As one of the fastest growing WordPress Development companies in Europe, we’re proud and eager to embrace location independence – after all WordPress themselves operate entirely without regard to location. In fact, WordPress only exists because of remote working.
I suppose we are lucky to be a pure digital business, after all you don’t need to be in an office to do web development, or support, or any other business function we require.
At some point you must have thought it was glamorous, or cool to work on a beach in a faraway land. So many folks in the digital world spend their time split between a cubicle (or shared desk) and public transport. I completely understand the need for physical contact and have often marvelled at some of the oddities that habit the Circle line – but I crave an altogether more liberating work regime.
Back in 1995 I worked for Megalith Corp, a giant US computer company and split my time between the US office near Boston, Reading (nr London) and Warrington. Nice as all those places were, I really thrived either on the move or at home – never in the office.
So much so that when I started Connected at the end of 1996 I based myself at home. Like most businesses, we grew and hired people and soon remote working was replaced with an office, and then a bigger one. By 2009 we had 10 people based in the office and just a handful working remotely.
It took 3 years to reverse the trend and cut the ties to the office. It’s been over a year since anyone has done the commuting thing and now we’re expanding again. This time folks work from wherever they want – I’m writing this from the upper floors of the Banyan Tree Hotel in Seychelles!
The tools to work anywhere have been around for years, but only now are they becoming “credible”. I say “credible” because until recently you needed an office (and a fax machine) to be credible. On the other hand, isn’t it “incredible” that so many digital agencies still work in a 9-5 productionised manner.
So you gotta think differently, lose the 9-5 matrix and get out and about – not just to the local coffee shop (although that is a start) avoid re-creating office space at home. Think bigger and throw away the rules. Start by asking yourself … “Where do I go if I really want to get work done”.
Richard Branson said it best when he said “we’ll all look back and wonder why offices existed”.
WORK FREE. Now, is it time for my beer mojito?
By Martin Dower
