Shift8 Creative Graphic Design and Website Development

So over my lunch break I had a thought...How incredibly awesome is it to run a web design/development agency completely online where employees work from remote? Comments on this very welcome. I think it's an interesting subject. 

So think about it. As a developer/designer, I can do my job remote (well I do actually). I can do it perfectly because I have communication equipment like a telephone and the internet. Heck, a telephone isn't even required, we have Skype and instant messenger and e-mail...But I guess we won't have "Wave" anymore. Haha, I had to mention that. Anyway, that's plenty. Does it increase communication when you work side by side another developer or project manager? No, because you can't look at them, you need to look at your screen. You can't interact so well with your hands because you need them to type. So in order to write on a white board or have an engaging conversation you need to step away from your computer. Just the act of walking across an office is also a waste of time and a distraction.

Distractions at the office...Oh boy here we go. When you have an office full of people who are fun to be around you do have happy workers, true. Happy workers are more productive, it's been proven somewhere. However, you also have watercooler chatter and people sending around YouTube links and coming over to other people's desks to be social. It's all non-productive time that slowly and in an untraceable fashion eats away at a company's efficiency. In turn you can connect the dots...Hours are logged for work on projects where work isn't done, clients are in turn charged, the agency gets skewed numbers and has to charge clients more on the next project...The estimates are off...More employees are hired than needed and in the down times it leads to wasted resources/employees.

Ok ok that's a little extreme to be all stemming from slap ass in the office. However, you also have meetings in the office where people run late and you have a room half full of people who can't exactly leave...So now you tied those people up instead of them continuing to work while they wait for a meeting that would be happening in front of their computer. You also don't have the urgency to be quick with the meeting because it's very comfortable to sit in a different chair at a meeting desk and give your eyes a break from the computer. More chit chat and slap ass. I mean who seriously has productive meetings? With websites and the internet we also are very easily off on tangents in meetings. It's a very very technical thing so there's a million places to get off topic and often those tangents are valid. So the solution? Ah... the "pre" meeting. The meeting about the meeting. To me that's like pre-gaming before going to a bar. I personally think it completely defeats the purpose in the first place and it doesn't work. The idea of drinking before going to a bar is that you'll have a buzz and won't need to buy as much at the bar which charges more money. Has that ever really worked for anyone?? I bet more times than not pre-gaming results in you praying to the porcelain god or you don't even up going out or you end up going out later that you miss out on quality time at the bar being more social.

So we have all these inefficiencies at work. Now working remote has its downside too...People could take longer than usual lunch breaks without being noticed...Of course that also could happen if you're working at an actual office as well. People can just the same watch YouTube videos. So many of the inefficiencies are the same and there's some different ones too. So what's the difference? On the case of efficiency which is better?

In fact, I find myself more productive working from home. There's far less distractions so I'm not interrupted and I don't feel the need to run over and chat with a co-worker. Could I hop on Facebook and start chatting to people? Sure, but I could do that at work too. Only if I was going to go do some online shopping, I now don't need to hide the window from anyone walking by. I can do my shopping faster and not be constantly distracted.

Let's face it. No matter where a person works, part of their work day (in today's day and age with computers) will include time for their personal life. Even companies that block certain sites, people then spend hours trying to figure out clever ways around the security. Great. Even worse. Plus, you don't want to spend all the time and money setting up software to restrict people from web sites and if you're a web design agency, you could screw yourself in doing so.

When you work on your own time and from a quiet area you are more productive, no question about it.

Ok, productivity let's call it a tie or in favor of working remote, right? I think it's better, but all the arguments against it are very easily rebutted and also go for working in house.

How about cost? Here's where it gets really interesting. How much is office rent? $3,000? $7,000? $12,000 a month? It all depends on location and size of the office. In fact some businesses want to be in an accessible position to make it easy for employees and clients to get to. The real estate market knows this and it'll charge you dearly for it. So immediately you're put into a crap position and we don't really remember this after settling and before even hunting for an office to rent. We also expect this. It's our expectations...A lot of this entire debate has to do with expectations.

Speaking of expectations, why don't companies like the idea of people working remote? It's expectations and control. A company believes that it controls its employees better when they are under the same roof. See, they don't trust you. Most people don't trust developers and designers. It's a black art. It's something people don't understand and there's just as many games (probably more) to play as there is in the real estate market. So you want that office in the center of town? Oh well now you're paying double. Whereas we say, oh you want that web site for this well known company? Oh well that's going to cost extra...Uh, no it's not the "same" as the site for Joe the Plumber...Uh, it's made special...Yea... 

