If you are starting (or have already started) a virtual business that you are running from home, it is important that you have the right resources and support in place to give your venture every chance of success. Regardless of where your office is located, you need to ensure that you can work from anywhere. The key to success in business is professionalism, which is why it is more important than ever to take your resources seriously from the get-go.

There you have it, a guide to the ingredients for virtual business success. Take note of these and implement the advice in the running of your own business, and you will do better for it.

Think of your business like a cake; if you don’t carefully measure out all of the ingredients and mix them together, you will end up with a failure of a cake that no one will touch. The same goes for business – if you don’t put the right things into your business, the end result will not be a success. Bearing that in mind, below are some suggestions of ‘ingredients’ that every virtual business needs for success.

Cloud software

For all manner of tasks, from file sharing to making phone calls via VoIP phones, cloud software is vital. As a business owner, it is crucial that you stay ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, and utilise anything that will help to make running your small business easier. With that in mind, cloud software is a key tool and one that you shouldn’t be without. The best cloud software for businesses includes Dropbox, Google Drive and SendThisFile for file and data sharing. For completing work, Google office suite is crucial, including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. This is just like Microsoft Word only it runs on the cloud, is free to use, and allows you to share your work via link, and it saves work automatically as you go – there’s no need to worry about saving it.

IT support

When you run a virtual business, your website and computer are at the heart of your entire venture. So should something go wrong and one of these systems goes down, you could be left in a pretty sticky situation. Downtime is never good for a business, which is why, whenever possible this should be prevented. However, should downtime occur as a result of malware, a virus, or another issue, having IT support on hand, such as IT managed services to help you, could be life-saving. Not only can adequate support help you to deal with any IT issues that occur, but it can also help to prevent them from occurring in the first place.

Virtual assistant

One of the key factors when it comes to being successful in business as a virtual business owner is having the right support on hand. You may not want or need a team of employees to work in your office alongside you, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need help managing your daily tasks because that isn’t the case. If you struggle to keep on top of everything, hiring a virtual assistant could be the answer. They can take some of the pressure off of you and help to ensure that your business runs more seamlessly and is less stressful for you to manage.