Using the internet for Communication allows people and groups to spread information and ideas instantly to a much wider audience, at very little cost. This means that your message will be amplified a million-fold.

The internet can be used to bring together groups of like-minded people into a virtual Community that shares ideas and thoughts.

Content – the internet lets us publish thoughts, words, ideas, music, and video to a wide audience at very little cost, again ensuring that the message within the content is amplified in a way that just was not possible in the past.

Businesses primarily use the Three C’s as a marketing tool – however they can also be applied to the organisation and management of a business.

These days, the key decision for the entrepreneur is whether the business is a physical Brick and Mortar business or a primarily online virtual business. It is possible to combine the two, with a small, office-based team supported by a team of outsourced workers. It’s important for the modern entrepreneur to consider the pros and cons of these options and decide which is most appropriate for the business.

If the business requires a storefront, storage space, production machinery, hazardous substances, etc., a physical location will be a necessity. This involves the expense of leasing premises, hiring staff, compliance with legislation on Health and Safety at Work and the Disability Act. However, if a business has few staff, and provides services or sells small products, the whole organisation could be managed online.

For a while it’s been possible to outsource production, and sales and purchasing, functions, it is also becoming more commonplace to outsource other activities like, marketing, lead-generation, bookkeeping, etc.

An outsourced virtual business offers many advantages to the entrepreneur. A team of contractors provide flexibility and can be increased as the business grows. Overheads such as national insurance contributions, pension contributions are avoided. This means that staff are engaged and paid only when needed.

Although setting up an outsourced/virtual office may initially seem complicated, its flexibility and ability to grow with the business makes it worth the effort. There are some brilliant tools available online to help with the organisation of a virtual business. Applications like Dropbox, Evernote, salesforce.com, Constant Contact and iContact all offer secure software solutions that allow every team member of an organisation to access the information they need from any computer, anywhere in the world. Many of these software services also have mobile phone apps that will allow access while travelling.

One of the drawbacks of a virtual office/outsourced organisation, however, is it can be more difficult to manage and to this end there are plenty of project management tools that can be used.. As well as off-the-shelf solutions that can be customised to suit an organisation. At Planning for Life, we have been using FileMaker Pro – a sophisticated database - that has grown with us over the years. It includes a bespoke Project and Task Management facility which is accessible by everybody in the company from wherever they are.