What is a fully remote business?

A fully remote business doesn’t have a physical office or headquarters. Employees can generally work from anywhere (sometimes with certain limitations), as long as they have a laptop and reliable internet access. Instead of in-person meetings and cubicles, these companies use video calls, collaboration tools and home offices.

How to start a remote business

If your remote business isn’t already established, you may do several things to get it started.

1. Develop a remote business plan

A business plan details your goals and how you plan to achieve them. It can help you evaluate every aspect of your remote business and determine its viability before investing time and money. A business plan may be essential if you seek startup funding.

Your remote business plan might include key information such as a business description, purpose and vision, a unique selling proposition (USP), internal structure and procedures and financial projections.

2. Claim a virtual business address

You typically need an address to register your business, receive mail and set up a bank account. You can use your home address, but many entrepreneurs prefer not to for privacy reasons. You can also get a virtual business address—a physical street address at a mail center or local office building. 

3. Register your remote business

Before registering a remote business, choose a name and structure. After settling on a business name, choose a business structure that fits your needs, such as a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, corporation or nonprofit.Consider consulting with an attorney or accountant to help you make the best choice.

Depending on the business structure you select, you may need to register your business name with federal, state and local governments. The Small Business Administration (SBA) can help you determine if this step is necessary.

4. Get funding to launch your remote business

While you don’t have to worry about furnishing offices or paying rent and utilities for a remote business, consider how you plan to pay for other items, supplies and staff. First, figure out how much money you need by doing a break-even analysis. Include every anticipated expense, such as equipment, employee salaries and marketing.

Remote businesses typically have unique expenses. For example, you may provide your employees with company laptops or offer work-from-home reimbursements. Costs can add up quickly for important online collaboration tools like video conferencing software, instant messaging services and time-tracking programs.

You might fund your remote business through:

• Angel investors
• Business loans
• Crowdfunding
• Personal savings
• Venture capital

Read more: How to Get Business Funding: A Guide for Employers

5. Create a remote work policy

Before hiring your first employee, consider creating a remote work policy that outlines your expectations regarding availability, responsiveness and communication. For example, can remote employees choose their own hours, or do you expect them to be online from 9am-5pm?

Remote work policies can also cover data security rules, legal considerations, guidelines for setting up home offices and travel requirements for occasional in-person meetings or annual retreats.

Related: Company Policies: 17 Policies to Consider for Your Business

How to hire remote employees

After setting up your remote business, it’s time to hire your first employee. Whether you’re figuring out how to start a remote business or navigating to a remote workforce, consider the following steps.

1. Identify the roles you need to fill

List the roles you need to fill and prioritize them based on your immediate needs and budget. Many remote businesses also hire for supporting roles, such as IT specialist or head of remote work to help employees succeed in a virtual environment.

2. Brainstorm a list of ideal candidate skills and qualities

Candidates who are likely to succeed in a virtual position might have the following skills:

• Ability to work independently
• Collaboration
• Proactive communication
• Organization
• Reliability
• Self-motivation
• Strong work ethic
• Tech-savvy
• Time management

Identifying suitable attributes can help you write effective job descriptions and interview questions.

3. Write and post your job descriptions

Write a job description for the remote roles you plan to hire. Use relevant keywords that remote job seekers are likely searching for, such as “work from home,” “remote” or “telecommute.” 

Make sure each job description aligns with your remote work policy. For example, your policy may require employees to attend occasional in-person meetings or live in a certain city or state for tax purposes. Including this information upfront in job descriptions can help attract appropriate candidates. Also, consider including your expectations regarding availability and explain what equipment you provide.

Other ways to find and attract remote candidates include:

• Virtual hiring events
• Remote job boards
• Social media recruiting
• Referrals from your network

Related: How Indeed Can Support a Digital Hiring Process

4. Adapt your hiring process for video interviewing

Once you review applicant resumes and choose the most promising candidates, conduct virtual interviews.

Update standard interview questions to better understand candidates’ remote work experience and relevant skills. Consider asking questions about how each candidate communicates, deals with distractions, manages tasks and stays motivated while working from home.

