In today’s guest post, Suzanne Rielle, co-founder of LoobaLee.com, a resale site for designer kids clothing, highlights how she effectively manages her onshore and offshore virtual team. This is the second in a two-part guest post from a family of eco-preneurs who share their tips from the trenches on how they built two membership sites using non-standard resources. Last week, Nancy Rielle and Leigh Copin, cousins and co-founders of Vervecards.com.
Because LoobaLee.com is an online marketplace, our site development was particularly detail oriented and labor intensive. Talk about an online adventure! So, pulling together the right team for our business was essential, and leveraging freeware available to all of us has been the key to leading our virtual team. Here are some tips on how to take proximity out of the equation, and how to choose and lead a remote team of virtual experts and assistants using freeware.
Suzanne Rielle of LoobaLee
Suzanne Rielle of LoobaLee
Choosing Your Remote Team
More than likely your web developer and team of experts (blogging platform, content management system, SEO, marketing, graphic artist, copywriting, etc.) are not going to be located in close proximity to you or to each other. LoobaLee uses a combination of talented web developers in India, Stylus Inc., and contractors in the U.S.
This can pose a complex communication environment. However, the freeware we use enables a higher level of collaboration and effectiveness that makes everything work seamlessly and removes the barriers of distance.
Knowing you can rely on free collaboration tools, you can confidently consider these three critical factors when selecting service providers:
1. Capability – As highest priority, does the provider have the skills you need to get the job done? To verify this, ask if the project will be done by a) all on-staff team members, or b) contracted team members that have worked together in the past. Many providers are like general contractors and contract the skills they need. If they haven’t worked together on similar projects – their estimates may not be valid and they may not be able to deliver.
2. Collaboration Style – Collaboration style is a critical factor – whether the service provider is local, national, or offshore. You want to know they are going to cooperatively work with you using virtual communication tools and practices. If they want to communicate via email and/or phone only – you may want to look elsewhere. This can be an early indicator of inflexibility when it comes to getting the real work done.
3. Cost Competitiveness – Cost is always a factor, but it is 3rd on my list. First seek out multiple providers that meet your capability and collaboration needs – then compare quotes. Offshore work is often assumed to be the lowest price option, but I have found this not always to be the case for web development projects. Typically repetitive, clearly defined work is better-suited work for offshore pricing advantages.
Managing Your Remote Team With Freeware
The most important thing to remember once you select your team is that you have to lead the team. Think of yourself as the director of a major motion picture. You need to bring many talents together to achieve an optimal, profitable outcome. You’re going to need to effectively implement, communicate and track processes to be successful.
As the “director” of your team, you are responsible for ensuring that your contracts and agreements get executed to your satisfaction. If you throw a project over the wall with undefined requirements and poor communication, you will get little of value for your time and money. Thinking that having a contract means your service provider will automatically deliver can be a costly assumption.
Likewise, too many controls and processes can inhibit your team from moving forward efficiently. Each element of your process should be adding cross-team value. If your communication and tracking methods are unduly burdensome, you may experience resistance from your team, which could slow progress and cost you in the long run.
You will need effective tools and processes for managing the iterative process of website development through defining requirements, implementing, testing, and refining. Depending on the complexity of your project, you may have a large number of system bugs, issues, action items, and enhancements to track. You will need to manage requirements and priorities on daily basis so your team can execute effectively. Bringing different teams together using common tools, such as shared tracking spreadsheets, can significantly simplify your job.
Leveraging Freeware for Effectiveness
Email is the new “snail mail”. Relying on email is slow and unreliable. While there are many terrific free collaboration tools available today, at LoobaLee we keep it simple and rely just a few tools that meet most of our needs.
• Skype – Skype meets all our basic communication needs for free providing chat, voice mail, video conferencing, teleconferencing, and file sharing all in one. We primarily use Chat because Skype retains chat history, so you can easily recall discussions at the click of a button. There’s no longer a need to worry if your team members are keeping good notes! Skype also offers a handy real-time language converter in chat mode.
• Google Docs – Google Docs provides the Microsoft Office suite of tools on-line, i.e. Excel, Powerpoint, and Word. It keeps a detailed revision history for you, and it allows multiple people to view and edit documents simultaneously. We use the documents daily to communicate issues, requirements and priorities. On-line spreadsheets make tracking easy and efficient. We have refined several templates for web development, testing, and operations, as well as templates for scheduling and content management.
Google Docs is especially effective for enabling work across multiple time zones. In fact, at LoobaLee we find we get more work done in a shorter amount of lapsed time due to time zone advantages. Google Docs spreadsheets are also effective for planning consistent content delivery through our various social media channels.
Today’s trend is combining technologies together into free and fun group collaboration tools. I recommend:
• Dimdim – Dimdim is a new platform that provides free desktop sharing, presentation sharing, whiteboard sharing, web-conferencing and teleconferencing. It’s great for training, collaborative teamwork like brainstorming and problem-solving, and larger group meetings. And, unlike GoToMeeting or WebEx, its free!
• Wiggio – Wiggio, another newer platform, focuses on team/group effectiveness by providing a range of services including group email, text, and voice messages; hosting web meetings and conference calls; providing chat rooms; keeping a shared calendar and track of your group’s tasks and resources; and storing and editing files in a common folder (but without the simultaneous editing capabilities of Google Docs).
Since these tools are becoming the norm, you are essentially losing out by not using them. Maximizing your use of freeware can definitely save your business significant amounts of time and money!
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LoobaLee.com was founded by mompreneur Suzanne Rielle and her husband Peter Rielle. LoobaLee provides a friendly, easy, and custom on-line solution for the resale of designer children’s clothing, and educates families on how to “buy right, care right, and sell right” in order to dress their kids for “virtually” free. LoobaLee.com is wholly owned and operated by Rielle Life LLC, a Michigan based company in Midland, MI. For more information, please visit LoobaLee.com, LoobaLee.com/blog, Facebook.com/LoobaLee, or Twitter.com/LoobaLee.
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I think the freeware programs are great, but sometimes I think it’s worth it to pay some money for the right software. For instance, I use RHUB in my office, and it’s definitely been worth it. It has web conferencing, remote support, remote assistance, and webinar in one application.