3 things you need to know to run a successful remote company

"Paypal is shit, it just doesn't work as well as Wise." – Liam Martin, co-founder of Time Doctor

Time zones, limited facetime, and legal hurdles can make running a remote company seem daunting. Liam Martin, co-founder of Time Doctor and organiser of Running Remote, wants to change that perception.

Time Doctor was founded to help remote teams track time and manage their payroll. They recently integrated Wise to make international payroll easier (here’s how it works).

His top tips for remote companies? Streamline your payroll with Time Doctor and Wise, focus on hiring, and make time to meet face-to-face.

Streamline how you pay

“Going beyond a handful of people in a remote team was long considered impossible,” says Liam. And payroll in particular used to be a pain point.

“Before we had Wise, we used Paypal. Our employees and contractors would complain that they weren’t receiving their full salary,” he says. That’s because unlike PayPal, Wise eliminates receiving fees for employees, as money is converted and goes right into their bank account.

Independent research commissioned by Wise shows that Paypal can be over 16 times more expensive than Wise. A lot of that cost is born by the recipients – in this case, employees.

Focus on hiring

One of the biggest benefits to going remote is access to talent. “Remote companies have access to a global talent pool,” says Liam. “The potential is so much larger.”

Finding the right people who will thrive in this environments is crucial. “That’s why you should focus on hiring”, explains Liam.

While the lack of facetime might put some off, there are big benefits to working remotely. “I don’t think my co-founder Rob has spent more than 3 months in any one place for the past five years,” Liam says.

Make time to meet face-to-face

Attending conferences, like Running Remote, can be a great way to spend time with your team. Companies famous for their remote models, such as Atlassian, Github, and Dribble, are speakers at the event in Ubud, Indonesia this summer.

Join us at the Running Remote conference

Senior engineer at Wise Sean Hodges will be speaking at 2018’s Running Remote conference about how to use the Wise platform to make international payroll easy. We’ll be beaming in ourselves to hear him share best practices for working remotely, and tactics for how to run remote worker payroll.

Wise users get a discount when they sign up for Running Remote using this promo code: transferwise10