It's the time of year when the majority like to switch off for a couple of weeks, leaving work stress behind them and enjoy the sunshine with their families. Not always the case for SME owners.

According to research carried out by Sage more than 30% of small business owners in the UK did not take a summer holiday last year.  The smaller the business the more likely this is to occur.  Ironic really, as most small business owners work far longer hours than the average, certainly not the nine to five grind.

Whilst many SME business owners believe that they can't leave their business for a break as it may be damaging, it is actually more dangerous and less productive.  Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School says that people who are constantly thinking and working on their business are causing more harm than good.  "Keep that up over a long period and it can be destructive. There's profound evidence that if you work extremely long hours over a sustained period you'll end up being less productive."

It is also proven that taking a break helps with productiveness, wellness, health and family relationships.  Many SME owners aren't able to spend as much time connecting with family as they would like, so taking a break allows them do just so.  It is a fact that most people return from holiday rejuvenated and refreshed, with a clear mind you can refocus and actually see things more clearly.

It is recommended to have a complete "digital detox" but this isn't highly likely.  With smart-phones creating instant access to everything back at home, it's hard to completely switch off.  You can't relax on holiday if your phone is constantly ringing, yet if your not answering calls then you could be losing potential sales.

This is where we come in; to help you get that much needed break.  Taking a temporary telephone service at The Virtual Office from as little as £6 per day allows your business to still run effectively, whilst you're enjoying yourself away from the stress of everyday life at home.  We can help you out of your 'catch 22'.  As the first Virtual Office, with over twenty years in the business, our reliable and experienced staff take pride in the telephone service which we provide.

Simply divert your telephone line through to our receptionists to answer and handle your calls.  With our unified voicemail messaging you can receive email alerts and return to callers as you need.  If you're expecting important calls you can just inform us and we can transfer them through to you.

No need to make the choice between family time and work.  You are free to enjoy your much needed break.

 

Author: Jess Hill

Virtual Office Team member

30 June 2014

Are phones the lifeblood of your company?

We are in a new world of business multitasking; taking conference calls whilst emailing suppliers and ordering your groceries online.

However have you ever tried to fit a light switch or replace the washer on a tap whilst answering a call from a potential client? That takes more than multitasking, it takes extra hands.

In a previous life I used to run a plumbing company and we learned quite quickly that you cannot be an effective plumber and answer the phone. 
This is particularly the case when you are half way through a job and the phone rings. Best case scenario you just lose your train of thought.

Obviously, one cheap solution is to let the phone ring out to voicemail and return the call later.  However if it is a new customer they are probably calling a list of 3 plumbers and the first to answer is likely to get the job.
If you can arrange for someone else to answer that call you have a chance to capture the business as well as projecting an image of an organised, established, reliable company. 
What's not to like?

The Virtual Office® was created especially to deal with these issues as we realised that phone calls during an important piece of work are impossible to deal with effectively.  Just getting connected to voicemail is not customer friendly, especially if the caller is unsure how to explain what is wrong or need to talk to someone urgently to sort out a problem or query.

A Virtual Office® service allows people to do their business without interference until they are ready to deal with their phone calls and mail.
And with our ISO 9001 certification you can be confident in our strong focus on total quality management. This means that we have procedures in place to make sure that we do everything we should be doing and do it excellently. 

Since pioneering The Virtual Office® in 1992 we have spent all our time improving and refining our systems and training to ensure we do not make mistakes that might jeopardise your business. 

You can be sure when you're fixing that tap your calls are being answered by a competent receptionist who will manage your callers, take messages and reassure them that they have called the right company for their needs. Your messages are delivered to you by email so you can hear the message and assess it's urgency.

My plumbing company loved knowing that every caller had a trained receptionist handling every call however busy or short staffed we were.

Author: Richard Nissen, Chairman

© The Virtual Office October 2013

How do these changes effect your business?

General opinions of the Mr Osborne's budget are that it recognises the role of small businesses in the continued growth of the economy. The internationally competitive Capital Gains Tax and reduction in Corporation Tax for small businesses both encourage entrepreneurism.

However there are mixed responses to the new immigration laws introducing further restrictions on the number of skilled Non-EU workers entering Britain.
The Virtual Office team is reliant on International English speakers in creating a uniform voice with no regional dialects for our clients. Our small team currently includes British, South African, Australian and Canadian all with excellent telephone voices and extensive customer service experience.

How will this change effect your small business? Do you see it as a positive step to increasing British employment or damaging to your business?

New Look for The Virtual Office Group

As spring finally arrives in London, The Virtual Office® Group launches a redesigned website.

VOffice.com communicates the message that The Virtual Office® are the original, independent virtual office, serviced office and meeting room provider in London.

This redesign of voffice.com aims to create a more useable customer experience with true transparency and portray the professionalism and personality of The Virtual Office®.

Do you have any feedback on our achievement of these objectives?
Did you experience any usability problems?

I would be very interested in your responses.

New Decade means New Home for The Virtual Office

At the start of this year The Virtual Office Group relocated its operations & clients from 211 Piccadilly to 2 fantastic new locations: 180 Piccadilly, W1J & 50 Jermyn Street, SW1Y

The office space, meeting rooms & communal facilities were designed based on the results of a client questionnaire & have been received positively.

We are still listening to feedback & adapting the spaces to provide facilities tailor made to our client base.

Situated opposite the Royal Academy of Arts & adjacent to Fortnum and Mason, The Virtual Office provides tranquil spaces close to the peaceful havens of Green Park & St James's Park.

