What company?

It wasn’t too long ago that a small company wasn’t taken seriously unless it took up considerable space in a stylish building with offices, desks, and water coolers. Even startup executives had to have corner offices and the requisite trappings of power that went along with them. A nice office space was considered to be a sign of stability and success. Well, not much has changed. And that’s one of the reasons why it’s so tough to run a virtual operation. How do you make the company seem real to your team when there’s no tangible evidence that it exists?

Use a customer model for internal communications

It’s actually fairly easy to get your customers and partners comfortable with your virtual existence. They communicate with you via phone and email most of the time anyway, and you probably try pretty hard to make those relationships work. When you need to go see them, there’s no doubt that you’ll get in your car or jump on a plane at a moment’s notice. Now think about how the people in your company work together. Everyone may be linked in, but they can still be left out. Unless your people treat personal interactions internally with the same urgency and dedication that they show customers, your virtual company will never seem real.

Have real fun

You might have the same problems in a traditional office environment, but at least the casual daily interactions help build camaraderie and keep people from entering the twilight zone. If you work from your kitchen table and avoid rush hour traffic every day, count yourself lucky. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just make sure that your people see you and each other on a regular basis. When it comes down to it, business has to be fun in order to be successful. It’s hard to whoop it up with your team when your only interactions are electronic.

Keep the fires burning

OK, so everyone’s talking and having some fun. Unfortunately, that won’t bring in any business. In a virtual company, more than in any other type of organization, everyone has to be on a mission. That doesn’t mean that you give your team members some goofy, politically correct mission statement that they learn to recite. It means that they need to get out of bed in the morning and know what they need to do to help make the company successful. Moreover, they have to love doing it. Let’s face it. They’re generally counting on encouragement from the family dog. So unless Fido has an MBA, they’d better have a pretty hot fire in their belly to keep them going in the right direction. If you do nothing else, make sure that the fire is alive. It will provide the heat and light for your virtual office and make your company real to your team.