How Technology Is Changing Work Patterns - Web2, Cloud ...

Guest post by Michelle Dale

Online business is a fairly new concept in the grand scheme of things, but from the way technology is changing and allowing us to adapt to an abundance of situations, teamed with the shaky global economy, it?s also one of the fastest growing ways to make a living.

Since 2005 I have been able to work entirely online, but since then my mission has been taking my business entirely paperless, and from 2007, in less than 2 short years, that was all made possible.

Limitless Possibilities

Part of what I love about working online is utilising technology to create that offline environment through the internet. The possibilities this can open up for my clients are limitless, in many cases allowing them to staff their business entirely online, to have all their business systems backed up in the cloud, and to? service their clients and customers through the internet. There are so many benefits to this (if you have an internet connection) including being able to work from anywhere in the world, with anyone in the world, and to be completely mobile. Not only this, moving your business online can be very cost-effective, and operations costs tend to be very low when you shop around for the best systems to fit your individual business needs.

This is where hiring an experienced online business consultant or manager can come in very handy, for example when clients hire me I can take a bird?s-eye look at their business operations and systems, with some very specific goals in mind, the first is moving everything digital, the second is saving them money, the third is making the daily operations more efficient, and finally giving them the support they need to operate effectively in their new online environment.

Virtual Assistant

Technology is making what seems like almost anything possible. Over the years, with the rise of virtual assistants and teams and online selling, we are able to work like never before. We?re replacing physical contracts with online ones that need to be signed with digital signatures, we?re moving the old style ?bookkeeping? from books into state-of-the-art online accounting systems, automating transactions via bank feeds, we?re no longer providing physical invoices or writing cheques, we?re sending digital invoices with interactive buttons allowing people to pay online.

Online trends show we?re now moving our traditional advertising and marketing from billboards, newspapers and magazine into social media, with Twitter and Facebook becoming a hive of activity with billions of users all doing business together. Take this a step further and traditional offline networking events are being replaced with webinars and online summits, and now rather than handing over a business card, we?re providing potential customers and clients links to our LinkedIn or Plaxo profiles. Online we?re reaching a much wider audience than has ever been possible before.

Digital Nomad

I am a digital nomad, which means that I?m moving around the world, without a home base. Often times I never know where I?ll be from one year to the next, but this doesn?t impact the operations of my business in any way ? this is a very powerful and liberating way to run a business, because it allows the kind of freedom a physical business could never offer. For example, since 2005 I have made all my calls ? local and international, online using Skype, for a fraction of the cost that I would have been charged by a phone company. I?ve been using a travel sim card so no matter where I am, I can receive calls on the same local rate mobile number, from anywhere in the world free of charge.

If you are running a business and you think it?s not possible to move your operations online, it?s well worth exploring the possibilities before dismissing anything, because in all likelihood what you?ve read has only slightly touched on the technology available, and there is so much more to discover.

Michelle Dale is an accomplished online business consultant and virtual assistant who has been in the industry for 7 years, developing her business while travelling through 6 countries. Along the way she met her husband and now has 2 children. Michelle has expanded www.virtualmissfriday.com into a multi-6 figure, multi-VA team supporting a global client base. In addition to working with clients she now mentors colleagues in the industry with achieving their own online service business goals through her business programmes, resources and one-on-one mentorship which can be found at www.thevaroadmap.com.

Source: http://www.web2andmore.net/2013/01/25/how-technology-is-changing-work-patterns/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-technology-is-changing-work-patterns

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