Glossary

Generally, an office business center is a place that provides office facilities and services. The office business center is the main service provider for the executive suite industry. Office Business Centers are usually located within a city’s business district at a prominent address. Other terms for the office business center are executive suite and serviced office center.

Coworking environments generally appeal to entrepreneurs who are in business by themselves. These business owners benefit from a shared working environment that offers collaboration opportunities with other professionals. Coworking provides a social space where professionals can work independently while being part of a community of others with shared values and synergy. Serviced Office centers that feature coworking services contribute the space, which is generally open along with equipment and services to facility the users success.

A solopreneur is a portmanteau of solo and entrepreneur.  The executive suite industry’s services are particularly attractive to solopreneurs for three reasons.  One, office business centers offer a support staff that is accessible to the solopreneur, but he/she is not responsible for generating payroll for them.  Two, the solopreneur can stay as lean as possible using the services and equipment of the office business center without purchasing them on his/her own.  Three, the solopreneur is not pinned into long term agreements and burdensome expenses of a traditional office space.

A day office is a small office that is available for reservation by the day and by the hour.  Most office business centers have several day offices that clients can use at a moment’s notice.  The advantage of using a day office is that it is there when the client needs it, but they are not paying for it when they don’t.

A flexspace in the executive suite industry is a space that contains workspaces, tables, chairs, and wireless internet access.  Clients use this space on a drop in basis.  Flexplace is a place to process and respond to emails, texts, social media, and calls.  Office business centers may provide flexspace for free or charge a check in fee for use.

Channel partners are online brokers that provide a simple search tool for customers seeking executive suite services. Channel partners advertise for the office business center by including their details in their database.  These companies focus their search engine optimization dollars on appearing first when key industry terms are searched for online.  Channel partnerss operate either on a referral or a retailer basis.   Companies that work on a referral basis pass on the lead to the office business center and charge a referral fee once the business is signed.  Companies that work on a retailer basis buy the services from the center at significantly discounted rate and sell them back to the customer at the regular retail rate.  In the second case, the customer is billed by the channel partner and remains their customer.   DavinciVirtual.com, MeetingRooms.com, SearchOfficeSpace.com, InstantOffices, and AllianceVirtualOffices.com are a few examples of channel partners.

A remote receptionist is a standard feature of office business centers that provide virtual office services.   A remote receptionist answers your unique phone number with your personal greeting and then transfers calls to the customers cell phone, office phone, or home offices according to their preference.  Remote receptionists are housed by the office business center or outsourced to an organization that provides receptionist services exclusively, such as the Office Suite Strategies service PROS (link to PROS page).  The advantage of using a remote receptionist over a traditional receptionist is that their services are shared with several other businesses keeping costs low.  Also, remote receptionists are able to provide a friendly, professional impression to the business’s clientele whether they are in the office or working remotely.  Other terms are virtual receptionist and live receptionist.

A satellite office is a small office in a different location from a company or government agency’s main office.  Many companies use office business centers to house their satellite offices rather than investing in additional commercial real estate.  The executive suite industry has made satellite operations much more lean by reducing costs of hiring additional support staff, furnishings,  and rent.

Serviced office or Serviced office center is another name for an executive suite or office business center.

Shared office space is the essential part of the Serviced Office center. The shared office environment is a step up from coworking space where users are able to reserve private offices and meeting rooms according to their needs. Serviced Office centers coordinate the scheduling of these shared offices within the facility.

Site Selection indicates the practice of a new facility location for businesses.  It involves choosing the best location for an anticipated use. Office Suite Strategies assists in the site selection process for new office business centers.  Factors to consider during this process include: area demand for services, rental rates, prominence of address, purchase prices, area demographics, and desirability of the location.

A softphone is a piece of software that allows the user to make telephone calls over the Internet via a computer.  This technology is particularly useful to the executive suite industry because it allows maximum flexibility and reduces the investment on communication equipment.