Virtual companies are now part of the mainstream business landscape. While the vast majority of organizations take a bricks and mortar approach, businesses with no real estate beyond bits and bytes are finding their niche as well. Internet only companies also face some unique staffing and personnel problems.

Since staff members are often far from the virtual head office, cell phones and pagers become part of their working life. Along with e-mail, company wikis, and instant messengers, the employee may feel they are always on call. Respecting the employee's time, and not calling them multiple times per day, builds trust and a happier relationship. When a worker feels trusted, they are more likely to complete the assignment than if they feel micromanaged to an extreme. That sense of a staffer never having any time off the clock is a growing issue in all organizations. In virtual companies, it can be fatal to the business.



With virtual companies, partners and staff members may be located across the country, or even around the world. Simply organizing discussion times and workload schedules requires a knowledge and a feel for different time zones. The three hour difference between Eastern Time and Pacific Time can be enormous in practice. When it's 8:00 am in New York, it is still only 5:00 am in Los Angeles. Calling a west coast based staff person at that hour can cause hard feelings and resentment. Calls to more distant time zones may create even worse issues. Knowing and respecting different time zones is vital to good staff relationships.

Setting specific meeting times keeps everyone in touch and on the same page. Conference calls via telephone or virtual meeting software facilitate two way conversation as well as providing vital feedback to management. Simply sending orders by emails or terse phone calls is not enough for maintaining good long distance staff relations. Without that sense of being heard and that feedback is invited, the employee will feel isolated. The result will be lower productivity at best, and complete failure to finish assignments at worst. The staff person may even leave the company entirely. Maintaining two way conversation is vital to a good relationship.



Sometimes, there is no substitute to live meetings and personal interaction. Be sure to arrange some in person meetings with staff members. Even once a year at the head office, with everyone in attendance, can build stronger staff bonds. A policy retreat at a neutral location can also work wonders for team building.

While successful virtual companies exist, where no staff members or management have ever seen one another, those business bonds are much more powerful meeting face to face. Not everyone can function equally online. Old fashioned personal contact is essential for a successful company in the longer term.



When organizing a virtual company, it is important to realize that not everyone shares the same online personality. Some people are as happy and productive without any contact as they are in a traditional workplace environment. Other staffers require a more hands on and personal approach. All people need their personal time respected and boundaries drawn between work time and their home life.

By taking a people first approach, a virtual entrepreneur will maintain great staff relationships. The employees will be happier and more productive when treated with respect. In that way, some things never really change. People are all different, and require a personal touch.

Online or offline, good staff relations are essential to your success. Treat people with respect, and they will help you build a profitable and growing virtual company.

Tags: virtual companies, personnel management, entrepreneurship, relationship building.

READ MORE - Virtual companies: Long distance employees

Delegating responsibility and decision making are some of the most difficult actions for many entrepreneurs. Having started the business, from an idea on paper to its current status as a growing company, the owner has a real emotional involvement in the organization.

As a result of this attachment, letting go of all decision making involves more than simply passing some paper to another employee. The emotional aspect of management must be considered as well. All too often, the personal feelings of the entrepreneur prevent taking the proper course of action.

As a company grows, the number of responsibilities grow right along with it. Not only do the number of departments expand, but their size and scope increases as well. Taken together, managing all departments and staff within the organization becomes too much for any one person. No one possesses the time or skills required for each and every job in the business. Delegation of responsibility is essential. It is here that problems can arise that can hurt the company's performance.



The entrepreneur has built the company from the beginning and treats it almost as a family member. Choices made for growth, purchases, expansion, and marketing are not always based on economic conditions or enhancing return on investment. There will very often be snap decisions made on the spot, with or without full understanding of the circumstances or complete data. Some of these crucial decisions must be handed to other managers within the company. The lone wolf business owner is often very reluctant to do so.

Having built the company from the ground up can inflate an ego. The sense of being the only expert becomes the owner's creed. This mistaken idea is often accompanied by the nagging back of the mind fear of loss of control. Emotional reactions to needed delegation are common. This ownership fear must be mastered if the company is to move forward into the future. Instead of acting emotionally, the owner must attempt a rational and practical approach.



A good way to start in the delegation process is to talk with the affected managers as a group and as individuals. Defining the company's goals, and asking for input into achieving them creates new ideas and develops trust and two way communication. Armed with the organizational goals, the manager can assess the departmental situation and apply an appropriate course of action. The owner can delegate the decision making activity confident that the overall company goals are being kept in sight.

As successful decisions appear, one after another, the entrepreneur will develop confidence in the managerial level choices. The managers will enjoy the confidence of the owner, and their own self esteem will rise with their successes. Overall, the company bottom line is enhanced.



Mistakes will happen as well. It is at these crucial moments that the owner must place confidence in the process. The error was not made from the act of delegation, but from the choice made by the manager. Mistakes are part of the learning process. The business owner must recognize that no real growth is possible without some missteps along the way. Use the error as a teaching tool, and even better and more profitable decisions will follow.

