The appeal to work independently as a network marketer is much more lucrative than it was even five years ago. In fact, the YouEconomy continues to increase in popularity. One challenging hurdle for IBOs is interacting with clients and team members who live in different cities, countries and time zones.
Below are some great tips on how to leverage social media tools, free project management tools and some really useful synchronous communication!
Traditional office setting and IBO positions have a key common aspect to perform their jobs successfully: communication. However, some jobs—in addition to IBOs— have the added challenge of needing to communicate with others from a different place, with a different schedule and sometimes even a separate time zone. For face-to-face meetings, Google Chat, Google Hangouts and Skype are free ways to hold everything from group brainstorming sessions, to more structured meetings. If you have more than 10 people in a group, you can try GoToWebinar.
To take engagement a step further, leverage all the free social media tools you can. Skype and Hipchat allow group chat, video chat and screen sharing features. There’s also Google’s social networking site, Google Plus (g+). It allows you and your group to communicate internally without overwhelming anyone’s email inbox. It also promotes culture building, innovative thinking and productivity.
IBOs can embrace project management tools originally designed for employees who work within a team or at a large company to keep tabs on relevant tasks. Trello is a particularly useful one, as it allows you and your business partners to visualize tasks and resources across teams. For example, one LifePharm IBO from the Philippines can log on to the Trello board, study relevant details left by an IBO from the Netherlands, and pick up where that last IBO left off.
Cloud management tools Google Drive and Dropbox are meant to be shared so groups can collaboratively edit important documents, projects and other files without having to send multiple versions of something back and forth, the way they normally would through an email chain. Google Documents even has a commenting feature that allows multiple editors to debate and brainstorm right in the document.
Synchronous communication is the most mindful way to be aware of others’ time zones and allow all team members an equal opportunity to work smarter and engage or disengage at their choosing. One handy tool for planning a meeting across different time zones is Every Time Zone. This website allows you to toggle around to see the time of your choosing anywhere in the world. A similar tool (also available as a mobile app) is World Time Buddy, which allows you to type in specific places and time zones to get exact times for people who may not reside in a major city.
LifePharm® IBOs are particularly lucky to have a personal Virtual Office with advanced business building tools. We have recently made some significant Virtual Office improvements, which will make it easier than ever to do business in different countries, including a Live Chat feature and new language options.
Webinars are also an excellent business building tool when sharing the LifePharm Products and Opportunity in one of the 41 countries LifePharm is open in. You can read how LifePharm IBOs are utilizing webinars in the Winter 2017 Ezine.