By Rhonda Abrams
Gannett News Service

Once upon a time, people who owned businesses actually worked in the same building as their employees. Their customers came to their stores or offices. There was no Internet, no e-mail, no instant messaging. No faxes.

Technology has made working with others across the country, even across the world, possible and affordable, with many advantages.

• Greater options. Whether you're hiring an employee or a consultant, you can find someone with more experience in your industry or exactly the job skills you require when you can draw from a wider geographic area.

• Expanded market. Just as you can choose your employees or service providers from a greater geographic area, you also have a bigger pool of potential customers.

• Lower cost. You can save money when an employee, partner, or contractor works from his or her own space.

• Lifestyle options. Do you want to live in the country but serve Fortune 500 companies? Does your valued employee's spouse have a job offer in another city? Does your independent contractor want to be home with the kids?

There are pitfalls

But for all these advantages, there are pitfalls.

• Lack of communication. You share a lot of information informally when you work right next to each other. Once you're working with people from a distance, those informal information-sharing opportunities disappear, and it's much harder to give feedback, share company developments, solve problems.

• Loss of team spirit. It's much more difficult to pull together when you're not actually together.

• Increased isolation. It's easy to feel alone when you're working alone.

• Loss of synergy. Perhaps the most valuable thing lost when you don't work face-to-face are good ideas that never get thought up.

Sometimes you've got to actually "put your heads together" to come up with new strategies and solutions.

Stay in touch

Instead, enhance your distant relationships by following a few steps.

1. Set clear goals and standards. At the beginning of any project - or phase of a project - get together (preferably in person) and go over expectations and timelines.

2. Set - and keep - a regular reporting routine. Get out your appointment books and establish times to report in.

3. Use e-mail. It is a quick and cheap way to share information. And, unlike phone calls, it leaves a written record.

4. Use instant messaging. If you're not familiar with instant messaging, ask a teenager.

5. Use the phone. It's much easier to be misunderstood in writing than over the phone.

6. Get an express delivery service account. Inevitably, there's stuff you should share that can't be sent as an e-mail attachment.

7. Meet in person. Nothing beats "face time" for building and maintaining relationships.

Rhonda Abrams is the author of "The Successful Business Plan. Secrets & Strategies" and president of The Planning Shop, publisher of books and tools for business planning.