Month: October 2020

Categories
Business Trends

5 Essential Startup Resources You’ll Need for Success

5 Essential Startup Resources You'll Need for Success - The Collection

Sure, there are plenty of startup resources to look into, but which ones will you need for a path towards success? Read below for the details on the 5 important ones!

 

The modern-day startup is defined by its resourcefulness and adaptability, and the spirit of global connectivity. Competition is fiercer than it has ever been. But the opportunities for collaboration and remote connection are greater than ever to boot.

 

To outperform the competition, reach the most people, and dominate the local market. Startups today must leverage existing and upcoming technologies, and manage a global talent pool.

 

Any aspiring startup in today’s climate will also have to deal with the century’s greatest economic challenge: an ongoing pandemic. In times like these, it’s important to focus on what works best, and shed what’s non-essential.

 

Here are our five startup resources you’ll need for success.

 

1. The Right Workspace

 

The completely remote business model works for many companies, especially in the digital and tech industries. But these models aren’t applicable to all businesses. There are still many startups that rely on face-to-face business, and there are companies that see benefits in working from an office that cannot be mimicked in a completely remote setup.

 

Working alongside one another can improve performance and efficiency in communication, allow for spontaneous collaboration and interaction, make it much easier to train newcomers, help stave off burnouts caused by isolation, and speed up project ideation, planning, and execution. While remote work will absolutely play a greater role from now on for both productivity and safety reasons, some tasks are still best coordinated in person.

 

But any old office setup would be unsuited to the challenges and dangers posed by the coronavirus, which is why new ideas are necessary to help prepare the workplace, and those who work in it. Once workspaces are retrofitted to accommodate their workers, there’s still the issue of limited space. Social distancing and dedensification play a critical role in minimizing the effects of the virus.

 

Coworking spaces are ideally suited to implementing all necessary safety precautions while providing the perfect environment for small teams to return to work together. They include combining remote collaboration with face-to-face communication, acting as spokes to the hub in a wheel, and ensuring that startups can leverage existing safe spaces to get back to work without endangering their team.

 

2. Remote Collaborative Tools

 

Any lean startup seeking to make the most of the challenges and limitations of this year will rely heavily on remote collaborative tools. This is of course to communicate between on-site teams and workers staying at home.

 

Collaborative tools are the connective tissue of any aspiring startup. In addition, enabling instant communication across oceans and making it possible to collaborate on projects regardless of physical distance.

 

Whenever face-to-face collaboration isn’t possible, it’s time to turn to tools like OBS for screen capture. Also, Microsoft Teams for documentation and ideation, Trello for planning, Zoom for meetings, and so on.

 

3. A Feature-Rich Helpdesk

 

Customer service and support are critical. Especially for startups where early experiences between a company and their first customers can result in thousands of new sales, or a ruined reputation.

 

Beneath viral social marketing, glowing customer reviews, and an enviable following online lies the nitty gritty legwork of swiftly and efficiently addressing customer complaints and problems. In addition, troubleshooting errors, and conveying – as best as possible – that you care.

 

Managing all this without the digital infrastructure to do it efficiently can be soul-crushing work. Not to mention resulting in countless wasted hours. An effective helpdesk and customer support solution is a critical investment for any startup looking to create a long-lasting and loyal customer base.

 

4. Designs and Designers

 

Startups need consistent quality branding and marketing material that is up to snuff with the competition – or better yet, beats it.

 

There are plenty of platforms and resources dedicated to promoting designers and artists skilled in creating entire design suites for startups. Being in contact with a designer you know, someone who you feel best encapsulates what your company means to you in a visual sense, is an important resource.

 

5. Market Research Tools

 

Analyzing and capitalizing on data is critical for any startup trying to get a leg up in today’s market environment. That’s where market research tools become really important. From analyzing trends for content and marketing purposes, to drafting, sending, and compiling data from surveys to the customers and potential customers you serve and will serve.

 

Identifying and recruiting testers is just as important. Especially when you want to make sure your product is developed to suit your target audience, and not flop on day one. There are many different platforms and services to help you get as much insight into your customers as possible. These include free tools like Google Trends and Crunchbase to paid local surveys.

