How To Build a Virtual Team for an Advertising Business

At the onset of the recent decline in global economy, many businesses are shifting to virtual offices to minimize costs without sacrificing the quality of work.  Virtual offices are composed of virtual teams that communicate primarily through the use of the Internet because a wide distance often separates them.  Many virtual employees work at home, but this doesn’t mean they slack at the job or don’t take it seriously.  The working environment has simply shifted virtually, but the amount and quality of work remains the same.  So if you’re looking to build a virtual team—specifically for your advertising business—here are a few tips that can guide you:

1. Know your goals.  Every business should be founded on a common and solid foundation—your company’s vision and mission.  This short statement of plans and commitments will provide bearing when you can’t seem to find the direction your business is heading.  It is important to start with a goal because it shows what you want to achieve, and your ways of achieving them.
2. Get the infrastructure.  A virtual team basically needs three things—a computer terminal, an Internet connection and relevant application software for each member of the team.  Building up this infrastructure is essential because this’ll be the main communication channel with which you’re going to coordinate tasks with your team.
3. Know the divisions of advertising.  Most advertising agencies have two divisions: the accounts department and the creatives department.  Some companies have a media department.  Accounts handle the communication with the client.  They do the client presentation, present the concept of the campaign and negotiate the deal with the clients.  The creatives, on the other hand, are charged with thinking of concepts and materials to be used for the campaign.  Lastly, the media department is tasked with placing the ads on to major media channels.
4. Hire employees.  LinkedIn is a very useful social networking site for prospect employees.  Try and get as much from this service as much as you can.  You can also post job listings over job databases across the Internet.  Make sure to reiterate that you’re building a virtual team, so extra requirements are expected of the applicant.
5. Decide: cross-country or domestic only?  Decide if you’re going to hire international employees or retain your business to domestic bounds to ensure control.  Many companies today, however, opt to outsource their resources to avail of cheap labor from other countries.
6. Ensure employees are telecommuting-ready.  This is probably the bottom line: make sure you can connect with your employees clearly and on a regular basis.  What use is a virtual team that can’t converse with each other?  So make sure that the infrastructure on the employee’s end is as good as the one in your end.

Building a virtual team for your business isn’t easy, given the constraints of communication, space and time difference across places.  But with the right management strategies, attitude and goals, you can definitely lift your business off the ground and see it pull through.