Virtual offices are becoming an increasingly popular decision for small business owners who want to enjoy the luxuries of a traditional office space, while still having the flexibility to enjoy work on their own terms. With a virtual office, you have the ability to work anytime anywhere and still take full advantage of the support, technology, and meeting space that a regular office provides.
Professional Business Address Provided
If you’ve ever hesitated at the idea of having to put your home address on your website or cringed at the thought of someone checking you out on Google only to discover your location is in a residential neighborhood, a virtual office has a major benefit to you. With a virtual office you are provided a professional business address at well-known buildings in your community. The best part? You don’t even have to rent office space at the building. The virtual office service forwards all mail sent to this address to the client. This is an essential advantage with Google; the service is not a fan of P.O. Boxes or home addresses linked to a business.
No Commute Time to the Office
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average travel time to work in the US is 25.4 minutes. Depending on your location, that number can be considerably higher and significantly more stressful. Now you don’t have to spend all that extra time getting ready for work and then sitting in traffic. Since there hasn’t quite been a way invented to combine these two activities into one yet, it all feels like such a huge waste of time. That one, two or more hours could be spent working, growing your business and actually BEING PRODUCTIVE. When you’re ready to grow your team, an additional bonus is that you can now hire employees anywhere in the US without having to relocate them or be overly concerned with their personal commute and how it will affect their work/life balance.
Reception and Communication Services
As many of us know, a quality reception service can really help elevate the perception of your business. Having someone who handles phone calls professionally adds clout and authenticity to the office experience. Adding a mailbox number that doesn’t start with P.O., as well as having items and mail delivered to a professional business address can only help to increase the feeling of security for your clients that they are doing business with an established and well developed business.
The virtual office service can provide live phone receptionists, voice mail and other communications options. Your office can even have its own email address and fax number for these communications and to increase the professional image of your business.The front desk staff will also receive and sign for any parcels sent to the business address. The service then arranges for delivery of the parcel to the client. It may also be possible to arrange for on-site notaries and witnesses.
Meeting Rooms and Day Offices are Available for Use
How many meetings have you had to drive exceptionally far out of your way for to meet at a client’s location? What about meeting at a coffee shop with too-small tables and too much noise for productive discourse? Virtual office space and business centers offer rental meeting rooms and conference rooms to clients that are available on-demand. This meeting space is available at the same building as their professional business address. In addition to meeting rooms, the virtual office space may offer temporary office or work space to clients. In many of these cases you may also have access to amenities like video conferencing equipment, break rooms and wireless Internet connectivity.
Cost Savings for Your Small Business
The average monthly rent per square foot of office space is $65.16 in San Francisco and $23.09 in Dallas, according to data from TheSquareFoot.com. With virtual office space, many basic packages start below $100 per month. There’s no office lease, no utility payments, no hardware and none of the associated costs that come with having a brick-and-mortar space. All that savings can not only be passed along to clients, but it also affects your profit margin, allowing you to invest more in your people. Not to mention, you won’t be forced to drink five cups of coffee a day just to stay at your makeshift coffee shop meeting space.
Starting a small business is time consuming and costly. Having the ability to eliminate some of the cost concerns, like the fear of getting an office before you are ready or being concerned you will end up with either too much or too little space can take a lot of stress of a small business owner’s plate. Additionally, being able to pass along some of the tasks that are important, but could definitely be handled by someone else frees up time and energy to focus on what you can do to build your business. Ultimately, taking advantage of a virtual office space means you don’t have to do it all on your own!