 

 

Other Startup Resources

 

Concrete startup resources vary greatly from industry to industry, and business to business. You might need more people at work and hands on deck. You might need to focus most on better equipment, or a hygiene plan that lets you operate better during the ongoing crisis. Or a plan that attracts critical investment. Perhaps you need more immediate financing to help your business off the ground. Or, what you need most is to focus exclusively on promoting your business locally. And attracting clients currently dissatisfied with the services that are available to them.

 

Identifying what you need the most and investing in that need requires a keen eye and a tactical mind. As well as a knack for leadership. Especially now, when many are worried about their jobs and the prospect of surviving this crisis as a smaller company.

 

Even more important is the ability to reflect on the one thing that never truly stops growing: experience. Do you have the capacity to sit back and analyze your failures? Or are you going to repeat them?

 

Running a business is never easy. And neither is weathering the negativity and opposition constantly in place against you and your dreams. That’s why the two most important resources, past even experience, or reflection, are motivation and support.

 

Never forget the humanity behind your business, and the importance of promoting that human element in everything you do. From inspiring your coworkers, to forging that human connection with your clients and customers, and finding fulfillment in the everyday process between a startup’s early days and that first taste of true success.

 

Read More:

Employer Branding: What Is It and How Can It Grow Your Business?
Categories
Office Space

Spacious Coworking Offices: Why It’s Needed Now More Than Ever

It’s true that working from home isn’t for everyone. But what’s the solution while still living in a pandemic? Spacious coworking offices are needed now more than ever. Read more below.

 

The shift towards remote work for employees following the onset of the pandemic was unprecedented.

 

Although there had been a trend towards more liberal remote work policies for years, particularly in the tech industry, the coronavirus forced thousands of companies to ask millions of office workers to perform their daily tasks from home, whenever applicable.

 

Now that companies all over the world are beginning to gain confidence in the idea of returning to the office, many companies are considering a permanent change to the way they handle remote work going forward. And thousands of workers are embracing remote work as a new way to live.

 

But for many more employees, the return to the office is a godsend – provided it can be done safely. While the pandemic has shined light on the benefits of remote work, it has also exposed the weaknesses of what can happen when employees are forced to telecommute without preparation, and without choice.

 

Many of us still rely on the interpersonal dynamics of the office to develop a bond with our team members and managers. Many of us seek the physical boundary between family and work to separate the personal and the professional. But none of us want to bring the virus into our midst or play a role in its continued spread. Spacious coworking offices may play an important role here, albeit an unexpected one.

 

Adjusting to the Pandemic

 

COVID-19 is an illness that is transmittable through droplets in the air, and through physical contact. To help mitigate its spread, companies and governments have turned to strict social distancing rules. And the use of simple but effective methods to minimize transmission. This includes frequent handwashing and mask-wearing.

 

It goes without saying why preventing the spread of COVID is critical to ensure worker safety. Not only does the illness cause worker absenteeism, but its spread to anyone – including young and healthy employees – and could potentially lead to the infection of someone at risk for serious complications.

 

Without proper adjustments, the office can easily become a hotbed for the virus. But these adjustments need neither be extravagantly expensive, nor overly complex. They involve:

 

      • Thorough screening of incoming and outgoing employees for symptoms.
      • Frequent handwashing.
      • Encouraged mask-wearing.
      • PPE whenever the job calls for it (i.e. for the cleaning crew).
      • Temporary barriers between desks and stations (plastic sheets), whenever private offices aren’t available.
      • More trash receptacles for cleaning materials, masks, tissues, etc.
      • Discourage sharing any equipment, from phones to notepads, pens, desks, and so on.
      • Frequent cleaning of all personal and common spaces (from floors to desk surfaces, computers, keyboards, mice, door handles, stair railings, and more).
      • Maintaining a safe distance at all times.
      • Altering or improving in-office ventilation (largely through natural ventilation, and selectively through better filtering HVAC systems).
      • And more.

 

Other adjustments may depend on local workplace requirements, and potential health hazards identified at work. Local and state resources exist to help businesses adjust their workplaces to meet minimum safety requirements.

 

But by far the greatest and most effective adjustment is the de-densification of the office, wherein companies are encouraged to minimize the number of workers returning to the office in order to ensure that employees can maintain a safe distance at all times, and safely cooperate and do their work without coming into contact with one another.

 

Spacious coworking will play a vital role in giving companies the option to allow employees to return to work in a safe and controlled office environment, either within the company headquarters or in a coworking space acting as a satellite office.

