When to Consider a Virtual Office

As a small business owner or a person intending to establish a business soon, you are probably thinking of where to get an office space and how to pay for the office. Having a comfortable workspace is crucial to the success of the business, and the decision you make should best suit the type of operations you do and of course the financial capability of your company. While there are several readily available office spaces for rent including co-working spaces, some business situations go well with virtual offices. Virtual offices allow employees to work from any location as long as they have a reliable internet connection, laptops, and mobile phones. Here are some of the situations when you should think of using a virtual office.

You are starting up

If you are just establishing your business and you want to give it a professional image, then consider going for the virtual office. Instead of booking an actual office space, hiring employees to serve in various positions and purchasing office equipment such as fax machines, printers, and photocopiers, you can just rent a virtual office with all these provisions. The cost of setting up an actual office is far much higher compared to renting a virtual office. Different Virtual business office plans such as the ones we provide present business owners with professional services like call forwarding, reception, and mail handling and even conference rooms for particular occasions.

The virtual office is an exceptional way through which business start-ups can keep their operating costs as low as possible while at the same time developing the company’s professional image. For instance, instead of using your personal telephone or address, the professional phone and email services that come with virtual offices help to improve the professional corporate image of a small company. Below is a summary of how the virtual office can help a business start up to develop a professional corporate image at low cost:

Improve your interactions with clients through the use of customized voice mail boxes. Virtual office plans include voice mail boxes that have pre-recorded introductions which can be customized to meet your company’s operations and enhance the consumer-company interactions.

Get local customers through the local telephone number. When you use a local area code business number that individuals can quickly identify, the local customers will feel closer to your business, and that is likely to prompt them to try your services or products. Besides, using a local telephone number as facsimile line for your company can also help in attracting more local customers with regards to faxing because they can easily recognize the number.

Use the professional live receptionist to portray a professional image of your company. When your business calls are answered by a trained and experienced receptionist the credibility of your operations is sustained because clients are able to identify the seriousness in the running of your company.

Use the corporate mailing address to establish a location and qualify for business loans. Many lenders prefer dealing with businesses whose locations are easily identifiable. It would be less credible to use the location of your house as a business location when seeking loans from banks and other lenders. For instance, our virtual office plans enable companies to use the Manhattan mailing address and the Midtown location which is more realistic compared to a home location.

You Want to Increase Office Flexibility

Sometimes in the course of running a business and managing employees, you may realize that most members of your team look overworked. The factors that contribute to fatigue are many, including the challenge of balancing between work and parenting as well as juggling between work and studies. Strict working schedules may not be suitable for such employees and as a manager, the best approach to situations like that is to help the employees achieve work-life balance through the provision of flexible working hours.

Operating your business using a virtual office gives employees the opportunity to work during the times that they are most productive. The management can draw out hours in which each individual is expected to work. That allows employees who are parenting, studying or dealing with other pressing life commitments to effectively balance between those commitments and work. Moreover, the company can opt for virtual offices that have other amenities such as desks, meeting rooms, lounge spaces and kitchens that can employees who are seeking the feel of an actual office to achieve it.

Improved office flexibility is associated with increased worker productivity. When employees know that they have specific time frames to complete a task, they are more likely to be efficient compared to when they are in a traditional office set up with the manager keeping them on task. The work effectiveness is mostly brought about by the sense of well-being and happiness that employees derive from developing their schedules and balancing work with other responsibilities.

Your Employees are Geographically Spread

Globalization has enabled people to work for companies whose premises they have never set foot on and to be supervised by managers that they have only met online. It does not matter whether your small business has teams or individuals spread across the globe because virtual offices make it possible for the operations to run smoothly. Virtual offices allow you to stay in contact with every employee round the clock. That is because you can have quick conversations with them to get the progress of their work as well as other details such as their grievances or opinions towards the betterment of the company. Telephone calls, emails and videoconferencing are all useful ways of communicating with employees. The choice of communication channel will depend on the formality of the message, cost, and location of the employee(s) to be contacted.

You Want to Cut Costs

When your sales begin to slump, you are likely to get into a panic mode. There are several strategies that you can employ to mitigate the situation. Some of the workable strategies include cutting costs and diversifying. A small business owner can implement these two strategies at ago especially if he/she opts to cut down on the office rent costs. With the use of a virtual office, you can cut down on the money you pay monthly for renting an actual office space and instead have your employees work remotely. I have already mentioned that the cost of virtual office is lower compared to the real office cost yet the company is capable of maintaining a good corporate image. Therefore, the money saved from monthly rent can be used to fund the diversification project or pay employees well as a motivator for them to get more productive.

Your Business is Rapidly Growing

Some of the indicators of a growing business are the need for more working space and more employees. A fast growing business may require the purchase of new office equipment and relocation to a bigger office. However, these costs and challenges associated with the processes of getting a new suitable office can be reduced by moving into a virtual office. New employees use their desks, kitchens, and computers at home and that eliminates the worry of creating space and purchasing work tools for the newcomers. Compared to the typical office space, the virtual office allows more employees to work at the same time. Issues of shifts that may arise because all employees cannot fit in the available office space at the same time are completely done away with when using virtual office.

Your Employees are stressed

Studies have indicated that commuting is a stressful process for many workers in many parts of the world. Apart from being a tiring routine, communing is costly regarding money and time. Many employees would be happier to save on the commuting fee as well as the time spent. The time spent to and from work can be used to accomplish other important life goals or even work related activities. The grooming procedures before leaving for a job can be nerve-wracking at times and can even spoil the mood of the day. When employees can work at home while wearing the kind of clothes they are most comfortable in they are likely to be happier and therefore more productive that when they force themselves into formal attire and work in a formal setting.

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