Pros and Cons of Managing a Remote Team

It's not all rainbows and sunshine

Any wifi money business you start is going to be a 100% remote company.

It’s just the way things are done, unless you get HUGE (then it might make sense to open up an office).

But for the businesses I talk about in this newsletter, it’s all going to be remote. By the time you get so big that you have to start looking for office space you’re probably going to want to cash out and start over anyway, because that’s how builders are wired.

So if you’re serious about building online, you’re going to have to confront a few realities about managing a team of atomized people who are scattered all over the world who you only see on Slack and the occasional Zoom call.

Hint: It’s not always awesome.

Productivity

There’s no way around it. People simply do not work as hard when they’re working remotely.

There are people who are lazy and take advantage of the lack of supervision to fuck off. You can find people online who are literally proud of their laziness and brag about how they’re scamming their employers.

But even beyond these repulsive loser-types, the people who actually WANT to work hard find it difficult to do so.

Humans aren’t wired to be part of a ‘team’ that consists of atomized individuals all sitting alone in front of screens in their houses all over the world.

It doesn’t make sense evolutionarily or psychologically. People just don’t work like that.

There are zero productivity benefits that come with remote businesses. I’ve owned remote companies for a long time and getting people to work is a constant battle.

New employees will be motivated but over time there’s ALWAYS a steep drop off in their productivity once the new job motivation wears off.

It’s the price you have to pay.

Cost

Geographic arbitrage is the clearest benefit.