I’m talking about the joy of working where you want when you want. Working from home today it really got me thinking about how productive remote working is and businesses are missing out by either not doing it or doing it poorly.

Being able to get away from the office allows you to concentrate, often getting through a lot more work and delivering some really great stuff. You can work from a coffee shop, from home, in fact you can work effectively from anywhere that’s got an Internet connection.

As a father of two I find it a Godsend to be able to work remotely and I’m not just talking about getting emails. I’m talking about having access to company files, client records, marketing tools, CRM packages, account software and with programmes like Google Hangouts you’re easily contactable by other members of staff and with VoIP phones calls can be transferred to you seamlessly as if you were in the office or can be set to route directly to you making working remotely just like being in the office. Being able to access all the information you need, allowing you to get on with the tasks at hand but without the restriction (or interruptions) of being sat at your desk.

Just take a look at what I’ve done today, I’ve managed to set up two marketing campaigns. Solved an issue with the lead generation software we use. Created two proposals for potential customers. Dealt with a couple of sales calls where the ability to view their history and the data on the proposals meant the difference and resulted in getting a meeting booked, I also worked on our website. Oh, and of course I’ve written this blog article (and I cooked dinner for the wife and kids)!

There really is a great amount of work that you can get through in the peace and quiet of being away from the office. You can concentrate, you can zone in on really key areas of your business or job and you can get through some really quality work without being chained to your desk.

But as a business owner if you’re thinking “Well, that all sounds great, but I’m not sure if I really want my staff slacking at home or stuck in a coffee shop drinking coffee or sat in the pub or whatever.”

But actually if you really think about it, it creates some great opportunities where your business can really benefit. If you have staff that are parents they are bound to need time off because one of the kids is ill and they need to be at home to look after them, having the facility to work remotely and I don’t mean being able to read the odd email but being actually able to do your job or do big parts of your job remotely makes a huge difference to the productivity of that day. Instead of losing a whole day of that person’s time and them having to take it as holiday or compassionate leave or however you want to work it, you’re still getting some good productive use of them.

The other benefit is you’ll actually get more work out of your staff. Yes, you need the right staff with the right attitude and that’s generally about the culture of the business, the culture of the staff and the work ethic (we’re all striving to get that right). Take me for example! I’m an employed member of ITSB. I’ve worked from home remotely today and got a boat load of really great work that will help grow the business as part of my working day.

But last night while I was sat watching the footie I opened my laptop and sat there working out the prospect list for our company sales activities for the next few weeks. I’ve sat there on a Sunday evening in my own time working on company stuff. I’m not getting paid overtime to do it, I do it because it needs to get done, I’m conscientious, I care about my job (that’s part of the culture of our company) and because it’s been setup so it’s dead easy for me to work remotely.

You need to consider security, I’ve got access to a lot of our company data on a number of my devices some of it sensitive information that I wouldn‘t want getting into the wrong hands. Of course we take the steps that are necessary to make sure that information is safe.

As a business owner if you’re not thinking about remote working, then you really are missing out. Yes there are options and challenges but seriously think about remote working – unleash that potential.

You’ll benefit by being able to work seamlessly away from the office, getting away from the doing work and concentrate on working on your business.

Your staff will benefit because they’ll have more flexibility, which will just make their lives easier and as a result you’ll get more out of them.