Video conferencing and collaboration platforms are becoming increasingly popular to small businesses and individuals. With video conferencing costs coming down and remote working being offered by more and more companies, the reasons to adopt video technology as a means of communications are becoming clearer than ever.
Aside from online meetings, video conferencing can offer so much more for small businesses. As an entrepreneur, web conferencing can save you money, enhance productivity and improve work-life balance.
Saves Money on Travel Costs
Travel costs can take a huge chunk of your company’s annual budget. Nonetheless if your company has invested in video conferencing technology, the initial expenses are but a fraction of your travel budget. As an example, take a company with 200 employees and 20 executives. These top level employees need to travel by air to meet a client at least once a month. According to the computations made by VTC Express [1], the online meeting solution would help your company save:
Approximately $47,000 every year on travel costs including airfare, parking and hotel accommodations
940 hours of productivity time
15 tons of carbon emissions
If you add up everything, the company is bound to save more than $95,000 annually. More importantly, the web technology will still allow you to maintain and develop quality relationships with clients and suppliers. With this setup, you can reserve your travel budget on a handful of very important clients that requires face to face conversations.
Enhances Productivity
The New York Times writes that the number of people in the USA who telecommute has risen by nearly 80% between 2005 and 2012 [2]. The ability to limit employee turnover due to personal reasons is crucial, especially to a small business that depends on the experience and expertise provided by a few employees. As an entrepreneur, you understand the value of retaining key employees as it saves you headache caused by recruitment and retraining and not to mention, loss in terms of productivity.
The online meeting solution gives you the option to allow employees to telecommute for a few days a week. It reduces the need to find new hires which increases the productivity of your business.
Moreover, teams working in different locations can communicate as often as they would like to with video conferencing technology. There is no need to wait for the usual quarterly get-together to make business decisions. With web conferencing, teams can meet, show materials, and present new products or services without the need to travel.
Improves Work-Life Balance
The effects of excessive travel to an employee cannot be denied. Aside from the productivity lost due to hours and hours of air and road travel, an employee experiences tremendous amount of stress. As a business owner, you know the pressure and stress involved with frequent travel. Using video conferencing technology can significantly cut the amount of trips an employee needs and that means reduced cancelled flights due to terrible weather conditions or late nights on the road.
With all these travel demands alleviated, an employee can experience tremendous improvement in work-life balance that may lead to retention and better performance.
References
[1] Video Conferencing Can Help Your Small Business
[2] It's Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting Is Fast on the Rise