Pulling back the authority is often the emotional response, and is also a mistake. Employees will hunker down and avoid any mistakes. They will also be much less productive, and that will damage the company seriously. Removing decision making authority, like the initial failure to delegate, is also a mistake. This is where building mutual trust is so important to success. Trust allows for mistakes and for alternative ideas and creative thinking.

Delegation of authority involves letting go of fears. Once those fears and sense of loss of power are eliminated, the company and its people are ready to move to even greater heights.

Everyone wins when decision making is shared among the staff.

Tags: management, decision making, delegating responsibility, mistakes.

READ MORE - Management techniques: Delegating responsibility

Bloggers are connectors. Everyone who creates a blog, and shares part of the world of citizen publishing and citizen broadcasting. There is much more to the relationships than simple connections. People are more than dots on a map. They are your friends, clients, customers, business partners, and extended family.

Whether writers, video blog developers, or verbal podcasters, bloggers do much more than just connect the dots. Bloggers form and build relationships far beyond anyone's imagination. In fact, so many crucial and life changing blog seeded relationships have been created that no one even thinks about it any longer. The multi-faceted interaction is now almost taken for granted.



An entirely new business model is emerging as a direct result of the blogosphere's relationship developing power. As with so many new technological developments, countless unexpected and wonderful things flow forth in abundance. One of these powerful outcomes is the blogger business partnership. Bloggers who have never met one another in person are forming online companies and establishing conferences. More importantly, the people are working together successfully.

How did all of this business activity take place? The business partners met through their respective blogs. The primary introduction, sharing and the important trust factor were formed and nurtured through shared blog posts, comments, and emails. Over time, the relationship blossomed into friendship and a full fledged business establishment was the happy event. Had the participants not been bloggers, there is only a minute chance their paths would have crossed in the offline world. Even if the people had met in person, the friendship pattern might have taken a much different course. The blog was the crucial catalyst.



As a business model, the blogger connection group is only in its infancy. Still in diapers, the blogger formed business has a long way to grow. That is great news for prospective entrepreneurs. The market for shared online services is growing, and is untapped to any real extent. The opportunities for bloggers, who have clicked on some deeper level, to share their talents and skills is only in the beginning stages. The initial hesitant baby steps toward blogger based companies have only started to appear online. There will be more bold movements in the future.

Bloggers are connectors, and it may be due to the personalities and traits that bloggers share together. The desire and urge to write and share ideas and thoughts with the world are characteristics all bloggers have in common. As a result, bloggers are often kindred spirits, and may connect on a much deeper level than with other people.

Meeting a blogger, with whom you have read, written, and shared thoughts, is like meeting an old friend. It may also be meeting a new business partner.

Bloggers are connectors. New entrepreneurial businesses are often the happy response, to those modest meetings, that started with a humble blog posting.

Tags: entrepreneurship, business blogging, connections, releationship building.

READ MORE - Connections: Bloggers plus dots equal business

Talk of recession is appearing with greater frequency in the mainstream media. For most business people, any thought of possible economic downturn is a frightening prospect. Instead of lamenting that the world is ending, or entertaining similar apocalyptic fears, it's time to consider business opportunities that will arise during a recession.

The first thing for an entrepreneur to do, when considering business prospects for harder times, is think of what needs may emerge. Recessions mean lower employment levels, difficulty in personal and company bill paying, lower numbers of customers, foreclosures of homes and businesses, and a trend to cutting operating and capital costs. All of these scenarios present business opportunities for an entrepreneur. They are not simply profits from preying on hardship either, but are very often business and credit savers for others.



Unemployed people need assistance in finding new jobs. You could consider starting an employment agency, a life coaching service, a personal image consultancy, job skills training, or a resume writing service. Helping people become employed is a public service as you help other companies find talented staff people. A job is the best social program in existance, and a potential life saver for the person landing the new position.

Helping companies increase their customer lists and boost their sales success is a powerful form of consulting service. Working with business owners and staff on enhancing sales and marketing skills, improved public relations, and better customer service will boost the organization's bottom line. It will also keep people employed and even add more staff members. Along with sales and marketing advice, new idea brainstorming sessions could be offered to creative minded companies.



Homes and businesses will fall into payment arrears, and face foreclosure. Purchasing troubled properties will save the former home owner's credit, and provide business in the contracting industry. At the same time, unprofitable businesses are prime candidates for turnarounds.

Not only does the acquisition of a company save the organization from extinction, but preserves most of the jobs connected with it as well. Lowering operating and overhead costs, as well as improving accounts payable and receivable are all potential business services.

Many companies will elect to contract out many departments, ranging from accounting to law to personnel to marketing. A nimble entrepreneur will be able to pick up that work on a contract basis. Be sure to keep an eye open for entire departments being spun off of from major corporations as stand alone businesses. Many such opportunities for spin off acquisitions from corporations, along with the accompanying brand recognition and existing goodwill, will take place too.

Business opportunities for entrepreneurs are limitless, even during a recession. Don't let an economic downturn keep you from adding new business ventures to your own company. The money making ideas are just different from those in economic boom times. The cash flow spends just as well though.

Tags: economic recession, entrepreneurship, business ideas, acquisitions.

READ MORE - Business ideas: Recession entrepreneurship opportunities