save the extra money for something meaningful.
Moreover, co-working spaces and the ability to work from different locations offer amazing networking opportunities and put you in close proximity of various business networking events.