 

As such, coworking spaces have been adjusting accordingly – making the necessary changes to accommodate businesses looking for additional office space for employees, without breaking social distancing rules.

 

 

 

Why Return to the Office?

 

Given that the pandemic is not at an end, some might question any attempts at returning to “normal”. But a return to the office does not constitute a return to old practices and habits.

 

While some employees are able to work remotely on a long-term basis, others are not. It’s clear that the COVID-related effects of long-term remote work are beginning to rear their head in thousands of workers struggling to avoid stress-related problems with performance and mood.

 

A safe return to the office not only helps workers who cannot continue to function while isolated, but it also helps revitalize a struggling economy by employing more people in public transport, janitorial services, and much more.

 

With the right precautions and an emphasis on de-densification, companies can make a return to the office possible. And help workers who feel isolated seek an alternative to working from home for another six months or more.

 

Why Spacious Coworking Remains Invaluable 

 

In the early days of the pandemic, coworking spaces took a hit as people were encouraged to stay at home, isolate, and avoid contact with one another.

 

But many coworking spaces have since pivoted to allow for a safe return to coworking, via roving cleaning crews, in-office rules for safety and sanitation, separated workstations, improved ventilation systems, an emphasis on social distancing and safe private offices, and more.

 

As companies are looking to help encourage workers to come back to work away from home, coworking spaces become an excellent and cost-effective alternative to leasing more office space.

 

It’s clear that the near future will include a shift towards supporting work-from-anywhere policies, emphasizing a de-densified office, and ensuring that workers have enough space and a visibly clean office to work from without fearing infection, and without fearing that they may be endangering their loved ones.

 

Coworking companies that have quickly made the shift towards a safety-oriented and pandemic-proof workspace will play an important role in helping make these changes possible, allowing workers to re-engage with their team members and coworkers, and reap the multiple other benefits of renting a coworking space.

 

And if you’re in need of finding a quality shared creative office space, feel free to contact us here at The Collection located in downtown, Los Angeles. We’re happy to assist with your coworking needs.

 

 

Read More:

Businesses Turn to the Hub and Spoke Model Due to the Pandemic
Categories
Work Environment

6 Tips to Set Employee Goals That Matter

Encouraging and setting employee goals is important for a healthy mindset, and will ultimately benefit not only the team, but the company’s success as well. Here are a few tips!

 

Goal setting is more than just a metric for performance – it’s an important motivational tool. It’s one that can help teams and organizations come together during these difficult times, when most of us feel isolated rather than part of something bigger than ourselves.

 

This message is more important than ever, as COVID-related research has gone to show that burnout rates among remote workers are at an all-time high.

 

But when setting goals, you have to come up with ideas that are attainable, sensible, and provide both individual and organizational incentives – helping employees and businesses alike feel that they are making progress on a day-to-day basis, rather than simply getting by.

 

Tip 1: When Goal Setting, Work Backwards

 

Goals should either be aspirational or grounded, but with the intent of supplementing a greater dream. Whether we’re talking about individual employee goals, personal goals, or the goals of an organization, the goal setting process must always begin with the fundamental question of: what do we want to achieve? 

 

At its core, every business has a vision it wishes to fulfill, driven either by its founders or its workers. Identifying that vision and defining what it might mean to fulfill that vision in 2020 should be the first step towards setting goals in a COVID world. How can you make a meaningful impact in the industry you inhabit over the coming months?

 

As for individual employee goals, the key is identifying a professional benchmark, as well as an educational one. The modern employee is one who embraces change – jumping at the opportunity to develop horizontally and vertically, picking up relevant skills in different fields and specializing towards the future.

 

Start by identifying an aspirational goal, then developing the benchmarks that you feel are most relevant to that dream or vision. Then identifying the individual monthly, weekly, and daily goals that would lay the foundation for your organization’s success, or an individual’s success.

 

Tip 2: Create Goals Around Achievable & Trackable Metrics

 

Goal setting is most effective when it leverages today’s wide range of existing data analysis tools and productivity metrics. If your ultimate goal for the year is to be the premier service in a specific region, identify the metrics that are most relevant to that goal – such as increasing the number of targeted ads you’re using in your marketing campaigns, shifting towards more local engagement, and picking up at least an extra client every month from key neighborhoods.

