Even if you’re running your start-up from home, you can create an entirely different impression for your customers’ benefit.
With a virtual office you can appear to be situated in a prime location in the heart of London, should you wish, rather than out of your dining room.
Simply speaking, a virtual office is a business location simulated by telecommunications and address agents. The main services offered by these agents are mail forwarding and telephone answering.
According to recent research by Yac, the communication management specialist, 36% of start-ups have a preference for virtual working. These businesses identified flexibility as the primary benefit of opting for this style of working.
Of those owners that preferred virtual working, 75% felt they would probably be moving location within six months of trading so didn’t want to be tied down, and 85% could not afford to set up a permanent office so preferred to use technology that allowed them to work anywhere.
Professionalism
The virtual office offers a range of services.
Mail forwarding is where your post is sent to an address given to you by the provider, usually in a prestigious location. It is then forwarded on to you wherever you are on a daily basis. This means you maintain a level of professionalism associated with established, larger firms that can afford expensive office spaces.
Similarly, they can forward faxes to you, via email.
Another service offered by providers is telephone answering, whereby trained receptionists handle calls on behalf of your organisation. When you sign up for the service you are allocated a telephone number.
Callers are greeted by your virtual receptionist, who greets them with your company name. Like any traditional receptionist they can get important calls through to you while also filtering out cold callers.
You can also hire a virtual PA or secretary to handle part of your business. They can compose letters and emails, and keep your diary updated for meetings and reminders.
Usually independent or contract workers, virtual PAs and secretaries can be hired on a project-by-project basis or in the short or long-term.
Once you have registered with a virtual office provider, you can drop in to the physical office whenever you choose. They generally have desks, meeting rooms, storage space, IT support, a common area and office furniture, and are usually situated in prime locations, particularly city centres. If you’re running your business from home, it’s nice to have somewhere to work in between meetings with clients or colleagues.
Flexibility
So why bother using a virtual office? There are many advantages, specifically for a start-up business.
For a start, you may feel it too burdensome to deal with all communications yourself, yet find an answering machine too inflexible and impersonal. By having a virtual office, small start-up businesses can stay connected with their customers at any time, in any place, without compromising the level of service.
Flexibility is also a major factor. The ability to work from anywhere is a boon.
Overheads and office costs can be drastically reduced. Establishing an office can be an expensive task and could ultimately be a waste of time, should the business decide it needs to move within a short space of time.
“With the technology available today, small businesses can easily stay connected with their customers, giving them the ability to work from home or on the move without jeopardising the service they deliver,” says Ian Osborne, Chief Executive of Yac.
“The capability to work virtually also enables start-ups to easily scale up their business depending on needs such as adding new staff based in multiple locations.”
The most obvious disadvantage is the disconnection between you and the people working for you. Communication is key when it comes to virtual working – after all you can’t see each other or make contact physically. Make sure you get regular feedback and hold regular group meetings in a virtual room.
And obviously you are relying on technology to tie all of your business’s functions together. When your systems go down – and anyone that has used a computer knows it will happen at some point – disruption is much worse than if you are all working in the same office.
The virtual office industry has boomed in recent years. The market is saturated with companies offering the full virtual package, so it is worth shopping around to get find the best service and cheaper deals.
