Realistic expectations for remote ownership

September 13, 2024

by a searcher from The University of Chicago - Booth School of Business in California, USA

I am considering options where I might manage a business that are not located in my geo. I get that this definitely won't work for some businesses (say local plumbing) and definitely would work for a fully remote operation (say ecommerce) but this is somewhere in between

The current business I am looking develops and sells (DTC) a tech product, and is very closely aligned to my background. Maybe 70% of the team works out of the office, with increasing remote employees post COVID. Most of the work could be done anywhere (exception being fulfillment###-###-#### Most of my unique value will be in sales, marketing, and product management, which do not need to be in the office, though of course I realize the critical value of in-person relationships, culture development, and leadership. There are established managers, and most of them are in the office.

My current thought is that i would spend one week a month onsite for the first year and then taper down. That would help me learn the business, build relationships, and initiate any initial changes. I might hire a local office manager to ensure there is someone to be boots on the ground overall (beyond function leaders)

Does anyone have experience working a model like this? Is this a reasonable plan or am I being naive?

Thanks!

Reply by a searcher
from The University of Michigan in Chicago, IL, USA

I am at a remote-first software business in the supply chain space acquired 1 year ago by a searcher. They shifted to remote coming out of COVID, and folks move to other states! In my experience, maintaining status quo hasn't been particularly difficult, but when you want to solve problems or drive change, it gets quite a bit harder. For example, someone explaining a problem to you that happened onsite and expecting you to have the "right" answer (when this is the first time you have ever faced it yourself) presents a tougher situation than if you are onsite seeing it yourself. Additionally, some folks are easy to work with virtually, others have a really hard time with it and are 3x more communicative in person. We set up a culture of being able to teams call anyone at anytime, as if you were just popping in their office, which has been quite helpful to me (helps me get answers faster than having to set up a meeting).

Granted, if you have real experience in this industry and can provide expertise, this will be quite a bit easier.

Reply by a searcher
from Stanford University in Sausalito, CA 94965, USA

Hey @joshua I'm based in Marin so not too far from you

I bought a fully remote biz that was fully remote at time of transaction so not a direct corollary but would say you might want to be a little more in-person maybe the first month.

But it's definitely possible to run and scale this as a new owner. 1 - expect there to be some "slack" in the biz from it being remote. People - myself included - are just less efficient in that capacity often. BUT, made up in spades in what it can mean for the culture, retention etc.

2. Don't try too hard to replicate in person feeling with zoom happy hours etc etc. Many people will want to work at your company BC it is remote (that's a huge hiring help for us) so don't force them into too many things trying to replicate in office

Lean into remote, flexibility etc. It's a feature, not a bug that needs to be corrected for w events, computer tracking etc

Good luck!

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