Travel for Travel: Why We’re Going Remote

Influence Society started in Paris. During the years we’ve traveled all over Europe meeting new people and clients, visiting amazing hotels. It’s in our DNA to travel. So even before COVID-19, we were already keeping tabs on remote work. The concept was interesting — the flexibility, the travel, the agility — but I wasn’t sure we could afford such a radical change to our business at the time. Then COVID-19 hit and we were forced to close our office and go fully remote overnight. We’re not going back.

Remote working, distributed teams, working from home/ working from anywhere. Whatever you call it, it’s not only working for us, but it’s improved our everyday operations. To us at Influence Society, it seems clear that remote work is the way of the future and we’re going all in.

Today, we’re fully remote. Especially for us, doing marketing work in travel and hospitality, having the ability to travel to meet clients is a massive advantage. But it goes further than that.

When our team is allowed to live and work across different time zones and regions, or as remote advocates call it, “asynchronously,” we can keep the ball rolling beyond the normal working hours. I’ll start a project in Europe and pass it to a team member in the US where they continue working on it while Europe sleeps.

Being fully remote also allows us to find more diverse and skilled talent, not limited to who happens to live in the same area as our office. And that’s without mentioning the lower overhead from avoiding office space and the expenses that go with it.

Of course, a remote business requires added attention and structure in terms of workflows, tech, and communication. To support this, we have daily meetings and use tools like Slack, Asana, and Google Meet to stay in touch and manage projects. And once a month we all meet in a new location to brainstorm and let the creative spirit lead us in new directions. This keeps us inspired and excited about the work we’re doing.

Remote work may not be for everyone or every organization, but for us, and, I think, for many people and businesses, it is undoubtedly the way of the future. For Influence Society, it perfectly supports our goal of being agile, transparent, and collaborative.

Sébastien FELIX
Founder @influencesociety
www.influence-society.com