Here are a few questions to consider asking remote candidates:

• Have you ever worked remotely?
• How do you stay motivated when working independently?
• What types of remote tools and software have you previously used?
• How do you manage your time and prioritize tasks?
• How do you stay focused on your tasks at home?
• How do you avoid miscommunication in emails and instant messages?
• What do you think is the biggest challenge about working remotely?
• Do you have a suitable workspace for client-facing video calls?
• How do you build relationships with remote colleagues?
• How do you find work-life balance when working from home?

Even if a candidate doesn’t have remote work experience, they may still have transferable skills that may help them succeed in a remote role. Ask candidates without remote experience if they’ve collaborated with coworkers or clients in different time zones. You can also inquire about past experiences working as a freelancer or consultant.

Related: How to Conduct a Successful Virtual Interview on Indeed

Benefits of fully remote businesses

Here are some of the potential advantages of starting or switching to a 100% remote business:

• Wider variety of talent to choose from: Because you aren’t limited by a single location, starting a remote business can open a larger talent pool. You can recruit more diverse candidates and hire employees with the skills your business needs.
• Lower startup and overhead costs: Starting a remote business saves you the cost of renting a commercial space and paying for utilities, office furniture, food and beverages and other workplace necessities.
• Faster business growth: With lower overhead and broader access to high-quality talent, a remote model can make it easier to grow your business quickly.
• Better employee retention, satisfaction and productivity: Remote workers may be happier in their own work environment. In a Pew Research Center survey, 71% of remote employees reported that working from home improves their work-life balance.

Remote business ideas

You can start a remote business in nearly any industry—the key is to select a model that works online.

Here’s a list of business ideas and industries to consider:

• Accounting services
• Box subscription business
• Dropshipping company
• E-commerce business (especially baby, pet, fitness and home office products)
• Internet marketing
• IT and cybersecurity
• Online fitness training
• Online tutoring agency
• Resume writing and career coaching
• Social media management
• Video conferencing and collaborative apps
• Virtual assistant business
• Web development
• Graphic design
• Software or app development
• Product or landscape photography

Choose a business idea that aligns with your interests, passion and knowledge. If you’re converting your traditional business to a remote model, you may tweak how you sell your products and services. For example, you could offer virtual consultations instead of in-person meetings and transition from a brick-and-mortar showroom to an online store.

Related: How to Start an Online Business: Best Practices

Tips for managing a remote workforce

To get the best performance from your remote employees, it’s important to strengthen employee-employer relationships and improve employee satisfaction, engagement and productivity. These tips may help:

• Develop a virtual onboarding experience. Prepare your new employees for success through virtual onboarding. Here’s a 16-step virtual onboarding checklist to get you started.
• Adopt remote work tools. Video-conferencing software, team collaboration tools, shared document storage, workflow management tools and virtual private networks (VPNs) can help your employees stay organized, productive, secure and engaged while working from home.
• Encourage employees to set up a dedicated workspace. A set workspace can improve focus, performance and productivity for remote employees. Consider contributing to home office expenses.
• Avoid micromanaging. Employees often appreciate the autonomy, ownership and flexibility of remote work. Maximize those benefits by focusing on outcomes and results. This strategy helps you empower employees to develop workflows that work for them.
• Schedule regular virtual team meetings. Regular check-ins can help clarify miscommunications and address issues early on. You could make your distributed team meetings more action-driven and engaging with icebreakers and team-building activities. 
• Give and ask for feedback. Providing constructive and positive feedback can help employees stay on track and improve job performance. Ask employees how you can better support them.
• Celebrate wins. Keep your remote team motivated by recognizing successes. You might send appreciation letters and offer unique incentives, such as extra time off or digital gift cards for a food delivery service.

Read more: 11 Tips to Effectively Manage Remote Employees

FAQs about how to start a remote business

Can you start a remote business without hiring employees?

Many entrepreneurs start remote businesses alone because they require minimal start-up financing. To increase your ability to serve clients—and increase profits—consider outsourcing accounting or marketing.

What equipment is necessary for a fully remote business?

At a minimum, you and each employee will likely need a desk and a computer with a webcam. Additional items, including an ergonomic desk chair, noise-canceling headphones with a built-in microphone, a laptop riser and a printer can make working from home more comfortable and productive. You might also need specialized equipment to meet the needs of your industry, products or services.