So there's always a control and trust game no matter what you do...But the expectations of employers and this game is what I believe prevents more companies from working in this remote manner.

Ok so back to costs. Well we have our rent, we have now utilities. Ah, you need to carry insurance on your premises too...Oh and the phone lines you'll need a few of them. Internet and of course computers. Oh wait, desks, chairs, desk lamps, paper, printers, printer ink, pens, storage containers/filing systems, DVDs/CDs, hey maybe even a shared network drive and backup server ... <breath> ... have a kitchen? Paper towels, our trusty watercooler, delivery charge for water, cleaning products, bathroom supplies...The list goes on and you get it.

Wipe all that away. Office rent, supplies, etc. You can hire another employee or two for the cost of all that depending on the size and location of your office and company. Assuming you're a small agency. Think about bigger companies, that only multiplies.

You still should probably buy computers for each employee. I'd personally recommend going to Best Buy or NewEgg or something and grabbing a $600-$900 laptop. For web design it's plenty of power. I'd also put Linux on there. This is really to each their own but, going with the idea of running a super lean web design agency, I'd go for Linux and open source software. GIMP for starters and other editors for writing code that are free. Maybe you spring for the Apple laptop and Adobe Creative Suite for a designer or two. 

Here's another clever thing. Now that your employees are working remote, you don't care where they work from for the most part (maybe you do for security, but again hard to enforce with a laptop)...I say let them go work from the coffee shop. Slap a sticker of your company's logo on each computer before sending it out to the employees. Get a specially designed case. Now you have free advertising. It's the equivalent to wrapping your car with advertising...You get to write it off too.

This leads us to security. Well, is it really secure if the employee was working from the office anyway? Remember, everything we access is online. The work is most likely in a repository online and the web site is well...Online. So location is irrelevant. Security measures can be put into place so that if an employee ever lost or had their laptop stolen they could immediately call in or e-mail an account with a special subject line and have all the passwords changed for their user immediately. You could implement any number of simple and effective security measures here. 

What other benefits? Ah, those utilities and phone lines and internet. Well, more likely than not your employee will have internet in their home for their own personal use. Broadband of course. So you can decide to be kind and perhaps give them a partial reimbursement...Maybe you get them a cell phone, maybe not. It's not needed, you have the internet. I'd personally say you provide your own internet and phone that we can reach you at as part of the contract. It's really not something people will put up a fuss about because internet is unlimited usage these days (realistically) and so is phone usage and they're going to need both for their personal use anyway.

You don't pay their home electricity bill...Well you do, but you do either way if you look at it like that. You don't pay for renter's insurance or if they get injured while they are in their own home. Something tells me worker comp claims are super low for web design agencies too.

Think about contractors, you can hire contractors on a temporary basis and ship them a laptop. You 1099 them and take the laptop back when their contract is up. Since you aren't requiring them to come into your office or work normal hours and there is no standing assumption that they will continue to be your employee, you can run with 1099. You couldn't do that as easily otherwise. Pat yourself on the back for saving money.

Hell, let your employees keep their laptops. Why not? They were cheap and ever few years you're going to need to upgrade them anyway. Also think about the time it takes to re-format it and set it up for the next employee. Want to be an ass? Let the employee buy it from you for a discounted rate or work it in as part of their "hiring bonus."

So, have I gone far enough with this? What am I forgetting? Also let's realize and assume (ha, here we go with expectations again) that people are generally honest. They will typically be working when you would expect them to be working. They will worry about not doing enough, especially because working from remote isn't common and they might even feel even more pressured to deliver good results. For a long while when I first started working from home, I couldn't help but think what my bosses were thinking. Did they think I was actually working? I felt that I had this huge thing to prove and worked extra hard. Now maybe that's just me, but you also can tell if an employee is working or not. You can tell from what they are producing. Of course this means you need to eyeball the product that goes out the door, but that's a whole other situation that doesn't even have anything to do with working from remote or from the same office.

I think in today's world, web design and development is just simply a business that can be run virtually. In fact trying to apply it to old working techniques makes for a far less efficient business. There are so many things that don't simply translate. Even laws don't apply to certain things. I believe everything is just behind and not ready to handle this kind of work in a proper manner. So hopefully more companies will get on board with the work from remote game plan. Thoughts??