 

The same goes for individual employee goals during remote work. If you want to improve on your performance while working from home, consider tracking the amount of work you get done over a week’s total hours, picking smaller goals that help you improve that ratio. Examples would be:

 

 

The use of day-to-day goals to gauge and improve performance will vary in both type and effectiveness. For example, it’s easier to track productivity when working at a call center, versus working the desk as a book editor.

 

In such cases, tracking measurable data can come at a cost of losing the forest for the trees, and focusing on the speed of a task over its quality. This is where employers and employees have to navigate goal setting together – and identify goals that would balance and satisfy a business’ need for growth with the professional’s desire for self-improvement and ensure the two never need to conflict.

 

Tip 3: Employee Goals Should Be Incentivized

 

Some goals are self-incentivizing, such as the goal to improve in one’s field, learn a new skill, or work towards a promotion. These goals all share the basic principle of personal progression, and the goal itself is the reward.

 

But when a business’ goal becomes an employee’s performance metric, additional incentive might be needed to help employees strive to achieve those goals. These incentives can also help employees feel that they’re being rewarded for a business’ success – and that the better they do, the better the company does, and the better the company does, the better they do.

 

Emphasizing this connection is especially important now, where many of us haven’t been able to return to an office setting, or redevelop ties with our fellow officemates, or the company’s culture and identity.

 

Whenever employees are given goals such as landing three clients this quarter, meeting a deadline for a application’s development, or improving the results on a biannual customer survey, incentivizing these goals is important – both through recognition and credit, and through compensation.

 

 

Tip 4: Include Employees in the Goal Setting Process

 

Management needs to include employees in the goal setting process, as they’re key to determining what’s needed and what’s attainable. Too often, the problem with goal setting is the fact that there remains a dissonance between leadership in a company and the company’s workers, and workers end up struggling under unrealistic deadlines or expectations that don’t match up with reality.

 

By ensuring that each team or individual is represented depending on the size of the business, managers can set more effective goals for individuals and the total organization alike.

 

Tip 5: Relevant and Time-Bound

 

The last two letters of the popular SMART goal-setting acronym represent the qualities of Relevant and Time-Bound goals, emphasizing that it’s important to pick and set goals that reflect the company’s and employee’s current needs, while imposing an attainable deadline that encourages performance without accidentally incurring the opposite through work-related anxiety. Especially in a time like this, where burnout is not just a plausible risk, but a seeming inevitability.

 

This ties back into the importance of making sure employees are represented or take part in the goal setting process. This helps ensure that realistic goals are not only set, but also met.

 

Remote workers can pitch in on monthly or quarterly meetings to chime in on or suggest company and individual goals, and comment on what kind of a timeframe they can support without burning out.

 

Tip 6:  Encourage Employees to Share Goals and Announce Achievements 

 

While there should be a boundary between personal and professional lives, there is always going to be overlap in places where employees are comfortable enough with one another to talk about non-work-related subjects, such as personal interests and hobbies.

 

Setting goals isn’t just important for the survival of a business during COVID, or for the continued professional improvement of an employee, but they’re important for a person’s own psyche as well, giving us something to strive towards and provide us with more structure.

 

A company could encourage remote employees to share both personal and professional goals through the company’s network and discuss or share whenever a personal or professional goal is met.

 

Landing a client, hitting a new personal record, finishing the tenth book of the month, or reaching a milestone in a personal project are things to be appreciated and celebrated. This helps give employees the sense that they’re part of a larger network, and encourage them to continue working on their goals.

 

Read More:

Strengthen the Culture of Accountability in the Workplace
Categories
satellite offices

Businesses Turn to the Hub and Spoke Model Due to the Pandemic

The pandemic is changing the working world more and more these days, including businesses turning to the hub and spoke model. So what does this mean exactly? Read further.

 

With the onset of COVID earlier this year came the need for a rapid shift towards dedensification and remote work for many – a shift that most companies were unprepared for. As it has become clear that the pandemic is here to stay for the foreseeable future, it has become a top priority for businesses all around the world to adapt to current conditions, and turn temporary workarounds into more permanent solutions.

 

This year has, above and beyond all else, hammered in the importance of flexibility and adaptability. And with that lesson comes the need for a brand-new design approach for companies looking to optimize the workplace for both productivity and safety.

