Online articles for new businesses and entrepreneurs often emphasise the pro and cons of home working and home offices disregarding the fact that many entrepreneurs are constantly mobile. Their average day is rarely typical and often rely on smart phones and instant messaging to manage their business day.
To succeed as a mobile entrepreneur requires effective daily management and organisation whilst focusing on your clients and business needs. the growth in Virtual Offices can be explained by the number of businesses performing this juggling act.
Outsourcing telephone answering plus administrative and secretarial duties can free up time to concentrate. Many virtual office companies also have bricks and mortar locations for you to meet clients or pitch for new business, removing the need for business insurance or provision of additional space at your home.
Depending on your business the benefits of presenting an impressive business address via a Virtual Office (incorporating mail forwarding and a central ‘0207’ telephone prefix) may be a crucial component of a business plan and this value may outweigh the monthly costs.
However with such variety in quality there are a few questions to ask yourself to ensure the virtual office you choose will represent your business appropriately for many years.
1. How do you feel about clients knowing where you live and having access to your home number or mobile?
Consider whether an 0207 telephone number with a live virtual receptionist would help you manage your day by screening out time wasters and allowing you to focus on your business.
2. Do you need to project a professional image from the start or is this an aspect that can be deferred until your business is more secure? Is a business address going to help secure clients?
Some virtual office providers allow you to pick the services you need and add and remove as your requirements change. Check the terms for this, can you only do it at the end of your contract? If you want to reduce your services are the terms different.
There are some budget virtual office providers in the market that may suit your current requirements of simply an address for your website but consider all the future trajectories you can take your business. Visit the location of the virtual address, meet the staff handling your mail and telephone calls, inspect the reception area, meeting rooms and the areas that interest you now and in the future.
3. Is your plan to one day have a physical office?
If it is make sure the virtual office you have chosen can offer office space and check the flexibility of the terms. This will allow you to keep the same contact details and, if the office doesn't work out you can go 'virtual' again with no drama or inconvenience.
4. Do you ever need to meet your clients face-to-face either now or in the future?
You and your current clients might be happy to use free coffee shops at the moment but consider your prospective clients and how they will perceive your company. Also if you choose a virtual office with a business address then you may prefer the consistency of meeting rooms at your business address.
It's important to visualise the future of your business and be sure not to undersell yourself.
Showing posts with label virtual office services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virtual office services. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
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
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
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