So, you’re thinking of taking your practice virtual?

Excellent idea.

What with the last few years being… what they were, and the increased awareness towards the importance of a work-life balance, many employers and employees have gotten more and more onboard with the concept of working remotely.

As an employee, this can be great for saving time and money on your commute, walking the dog on your lunch break, and having a greater level of autonomy.

As a business owner, you can save on office expenses, improve efficiency and benefit personally in all of the same ways your employees can.

There can, of course, be challenges to running a fully virtual practice, so we’re here today to talk about the practicalities, pros and cons of going remote so that you can feel more prepared.

When transitioning your business to a new way of working, there are inevitably some areas of resistance you will need to manage.

The goal is to create a process that is simpler, easier and more profitable for your team and your clients, but some areas may need more work to get there.

Let’s identify what some of these challenges can be, and later we’ll talk about ways we can overcome them.

When your clients are used to a certain way of working, it can be difficult to adjust them to new processes.

Mr Smith might be reluctant to give up in-person meetings. Miss Jones might not be technically inclined.

If you have a practice on the high street, you can generate business through walk-ins and showcasing your services. Be it a huge storm board outside your door, or a big blue Xero sticker in your window, you can inject yourself into someone’s line of sight.

Ensuring that you’re discoverable to the right kind of clients virtually can be more of a challenge in a saturated market.

Having the right software can make it far easier for customers to request support or find information, but if your client is used to calling you on the phone whenever they have a question, you will need to spend some time configuring your system in such a way that they won’t need to call. This can be tricky in the beginning, when teething problems are likely to mean a higher support demand.

Creating a personal rapport with your clients is simple enough when you’re taking them out for coffee once a month, but without that contact, how do you establish a relationship?

When looking for tools to manage your practice, there is a huge range of options available, and you’ll likely need more than one. Identifying the best tool for your practice and which ones work well together can be overwhelming. Taking your time with trials and demos can really be your friend here.

What makes your business the best choice for a prospective customer? How can you make sure you’re staying relevant to the market in such a fast-paced, customer-focused world?

Why should people care about your practice?

Every cloud has a silver lining, and this cloud-based practice guide has lots. There are three main things you want to be saving in your business when making a change to your ways of working - Time, Energy, and Cost. Here are just a few of the many benefits of taking your business virtual which feed into those key areas.

When your business lives online you really can work from anywhere, any time. This means you promote a work/life balanced team culture, be available to clients at obscure times, and you aren’t limited to hiring staff in your immediate area.

With remote working, money is saved on office rent, electricity and extra space you simply don’t need.

You’ll also save money by not going to visit your clients regularly - this may not sound like much, but those fuel and coffee expenses add up.

Having the right software allows you to be efficient, proactive and thorough, which adds up to a better experience for the customer.

Being able to spot trends and monitor changes with your clients’ accounts in real-time also means that you can suggest changes and improvements immediately without having to wait until the end of the year.

Cloud-based businesses are only becoming more popular as technology becomes more available and understood.

By keeping your practice at the forefront of this transition, you’re securing a stronger position in the coming years. If everyone eventually goes virtual and you’re still stuck trying to get the hang of Excel, you won’t be the top choice for someone looking for an efficient firm.

Why stop with the basics? Once you’re a virtual whizz, you can introduce areas to your business such as app advisory services to create new streams of revenue.

With features like document signing, downloadable templates, and email integration available, there is less room for error, long lead times, and complex procedures. Good for you, good for the client.

Being virtual means you can reach a larger pool of potential customers. When you have a larger pool available to target, you can afford to be more particular with the kind of clients you want to work with, giving you the ability to specialize.

You might want to specifically target beauty salons, events companies or any other type of business where your knowledge or curiosity draws you.

One thing is for sure, if you want to run any kind of virtual business, you’ll need to use Cloud-based tools. You’ll need more than one piece of software to tackle all the facets of your business and ensure that everybody in your team can work from anywhere, no matter where your clients are based.

Task Management: Look for tools allowing for collaboration so that your team can stay on task and be aware of what’s happening across the business without things slipping through the cracks (we may be biased, but we think Pixie is pretty great at this).

Bookkeeping Software: You might be a whizz with Quickbooks or a master of Xero. Clients will often go with your recommendations as you are their trusted advisor.

It’s easier for you if all of your clients use the same platform, so pick your favourite and stick to your guns. And you can always integrate these apps with Syft for reporting and analytics.

Email & CRM: Or better yet, an email platform that integrates with your CRM database is hugely important for making sure that your clients are receiving the right information at the right time. Some even automatically recognize and assign emails to your client records to make sure nothing gets lost (oh, Pixie does that too).

Your client needs to be able to contact you without their query getting lost and they need to be able to receive information from you at appropriate times.

Not everyone is technically savvy, so if there are actions you need your clients to complete, this needs to be as easy as possible for them. If a client needs to sign a form, a document portal is the best way to manage this virtually.

Here are the key considerations we want you to take away as you go forward in setting up your virtual practice.

Your branding and messaging should reflect your ways of working so that prospective customers know instantly that you’re cloud-based.

Some people do this through their company name or logo.

However you want to do it, make sure it’s at the forefront of all marketing material.

Some businesses are used to a mentality of taking on any and all clients, but once you’ve opened your business up to customers in any location you can afford to be pickier about who you want to work with.

You may decide you want to specialise and only work with tech-savvy hipster coffee shops. Maybe this is where your expertise is? The point is - you can.

When making new hires, you can curate a team around you that will deliver the recipe for success to your new business model without being restricted by location.

You can’t learn everything there is to know about software, but you can equip your tool belt with a mixture of strengths to create the perfect virtual machine.

The virtual world is constantly evolving. It’s important to keep up with trends and be aware of what the market is doing.

Software evolves, so do your clients’ needs and so should your business.

Keep your knowledge up to date by attending events, regularly reflecting on your business, and researching new tools.

Pixie is a Practice Management app that helps you to streamline and manage your team and business.

Start your free 30-day trial with Pixie here and find out how pixie-fying your practice can help you thrive in the virtual world.

Bryony Mulkern is the Content and Community Manager at Pixie, responsible for planning and coordinating content across Pixie's channels and maintaining positive relationships with customers and peers in the accounting world. Bryony has a broad marketing background, from health and fitness campaigns to coffee shop re-designs. Outside of work, you'll usually find her going on long walks with her dog and renovating her house. Find her on LinkedIn.