The Virtuosity of a Medical Product Company’s Virtual Office - MediPurpose
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29 Jun The Virtuosity of a Medical Product Company’s Virtual Office

Posted at 20:18h in Blog by

I started working for MediPurpose at its Atlanta, Georgia office in 2005. In 2011, the company closed that office to become one of the new breed of entrepreneurial virtual companies. That was also then when my family and I decided to move to California for the milder weather and—being originally from Singapore—a greater availability of delicious Asian food.

Every time I tell a new friend that I work from home, he or she often immediately gets jealous and sometimes say that it would be a dream come true if they could work from home.

I’m not the only MediPurpose employee to seize the opportunity of working at a virtual company. For instance, MediPurpose’s Customer Sales Manager Cheryl Channell moved from Atlanta to Pace, Florida in April 2012 to be nearer to her family.

Today, we now also have staff members in North Carolina and West Virginia, as well as in Singapore and London.

Hidden and Real Advantages

Both for the employees and the company, there are a variety of unique advantages and benefits of being a virtual organization:

  • Freedom in where you call “home”: Working in a virtual organization makes it much easier to pick up and move to wherever your heart desires, while maintaining the same steady job.
  • Personal cost savings: Employees save both money and time without having to commute to a centralized office every day. According to Lifehacker’s Melanie Pinola, employees would save approximately $795/year per mile they live away from their office.In Cheryl Channell’s case, two years ago before we became a virtual organization, she lived 60 miles away from the office and would commute to work everyday. A typical year has 260 workdays. So, her commuting expense would be $17,628 (260 work days x 60 miles x 2 (two-way travel) x $0.565/mile). And, that doesn’t include the lost time stuck in traffic!
  • Access to an expanded talent base: I have heard of so many people turning down jobs because their job requires them to relocate. Being a virtual company, you can hire people from all over the country, or even all over the world! The possibilities are endless!

How We Did It

We started transforming into a virtual organization with baby steps.

First, we had a “work from home” day every Wednesday of every week. Then we had regular companywide discussions about the realities and expectations of going virtual.

We planned and made sure we had new virtual communication resources setup, such as cloud file sharing, Skype and Web Meeting App. Once we thought we figured everything out, we went virtual.

If you are thinking of making your company virtual after reading this, start planning and counting how much money you will save!

About the Author

Patrick Yi

Patrick Yi is MediPurpose’s founder and CEO.

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