 

While it’s clear that working from home brings along the least risk of exposure, it isn’t a permanent solution. And bringing everyone back to HQ without a long list of precautions and considerations may even border on negligence.

 

There are drawbacks to working from home permanently, including a greater risk of burnout. People need boundaries between work and life to function in the long-term, and any solution needs to address both the risks of COVID and the importance of defining some sort of workplace.

 

As a result, one of the more popular approaches has been the hub-and-spoke model, fashioned after similar concepts in logistics, transport, and healthcare. The hub, in this case, is company HQ. And the spokes are the various satellite offices and remote workplaces. The scope of the hub and spoke model is flexible, because of the nature of the internet – it’s a concept that scales to towns, cities, countries, and continents.

 

The Hub and Spoke Model

 

The hub and spoke model effectively swaps remote work for a work-from-anywhere policy, wherein the original headquarters of a business is made leaner and kept occupied by a (potentially rotating) skeleton crew of employees, while other workers operate from office spaces at home and in satellite offices all around the area.

 

Cost is a huge concern, especially in this market – but the hub-and-spoke model doesn’t presuppose that companies try and take out half a dozen leases. Instead, it operates on the assumption that companies repurpose their existing office space to act as a central hub, while utilizing coworking spaces and homes as safe and low-cost extensions of the workplace.

 

The entire network relies on different telecommunication and collaboration tools to function. Employees touch base with HQ, then report back after every major task.

 

The main reason for switching to a hub and spoke model over simply returning to the office is that it gives companies a way to utilize and populate their existing office space with a smaller number of employees and managers, while leveraging the growing and competitive coworking market (which has rapidly adapted to COVID workplace safety requirements).

 

The Benefit of Scattered Workplaces

 

These workplaces generally scale to single areas – for example, a city – where employees can have the option of staying at home, or biking/driving to a nearby satellite office while remaining in touch with the company’s central office.

 

The coworking market has emerged as a strong backbone to the hub and spoke model and scattered workplaces because it allows companies to subsidize the costs and stress of retrofitting offices to enable proper ventilation, cleaning, and social distancing protocols, while remaining entirely flexible by offering short-term leases and monthly or quarterly contracts, instead of long-term commitments.

 

We are still currently in a place where both the economy and the virus itself are volatile. Flexibility is important not only in the workplace, but as a general attitude towards the present and future.

 

There is currently no way of knowing what tomorrow brings. Staggered changes, such as a slow return to the office via the hub and spoke model, help improve morale and productivity and avoid burnouts without endangering workers and placing all of the burden on employees to stay safe in the office.

 

 

Defining the Hub

 

Dedensification is key in defining the hub. Headquarters should remain sparsely occupied during the pandemic, with employees maintaining large distances, cleaning as they go, and avoiding colliding foot traffic.

 

Staircases should be designated as one-way, additional cleaning crews should disinfect surfaces and critical areas such as doors and chairs several times a day, and offices are populated by one or two key employees each.

 

The hub acts as the central command for the company, coordinating with smaller teams and individual workers throughout the city, whether they’re at home or in another office.

 

A good metric is to cut the number of employees at HQ down to about half of what they were in pre-pandemic days, or less – while giving the rest the option to work from a place of their choosing, or a designated coworking location.

 

Defining the Spokes

 

Spokes are “everywhere else”, including additional offices (whether leased as commercial space solely for the company’s benefit, or more likely, a coworking space).

 

These don’t have to be in the city – some companies are looking at coworking locations in the suburbs, trying as best as possible to choose potential office space that minimizes the commute, and keeps their employees away from crowds.

 

When picking coworking spaces to expand your hub and spoke model, think about what lengths your workers would have to go through to get to work and back. Some workers who simply can’t make it to any office safely would likely have to continue to work from home until the situation develops in a different direction, but the majority will be able to benefit from a safe return to the office.

 

Working in a Pandemic World

 

Hub and spoke models are inherently adaptable, as they’re designed with short-term leases and commitments in mind, allowing companies to rapidly shift and pivot in response to new rules and regulations, changes in quarantine, outbreaks, and more.

 

While we still don’t know what role remote work will play in the long-term, it’s clear that more flexible workplace arrangements are not just a boon, but a necessity going forward.

Read More:

4 Reasons COVID-19 Made Coworking Spaces Important
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