ListHost.net NEWS

Azriel Winnett

The following is an excerpt...

How do members of virtual companies, working independently in localities thousands of kilometers apart, coordinate their joint activities? How do they communicate? What methods do they use to stay in touch with each other, and in emergencies? Among the entrepreneurs with whom we discussed these and similar questions was 19 year old "Internet Whiz Kid" Kevin Colleran, the subject of a soon to be published book called "Becoming a Teenaged Millionaire." Kevin has owned more than five model online businesses since 1993. His partner in one of them is Eva Rosenberg of Ask TaxMama and I- HelpDesk fame, who points out that since she and Kevin live on opposite American coasts, they communicate exclusively via the Internet and the telephone.

AGONY AND ECSTASY
Kevin succinctly expresses both the agony and the ecstasy of most people who work in a virtual environment: "No one would argue that face-to-face communication is not the best and most rewarding form of contact. I feel handicapped when I cannot take part in the learning and growing process that takes place in a corporate meeting or around the coffee table. "But against this, I recognize the unlimited access and opportunities that cyber conferencing offers my company. I'm able to work with a wide variety of people who, before the advent of the Internet, I would never have been able to work with." Kevin says that although he has used AOL Instant Messenger on occasion for immediate communication, and the "good old telephone" remains useful for urgent contact and one-on-one brainstorm sessions, email remains the preferred method of contact with his business partners. "Email takes away the concerns of time zone differences. We check our email from home in the mornings and late evenings to take care of anything that needs to be addressed outside the business day. We make sure that each partner is copied on most business related correspondence. This makes sure that everyone is up to date and on the same page on all projects. I still have every email I received since I was 12 years old."

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