7 Tips to Succeed at a Startup When You’re Working From Afar
Startups often offer employees more flexibility than traditional companies. Rather than be confined to a cubicle in a corporate office building, many startup employees can work from any location with a reliable internet connection. For some, working from anywhere can turn from an occasional bonus to a permanent lifestyle if their jobs become fully remote.
Remote work can have amazing perks but also comes with pretty big challenges. One moment you’re relishing the freedom and the next you suddenly find yourself wondering where work stops and where your personal life begins. Because of the autonomy remote work allows, to make the most of it, you really have to figure out both what works for you as an individual and what works best for your team.
Follow these steps to avoid the common pitfalls and conquer working remotely like a champ.
For yourself.
Establish a routine.
In the early days of working remotely, the abundant freedom can quickly knock you off of your usual work game. Working where you want, how you want, and possibly when you want can quickly go from amazing to overwhelming.
One tried and true way to regain a sense of control and normalcy is to establish a daily routine that works for you. For some remote workers, that means getting up, getting fully dressed and having breakfast just the same as if they were headed into an office. For others that can mean starting the day by getting right to work, and then squeezing in a workout and shower at lunch time.
Whatever it is, try to have a daily routine, completely different from what you do on days off or weekends to mentally signal to yourself that it’s time for work.
Location, location, location.
One crucial element to finding your routine is deciding the best location for you to work. That might mean creating a home office space in your apartment. You might prefer to set up shop on your couch, your bed, or kitchen table.
Just because you work remotely doesn’t mean you have to work from home. For some people, working and living in the same space can cause stress and take away their ability to fully decompress and relax during time off. In that case, a coffee shop, your local library, or even a museum might be the best move. Lastly, if you crave the familiarity of working in an office, you should speak to your manager about renting a desk in a local coworking space.
There’s no right answer, it’s simply about finding the location that allows you to be the most focused and efficient at completing your projects. It may take trying a few different places before you find the right work location for you.
Find a tribe locally.
Humans are social creatures by nature. Even if you are more introverted and crave solitude, working remotely can turn into working lonely. Really fast. Make sure you’re still getting regular, steady human contact.
If you choose to work from a coworking space, take the opportunity to meet the people working around you. You might find other people working remotely who understand the joys and struggles of an atypical work arrangement. It will also allow you to connect with other players in your city’s local startup ecosystem.
Beyond coworking, join a local meetup or professional group for your industry or specialty. This gives you the chance to both network locally and build up your professional contacts and to learn from others working on similar challenges.
For your team.
There is no such thing as over communicating.
We all tend to have an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to life. When you work remotely, this can come back to bite you. If your colleagues and managers can’t see what you’re doing all day, they may start to assume that’s because you’re doing nothing. It’s unfortunate, but it’s human nature. But the good news is that because it is such a common thought process, it’s really easy for you to work around it.
The key to avoiding this pitfall is to over communicate on your projects and work. At the start of your work remote arrangement, err on the side of sharing more information, not less. Don’t assume that your manager or team knows what’s going on. Tell them.
With your manager, make sure they have no questions about what you’re working on and your progress. Blind copy them on emails as an FYI on your projects. If you’d normally have just one weekly check-in, consider having two — one on Monday to lay out your priorities and one on Thursday to update them on the current status of your projects. Whichever frequency you choose, insist on having regular status meetings and check-ins with your manager, even if their schedule is pretty busy. In fact, if your manager is super busy, that’s even more reason to make sure they’re fully aware of what you’re working on and that your work is in line with their overall priorities for the team.
With the rest of your team, consider doing a digital check-in regularly to lay out what you’re working on for the day. Every Friday when Team VFA works remotely, each member of the Marketing team sends a quick update on Slack with the projects we’re working on for the day. It helps keep us accountable and also lets the rest of the team know what they can expect on certain projects.
Don’t go ghost.
Along the same lines, it’s important to communicate not just what you’re working on but how you’re working. Make sure your team knows when and how to reach you. Be available and responsive online. Respond to instant messages within a few minutes. If you can’t, make sure you explain to your colleague what you were doing that caused the delay. A simple “sorry, I was on a call” will go a long way to give your team confidence that you’re not spending your work time on personal pursuits.
If you’re going to work a schedule different from the rest of the team at your company’s homebase, make sure you clear it with your manager first and let everyone know. You don’t want people messaging you with questions at 4:30 if you’ve decided on a 7 am — 3 pm schedule.
If you need to step away from work during the day, be transparent about it. Set an appropriate status on your team’s instant messaging platform. Mark your calendar to show that you’re away. Try to align your breaks with the natural rhythms of the rest of the team. Run your errands at lunch time, just like you would if you were based in the home office. Again, because people can’t see you all day, they won’t know what you’re doing unless you tell them.
Stay in the loop.
When you are not in the same location as your peers, it can be easy to fall out of the loop on what’s happening with your company. A small update at the end of a meeting can be a crucial piece of information that impacts your ability to do good work. Make a concerted effort to stay in the loop. Prioritize joining team meetings. Insist on always including dial-in information in every meeting invite. When you can, opt for a video conference over a phone call. Just seeing your face will help your relationship with your coworkers and vice versa.
For each meeting, make sure the team designates a note taker and circulates the notes and all follow ups afterwards. This is just good practice anyway. But if you’re working remotely, this will be crucial, especially when there are meetings you have to miss.
Never skip face time.
After weeks or months of conference calls and video chats, you might to start to think of your coworkers as just voices on the phone or faces on your computer screen; and they may start to think the same of you. When you have the opportunity to interact in person, never skip out on it. So much of our relationships with coworkers happen in the moments just at the margins of work — grabbing a coffee together, walking to the same place to pick up lunch, catching up on the latest binge worthy TV obsession in the elevator. When you work remotely, you have to be really intentional about recreating these moments with your colleagues. Close, collegial relationships with your coworkers won’t happen unless you put forth some concerted effort to build them. You’ll have to consciously create opportunities for spontaneous bonding to replace the elevator rides and coffee runs you miss.
Try to travel back to your company’s headquarters as often as budgets and projects will allow. If there are opportunities to join in on work trips to other locations, volunteer and go. When you are together with the rest of your team, build in some social time. Ask a coworker you don’t see much out to coffee and catch up on life. On work trips, make a point to grab lunch or dinner together.
Working remotely can be an amazing opportunity to be autonomous and self-directed at work. But it can also cause some challenges if you don’t plan accordingly. Use these tips to set yourself up for success!