Visit the new website

Go Ahead - You Deserve a Break!

Its that time of year again... and for the first time in a long time, it seems like summer has FINALLY arrived in the UK, which means thoughts will be drifting to holidays...

Whether you fancy a trendy recession-inspired 'stay-cation'; have children who will be unleashed by their schools and therefore require some extra attention; or would love to indulge in a proper long-haul holiday, if you run your own business taking time for any or all of these reasons can be daunting. But, it is so important to remember that everyone needs a break sometimes in order to maintain their sanity!

So many people who run their own businesses struggle with taking time off. There is concerns about losing money or customers if they take a break, plus stress about who, if anybody, can be entrusted to take on tasks in their absence. Still another hurdle is the guilt that business owners feel when they take time off which is often overcompensated for by spending the duration of any time they do take off working and forgetting to actually relax!

Believe it or not, there is a solution to this problem... The Virtual Office Group. Part of our range of virtual office solutions specialises in holiday cover. Just arrange to forward your calls to the Virtual Office, where our friendly and professional live receptionists will personally answer your calls for you and manage them according to your specifications. We can arrange to have certain calls (or all of your calls) transferred to you wherever you are so that you can choose which ones you want to deal with. Alternatively, we can have the callers greeted and given an explanation of your choice for why you are unavailable, and put through to your voicemail which can be checked at your convenience via SMS, email, or on the phone. This means that you don't have to answer and deal with every call yourself, which gives you the freedom to actually relax and enjoy your time off. We can provide this service for a period of a few days, a fortnight, a month, or whatever you require! If you would like more information, please feel free to contact Kat on 0207 917 9918.

The Original and the Best!

If you met Richard Nissen, you would probably not instantly guess that he was the mastermind behind developing the Virtual Office Concept in the UK; especially if you tried to ring him on his mobile phone. This is particularly surprising since Richard is responsible for developing the first telephone call handling platform that could fully support flexible working practices by placing calls through to individuals wherever they were.

Richard is the founder and Chairman of The Virtual Office Group and was inspired by American Business Centres he encountered while working in the United States of America in the 1970’s. He brought the idea back to the United Kingdom and started the concept here. Although several other companies have grown and expanded on the original idea, The Virtual Office Group still prides itself in offering the best product available even after all of these years.

Richard Nissen and his relationship to the virtual office concept has been featured in a recent edition of Property Week. Follow this link to view the whole article.

The Unexpected Side Effects of Swine Flu - On Businesses

If Swine Flu turns out to be the pandemic predicted by officials and journalists alike, then be prepared to see incredible alterations to life as we know it.

It is suspected that as many as half of London’s seven million inhabitants could catch swine flu and that 94,000 could die in a worst case scenario. If the virus proves itself as communicable and if it evolves to be less reactive to the anti-viral treatments being used to keep it at bay presently, then many lives will be at risk, not just in the capital, but around the world.

Employers do have a duty of care to ensure that their employees are kept as safe as possible from any threat to their health or well-being. There is lots of buzz at the moment about the adoption of teleworking on a much grander scale across the business world in order to minimize the amount of time people will have to spend in close proximity and hopefully aid in slowing or eliminating the spread of the virus. Also, with nearly half of employees expected to take at least two weeks off of work over the coming months due to personal illness or to care for a friend or family member, working from home may become a necessary part of everyday operations for most companies. It is suspected that if the flu spreads as is predicted, then workplaces and schools alike can be expected to be shut for long periods of time. Many businesses will need business support networks to cope with this reality as they become more and more dependant on teleworking.

With so many employees set to be displaced from main office headquarters, a Virtual Office can help you to maintain a unified front and provide personalised telephone answering and call forwarding to employees no matter where they happen to be working from. A single telephone number for your company and the ability to reach any of the employees helps keep communication simple for you and your clients if much of your operations are switched to a virtual office concept.

Though the prognosis may be upsetting, it is still best to be prepared to continue business as closely to normal as possible throughout the next few months because much as there is no guarantee that we will make it out of this episode unscathed, there is also no guarantee that doomsday is upon us just yet.

Image Is Everything

Last week we talked about how using a Virtual Office can save you money and help when you launch your company as well as during the course of its life. This week, we explore how a Virtual office can give you the impression of a larger and more established company and how that impacts your clients' and potential clients' perception of your business.

Many people are now starting businesses from home to avoid lots of the start up costs, but it can be difficult to maintain a professional image. There are ways to mitigate risk while making every pound count! By using a Virtual Office, you can have the impression of occupying a prestigious prime location office at 10-20% of the cost because you are sharing the overhead with other businesses. With Virtual Offices, you can sign up for an address, a telephone number, and have a receptionist personally answer and transfer your calls to you so you can prioritise your work and be prepared for each call. All of your faxes and your mail can be forwarded to you and you can have access to meeting rooms and hotdesk space if you don’t need a whole permanent office for your company. Virtual Offices also have options for growth – eventually your company will prosper and when it does, you can have the opportunity to take up permanent serviced office space on the premises or to add employees to your package.

Having your client facing operations in impeccable order is important because clients may feel more comfortable working with someone who looks quite established and accomplished. A great central London address and telephone number is also very powerful to anchor your webpage, whether it be as a main address or as an international branch for companies trying to startup on a worldwide scale.

Really, people starting businesses should seriously consider the options and flexibility associated with a virtual office. It is a complete toolkit to help you get on your feet quickly and gives you what you need to forge ahead of your competitors.

Cheryl