Why (Almost) Every Startup Should Be Working From Home

Posted on March 07, 2013

Marissa Mayer may have decided that working from home doesn’t work anymore for Yahoo, but that doesn’t mean that working from home isn’t the best option out there for some tech companies. And for startups it seems like a no-brainer. Here’s why:

No rent, no utilities. This is big, obvious reason that everyone should already know: if your team works from home, you don’t have to rent office space or pay for anything like heat, internet connections, electricity, phone lines, or anything else like that. There’s a big expense that just vanished from your budget. Poof!

Good home workers are self-starters, and that’s exactly who you want on your team if you’re a startup anyway. If you’re worried about how many hours somebody on your team is working at a startup, that probably means you didn’t hire the right person in the first place. If your team is properly motivated, they’re going to be working just as hard to make the company succeed as you are whether they’re at home, in an office, or anywhere else.

Plus, counting hours is a waste of your time. You shouldn’t care how many hours anyone on your team is working — tracking that is both time-consuming and pointless. What you should be focused on is results. If your team members are completing the tasks you need them to in the time you need them to, it doesn’t matter at all whether they’re in an office or at home. Conversely, if they’re not completing the tasks they need to on time, then it should be time for them to hit the road no matter where they work from.

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