In a small business, there may be any number of reasons you might consider video conferencing. For example, you might have remote employees or freelancers you’d like to connect with, or perhaps you have a client who doesn’t live locally, but you’d like to get some facetime with them.
With the proliferation of technology, small businesses have more options than ever before to break traditional boundaries and work in different, more innovative, and productive ways.
Often, video conferencing can be part of that.
With the use of video conferencing tools and technology, you can chat with one person or several people over the cloud. When choosing a video conferencing solution you want one with reliability and image quality, simplicity, and the option for wireless screen sharing.
So, if you’re thinking about incorporating more video conferencing into your small business, what are the benefits of doing so?
It’s An Engaging Form of Communication
When you work in the modern world, you are probably going to be communicating with people who are all over the place and not physically close to you. That means you’ll probably communicate primarily via email or similar text-based channels.
That’s fine, but sometimes you want something more engaging.
Let’s say you want to pitch a potential new client on an idea you have, and they can’t come to your office for a meeting.
Video conferencing lets you convey a sense of engaging excitement that you wouldn’t be able to achieve through email or even just a phone call alone.
Plus, whether you’re talking to employees or clients, people are more likely to lose interest and focus when they don’t have something visual to concentrate on.
Video conferencing can also cut down on some of the forms of miscommunication that can occur when you’re talking only by email. For example, it will be easier for people to understand your tone when they can see you as you speak.
Reduced Costs
This was touched on above, but when you use video conferencing, you can derive many of the benefits of an in-person meeting but with significantly reduced or nonexistent travel time and expenses.
It’s possible to collaborate or solve problems without ever having to travel anywhere or have anyone travel to you, which can boost productivity.
Flexible Work Environments
If you regularly use video conferencing for any reason, you can incorporate it into your talent management strategy as well. For example, you can provide more opportunities for your employees to work remotely but stay connected to the office. This will help employee satisfaction because they’ll have more of a work-life balance, but you don’t have to worry about disengagement or declines in productivity.
If you are an employer offering flexible and remote work opportunities, this can serve as an employee benefit in and of itself, because employees find this appealing.
Additionally, if you want to hire someone but you have trouble sourcing top talent in your local area, perhaps you hire an all-remote employee and then use video conferencing for onboarding and day-to-day management.
You can maintain a strong corporate culture and sense of cohesion and collaboration regardless of where your employees might be working at any given time.
It also gives you flexibility. If you’re a small business owner and you take advantage of tech tools like video conferencing, it gives you more freedom and balance in your own life.
Are There Disadvantages of Video Conferences?
As with anything, there are downsides and disadvantages of video conferencing to be aware of.
First, you have to make sure the people who are going to be participating in these meetings are fairly comfortable with technology. You don’t necessarily need advanced technical knowledge, but some level of understanding is required.
While a video conference can be much more personal than an email or even a phone call, it is still somewhat less personal than an in-person meeting.
Then, one of the possibly most relevant downsides is the fact that technical difficulties can occur, and that can halt your entire meeting. There are ways around that, though, including choosing the right video conferencing platform and making sure that you test everything before your conference.
You need high-speed internet, and you also need to make sure the individual components including your webcam and microphone are working well before you get started.
Overall, most business leaders at the helm of both small and larger organizations do feel the benefits of video conferencing outweigh any possible downsides and provide them with immense opportunities they might not have had just a few years ago.
