I’ve made my first experience with remote work as a marketeer in Berlin in 2015 with my agency team distributed across Germany, our main client with a team across Germany, Europe and the US.

I then also did some digital nomading in 2017 and loved it.

Especially the flexibility to choose when and where to work got me hooked.

The year 2020 has pushed the digitization around the globe and especially in Germany to an unprecedented degree.

The German digital industry association BITKOM states in a study from December 2020 that location-independent work is now adopted by the masses.

According to their information, 25% of those working in the pandemic work exclusively from home.

Even after the pandemic, 27% of companies are expected to still work partially and another 8% completely from their home office.

The McKinsey advisory group states in a publication on “The future of work” (11/2020) that a “hybrid model” of in person and home office will establish itself.

The Problem

Waking up at home, opening your laptop and sitting in Zoom-Meetings all day withouth a break is really unhealthy.

During my full time marketing job at a big institution which just switched to remote structures some months prior to the pandemic I’ve felt this pain personally.

Business publications like Handelsblatt indicate that the rapid digitization of work has major negative sides.

The high number of video meetings makes employees “tired” and exhausted because there is a lack of social and informal exchange.

It is precisely this market problem that I address with my solution.

Solution

A positive team atmosphere is essential for productivity and job satisfaction at work - especially if your team is distributed across different locations.

That is why I created the Remote Team Boutique Service - RemoteNActive.com

I have decided to start a serviced bases business, as each and every team has a special need that I want to address individually.

By this I can get to know the problems on a far deeper level than if I try to create a technical solution right away.

The service is an evaluation of the remote teams current tools used and experience, based on that I deliver an individual Remote Team Playbook for them to use as a guide and execute on.

I have made the experience that it helped me to have all activities to do in one place to look up again.

I also got the feedback from interviews with people from my target audience that they do exactly that - create a list of things to do.

This is why I will create a dynamic list for the team leaders who do not have time to do it on their own.

Target Audience

My focus is on team leaders and HR/People Managers in SMBs and agencies.

Ideally the teams are not too small (under 10) as these teams tend to know each other well on a personal level and do not look for further connections as I’ve gathered from my interviews.

Around 10 - 20 is an ideal starting point.

Market

The market is noisy, which is why there is a lot of opportunity.

There is a high number of software based solutions like games, apps and remote team events.

These are often catered towards big corporations (events) or focused purely on fun (games).

I have screened the market and gathered many remote team activities on (website discontinued)

Challenges

As mentioned, the remote work market is pretty noisy, therefore it’s challenging to get on the radar of relevant business as a new, self-funded business.

In addition, some companies are dealing with the issues they are having on their own.

My take it’s like in the sports world.

You can train on your own, but having a trainer always pushes you one step further.

Right now my biggest challenge is to get to my first 10 customers which is critical to get things going.

I have started my soft-launch campaign, and I am looking at the first feedback.

Going on from there I will start leaning stronger into marketing.