How has Covid made “going virtual” a necessity?

Covid has transformed the business culture. Companies have shifted to the “work from home” option. This situation has raised a significant debate. Businesses will now have to think about the “new normal”. Is the work from home option going to stay a viable option after Covid, or will businesses return to their regular office routine? 

Matt DiFrancesco will discuss the benefits of working from home and the technological impact on workspaces within the organization and outside the office. 

Are you in dire need of a financial advisor? You can now avail of Matt Difrancesco’s expertise by scheduling a free 20-minute conversation with him. Together, you can analyze the current situation of your family business and your options. In short, you will have a roadmap to follow regardless of the nature of your business. 

The Spillovers of COVID 

We are still in this COVID era, doing different things. So it is not one set of rules for the entire nation. Companies are working virtually. Due to this, offices are just sitting empty. Businesses have been going through this like trial by fire. They have learned a lot of different lessons the hard way. 

“You have heard the saying that experience is the best teacher, correct? Well, that is actually incorrect. Instead, the experience can be the most expensive teacher for you.”

The Financial Service Industry 

I am sharing my experience to encourage the business owners to get outside of the environment, away from distractions, and think in a broader way about what can be done in the current scenario to gain a competitive edge.

I have been in the financial services industry for the last 16 years. Though I was building a successful practice, I was not fulfilled in it. I wanted to work with my clients at a deeper level, but all I felt was constrained because of firm requirements. They were looking for me to just drive revenue. So, I didn’t always feel like I could do what was in the client’s best interest.

The financial service industry operates under a very traditional framework. The process of adaptation to change is snail-paced. So, when I first came up with this virtual concept of a family office, I really had to maneuver and ask myself, “How can I work within the parameters?” That is because we are very compliance-driven. We will have to facetime our clients. “How do we navigate through that?”

The big kicker was when I met my coach Joe Lukacs. He posed a question that really resonated with me. He said, “If retirement was not an option, how would your life and business be different?” That struck me because I was getting older. I had a certain way in which I wanted to work with my clients that I didn’t feel I could do in the environment that I was in. 

As a fresh entrepreneur, I started thinking about how I could offer the best services. The first realization was that I had clients that were starting to spread out all over the country. “How was I going to navigate that?” So I investigated my options. I looked at other industries that were utilizing virtual strategies. This approach led me to build my current business model. Bottom line? Think about how you can add value “differently”!

“I dreamed of building a practice that will help my clients achieve whatever they want in their lives and business. This aim helped me in scouring the options to provide them the service in the most cost-effective way.”

There will be people such as my peers who still insist on going into their office. The justification behind going back to routine day jobs at an office is because you have managers that want to micromanage. They just don’t feel like they are doing their job unless they see you and make sure you do your job. 

“We get stuck in our mindsets and paradigms. To survive and thrive, we have to change the way we view the world. “

However, I believe that there is a different way to manage people. The first step is trust. You will gain trust by developing a culture within your business to let people become their best version of themselves. 

“It is about providing leadership, not management, but leadership.”

As for the office work, I think that is a bad idea. If we can do all our stuff at home, why do you even want that overhead? We gotta get out of our own ways and, most importantly, not follow the suggestions that will drain money out of the family business. 

“Working” vs. “Actually Working” 

Back when I was working for a firm. My branch managers always bragged that he was always the last one to leave. Soon, it became a competition. Early on in the business, I was cold calling, so I would be in the office till 9 to 10 o’clock at night. The branch manager would always call me to see if I was still at the office because he wanted to be the last one to leave. 

One day, he called me to his office and asked me if I would leave soon. As we were chit-chatting, I just happened to glance at his computer monitor. He was looking at BMWs. It dawned on me that he was equating sitting at his desk with work. I thought to myself, “my time is too valuable” to compete with this mindset. As a result, I started developing daily task lists. So, if I was done at three o’clock, I packed up my stuff, and I left. 

The reason behind leaving as soon as I finished my work was that I realized that I was not getting paid by the hour. I was getting paid for the “performance”. So, the lesson that I want you all to get from this experience is that I think we have got to get out of the mindset that makes us feel that sitting at our desks means that we are actually working. We are not!

Benefits of Operating From a Virtual Office

There are three benefits to being able to operate in some fashion a virtual office: 

• Reduce overheads
• Give yourself more flexibility in your business
• Create more freedom for yourself

Reducing Your Overhead 

There are two areas that we can look at in terms of overhead. The first one is our employees and our staff. They are the highest cost center for business owners between salaries, benefits, workman’s comp, insurances, and other intrinsic and extrinsic benefits.

The second thing is that there are human resource challenges. There are compliance things. I have clients that are automotive business owners and have mechanical or collision shops. They have to deal with OSHA practices. All this adds up to additional costs to the business owner. 

There are some solutions that you can look at. The first one is to look at certain areas within your organization and say, “do we need somebody on-site? Alternatively, “Can we hire somebody that is virtual to be able to do this job?” 

To me, areas that need virtual assistance are in marketing, web, website design, operations, even, to some extent, human resources. Small businesses do not have a human resource department. They can outsource this function virtually. Additionally, if compliance is an issue, you can hire some of the best people out there who can work virtually.

As a business owner, you can go to Upwork or Fiverr and find great people that provide inexpensive services. This can significantly reduce your overhead. It would help if you kept looking for ways in which you can restructure your business blocks. In this way, the service itself will be less costly, and you will be paying employees for the time they actually worked, not for just sitting at their desks.

Business “Overhead” Examples 

A retail outlet might need some type of space. But, it can reduce that down significantly by allowing employees to work virtually. It will have a positive spillover effect as the business owner will be able to decrease the rent payments or maybe move to a smaller building. By taking this step for your business, you will pay fewer taxes because you will be using less air conditioning, lights and not to forget all those maintenance expenses. 

“Business owners need to understand that they can refine things and utilize some of the technology to actually reduce their costs. As a result, they can pocket more money while allowing the customer to get better value.”

Let us take the example of JP Morgan’s building. It is around 2.1 million square feet. They have about 13,000 employees, which means that they have parking for all of them. That is a ton of space. It cost them around a little over $20,000 per employee just to run and maintain the building. That is a huge expense. So what if they eliminate a lot of those expenses? For starters, they could have more salaries. By ensuring high pays, they can get better employees. 

Matt as Your Financial Quarterback 

At my virtual office, I took note of all of these points. Resultantly, I increased my margins by huge numbers. This allowed me to offer my services at a much more competitive rate.

Download my white paper, “The top five things to consider for a more prosperous business and less stressful life”. Review the first consideration where I discussed formulating a vision for what you want your life and business to look like. When you start to look at that, you may observe that there are some things that we do differently here at HighLift Financial. 

From there, I would say schedule a private consultation strategy session. Again, it is free of charge. We can talk about your situation and see how I might be able to help you with that.

Disclaimer

The information compiled and posted here solely represents the opinions and views of the guest. It might not necessarily be similar to the opinions and views of High Lift Financial. The availability of this content only serves educational and informational purposes. It is in no way a substitute for tax or legal advice or professional investment. 

Always make sure to consult your financial advisor with any queries related to personal or business planning. DiFrancesco Financial Concierge, LLC. d/b/a HighLift Financial is a Registered Investment Advisor registered with the State of Pennsylvania and subject to the State of Pennsylvania’s regulatory oversight.