Viralogy, the social media rank and measurement company that I work (and write) for recently entered a Vator.tv competition for $10,000 sponsored by Elance, called “A New Way to Work“. We previously won a competition where we pitched the Viralogy idea in front of a number of different investors.
The project was designed to illustrate the advantages of working virtually on a team without an office. I really enjoy the opportunity to work with a group of intelligent, motivated entrepreneurs from all over the West Coast including L.A., San Francisco, and Vancouver, all without having a central office, and was happy to share some of the reasons I embrace my “New Way to Work”. The rest of the Viralogy team shares their stories as well, and if you watch the video, you’ll see that Joseph Yi has a cute dog too! (Though not as cute as mine :).
An excerpt:
Breaking the mold of a localized business allows me to plan my hours and my days the way I want. Whether I work at 2 p.m. or 2 a.m. is up to me, and it allows me to manage my productivity effectively. If I need to spend more time with my dog or my fiancée during the day so that I can burn the midnight oil at night, I can do that. If I want to spend my day working on my netbook in a coffee shop, I can do that too. It’s a large responsibility that can be incredibly rewarding if managed well.
Working virtually means that our staff is extremely flexible and respectful of each other’s needs in terms of time. For example, we hold a weekly company meeting at 8 p.m. Those meeting times are extremely rare in the normal corporate culture, but we have found it to be a perfect time to collaborate and think creatively. When you can work in a virtual workplace, you have increased flexibility not only with respect to location, but time as well.
Do you work on a virtual team? How much do you like (or dislike) it? I’d love to hear about it in the comments. I think the tools available are making it easier and easier for teams to work virtually, but there are still certainly many of barriers.
