Don’t Get An Office – Work Remotely

Not until your business explodes at least.

Your marketing budget is your biggest accelerator in the beginning.  Wasting it on rent is a unneeded expense since we’re selling over the phone.  I did in the beginning and I regret it.

With technology and the nature of our business, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be working remotely.  Especially within the 1st couple years of bootstrapping your business.

Going remote allows the most talented people to produce the best work regardless of their location.  I work with agents all across the nation.  I work with marketers all around the world.  I’m not limited to finding talented people in my local area to work or collaborate with.

If you’re a 1 man show right now and finding talented people isn’t a priority, it will be when your business starts to grow outside of what you can handle.  It will happen.

The biggest issue most people complain about when working remotely is the “cabin fever” associated with working from home.  If you roll out of bed into the office, your days will string together and your productivity gets worse.  You need to get out of the house if you’re working from home or else you’ll go stir crazy.

I personally do most of my phone work from my home office and most my creative work (marketing and writing) from a coffee shop or co-working space.  That’s what works for me.  It gets me out of my home and not cooped up all day.  On top of working out every morning, I don’t get that “cabin fever” feeling anymore.  Even if I take a call from a coffee shop, I’m able to process an application easily because of EZlife (I took a husband/wife application referred to me this week while sipping tea on a lake here in Austin).

In fact, getting out to coffee shops and co-working spaces mid-day will create some very serendipitous opportunities.  You’ll start seeing the same location independent entrepreneurs if you’re visiting the coffee shops with the fastest wi-fi etc.   You’ll end up making some great business relationships and friends who are fighting your same fight in building their businesses in the early stages.

Important Tools I Use To Work Remotely

EZlife – My 1 page online application for over 30 life insurance companies.  I don’t do paper applications and I don’t do processing.  My time (and yours) is more valuable than that.
Dropbox – I store all my files in dropbox and can access them anywhere at any time.  I have a “no paper” policy in my business.
RingCentral – I use VOIP through my computer and I can take/make calls from my desktop, laptop and iphone (they have an app to make outbound calls).
Gmail and Google Docs – All my email is in the cloud and I can access it from anywhere.  Same with all my shared spreadsheets for sales, marketing, accounting and analytics.
Cloud Based CRM – DataRaptor should be released by January and I’m switching to that.  Right now however, I recommend RadiusBob.

This is a solid base of tools to work remotely.  There are many others I use, but these are the core of my business.

The lifestyle of working remotely is what I love best about our line of work.  You’re not tied down anywhere.  You can be productive anywhere in the US and anywhere in the world.

The life insurance business can be a “lifestyle” business if you set it up correctly.