Remote by results: how I took my business fully remote in three months

I used to dream of a creative office in the heart of Soho. And I got one. Big windows, exposed brick, great coffee, the buzz of the city. I even had the biggest disco ball. I still feel like every office needs a disco ball.

Then one day I looked around an office I think was costing us around £50,000 a year, and nobody was there.

My exact thought was: “Why the F am I paying so much money for this office when nobody wants to be here?”

That one question changed how I run everything. In March 2024 I closed the office, packed two suitcases and booked a flight to New York. Since then I’ve lived and worked from 18 places in 11 countries, and Firebelly has run as a remote-first company the whole time.

But I didn’t just tell the team “we’re remote now, good luck”. We ran a test first.

The three-month test

This is what I said to the team, word for word: “If we can prove that none of our client services drop in those three months, then I don’t care where you are as long as the work gets done.”

Three months. One measure. Client work.

Not hours online. Not how fast someone answers a message. Not who looks busy at 5pm.

And it held. Then it got better.

I don’t care where you are, as long as the work gets done.

I’ll be honest, I was scared at first. I had three fears on repeat. What if clients think we’re too remote? What if it looks unprofessional? What if our service drops?

Clients didn’t care. Because our service got better.

Two years on, they’ve never complained. In fact, they call me and say: “Where are you today? What plane are you on?”

How to run the test in your own business

You don’t need to close your office tomorrow. You need a fair test, a clear measure and the nerve to hold yourself to the answer. This is the version I’d run again.

Step 1: Pick one measure your clients actually feel

Choose the thing a client would notice if it slipped. Deadlines hit. Response times. Results on the account. Repeat orders.

Write it down before the test starts, with the number you’re at today. That’s your baseline. Everything after that is just checking it.

If you can’t name the measure, you’re not ready to go remote. You’re not really ready to run an office either, to be fair.

Step 2: Set a date and say it out loud

Three months worked for us. Long enough to get past the novelty, short enough that nobody panics.

Tell the whole team at once. Tell them what you’re measuring and what happens if it holds. A test only works when everyone knows the rules.

Step 3: Write it down before you scatter

This is the bit people skip, and it’s the bit that made it work for us.

When everyone sits in one room, half of the business lives in people’s heads and in conversations over the kettle. The minute you spread out, that knowledge disappears unless it’s written down.

We’d been documenting every process since the start of the agency, so we had a head start. If you haven’t, start now. You can read more about why on my How I operate page.

Step 4: Swap meetings for Looms

We cut the busy work. We stopped dragging people into meetings that didn’t need to happen.

A short recorded video (we use Loom) explains a task better than a 30-minute call, and people watch it when it suits their day and their time zone.

Being offline for part of the working day makes you more productive, too. When you don’t have eight hours of possible meeting slots, you get a lot done a lot faster.

Step 5: Use the time zones

This one surprised me. Time zones are a gift.

Today my team lives and works across Dubai, the French Alps, the UK, Amsterdam and Portugal, and I’m writing this from Bali. That means somebody is always awake. Our clients wake up and the work is done.

A small team spread across the world can run a 24-hour operation. A small team in one office can’t.

I tested this one on myself, too. When I first based myself in LA, I thought it was the worst time zone ever for my clients and my team. But if I could make that work, I could make anything work. And it worked perfectly. I’m an early morning person, so I join calls from 6am and I’m done by about 1pm.

Step 6: Check the measure, not the people

At the end of the three months, look at the number you wrote down in step one. Did it hold?

If it did, you have your answer, and you don’t need to watch anyone’s green dot on Slack ever again. If it didn’t, you’ve found the exact process that needs writing down or fixing. That’s useful too.

Nobody was there. That was the whole answer.

What it bought me

Remote work for us was never about a laptop on a beach. It was about freedom: no one telling you what country to be in, what hours to work or what time you need to be anywhere.

And it goes for the team as much as me. Someone tells me they’re off to Indonesia for a few weeks? Cool. I don’t really care where you are.

Because the alternative costs more than office rent. In my words: “If you’re sat at home in a place that you don’t love, or you’re fixed in an office, or you’re doing a commute every day that kills you, like, that’s gonna kill you.”

Travelling the world makes me happy, and when I’m happy, I do my best work. The test just proved the business agreed.

Run it this week

1. Write down the one measure your clients feel.
2. Write down today’s number.
3. Pick a start date and a three-month end date.
4. Tell the team the rules.
5. Start writing down the processes that live in people’s heads.

If you want the system I run my businesses on, so you can build it for yourself or have my team build it with you, pick a route here.