Haden Interactive is a Fayetteville SEO company based in Northwest Arkansas. We do web design, website management, and the full range of SEO services, including everything from custom web content to managing our clients’ social media accounts. But despite the fact that we are headquartered in Fayetteville, Arkansas, most of our clients are somewhere else.
We definitely have some great local clients that we love working with, and it’s great to be able to meet with them in person over coffee or lunch. But much of our work actually comes to us from other parts of the country, and even other parts of the world.
In fact, not everyone on the Haden Interactive team even lives in Fayetteville. We’ve got someone who works up near Bentonville and someone near Shreveport. I’m living (and consequently working) all the way out in Fort Collins, Colorado.
If it’s ever necessary, a commute between Fayetteville and Bentonville is simple enough, but the same can’t be said for a commute between Fort Collins and Fayetteville. If I left my house on Sunday evening, I would make it to the office in Fayetteville just in time to be late for work Monday morning.
Luckily, the nature of our work allows us to work remotely. That’s one of the great advantages to working for a web firm, but remote work isn’t exclusive to SEO companies. Working remotely is becoming more and more common.
Also known as telecommuting (although that term sounds a little out of date, “Me? I love telecommuting! It’s right up there with my fondness for cellular telephones and horseless carriages!”) allows you to work from a home office, or a park bench, or a beachside resort, or the passenger seat of a moving car.
In most cases, your hours are what you make them, and your office is whatever you choose to make your office. There are some limiting factors to remote work, like having a place to charge your laptop and a reliable internet connection, but remote work gives you a lot of freedom.
But remote work isn’t all rainbows and freshly washed socks. There are certain challenges that come with remote work.
Time zones are a big challenge. I’m an hour behind the office in Fayetteville, which just means I have to get up little earlier to check the blog posts, but when you have clients on opposite ends of the continent, or the world, it can get a little confusing. You have to be mindful of timezones, especially when it comes to deadlines.
Poor physical health habits, overworking, and limited social interaction are other potential challenges that can come with working remotely. They’re a trade-off for the potential challenges of working on-premise, which include traffic, unhealthy break room habits, and so much social interaction that you can’t get your work done, but you do need to plan for how to handle the challenges if you’re going to work remotely.
But there is still a tremendous advantage to remote work, for the workers and for the company. Remote work provides businesses with a huge pool of employees that isn’t limited by geographic location. This is great for both the business as well as the employees — and for our clients, too. At Haden Interactive, we use tools like Skype and Zoho, and we keep most of our software in the cloud. This lets us run an efficient office with remote workers.
The more technology advances, the more jobs will be created that lend themselves to remote work. 34% of businesses that participated in a recent survey said that they expected half of their workforce to work remotely by 2020. We’re just a little bit ahead of the times.
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