What is a Virtual Office and what can it do for you?
What is a Virtual Office?
A Virtual Office is essentially an address for your business. Admittedly, that doesn’t sound very exciting, so let’s break it down a bit.
When you work for yourself, often you are working from home, or you travel around a lot, not really needing a physical office space. This can be a bit tricky when it comes to adding your address to stationery, business cards, and registering with search engines. Many people do not want their home address available to their clients. Not only do they not want to be contactable at that level, but also because a home address does not look as professional as a business address.
In addition to an address, Virtual Office services can include mail collection, access to meeting room hire, business and admin support, and phone answering.
Who can benefit from a Virtual Office?
Anyone who runs a business but does not have a dedicated office space or a business address will benefit from a Virtual Office. This can include home based businesses, start-ups, and entrepreneurs. If you want to have a professional looking business but you don’t have a business address, a Virtual Office will benefit you.
In some circumstances, even if you do already have a physical office space, a Virtual Office can be useful, as it can provide another business location for you to advertise. This can help reinforce your professional image by showing you have multiple offices in multiple locations. You might even want to secure a Virtual Address in another country to cement your status as a global enterprise.
What can a Virtual Office do for you?
An address can say a lot about you and your business. First impressions count, and it is important to build a brand that is trustworthy, reliable, and high quality. Having a business address is a big piece of this branding package.
So now you’re convinced about the benefits of a Virtual Office from the perspective of your clients, what can our Virtual Office services do for you?
Business Address
This is the main part of the package. You are allowed to use our address on your website, business cards, email footers, and anywhere else you would like to communicate it. Our address is in the highly coveted corporate area in Norwest; high end, high quality, highly professional.
Benefit to you:
- You get a professional virtual home for your business.
- Clients will recognise the area and trust that you are a professional who knows what you are doing.
- You do not need to worry about people finding out your home address.
- You can register for Google Business and get a Google pin. This is the little pin that pops up with a business name when you’re looking at Google maps. It also means when people search for ‘[…..] businesses near me’, yours will show.
Mail Collection
Mail is collected regularly by our staff, who then scan the front of the envelope and email you a copy of that scan. Each piece of mail is then filed and kept securely, ready for you to pick up at a time that is convenient to you.
If you would prefer for us to open your mail and scan a copy of the contents to you, we can do that too. For a small extra fee per letter, plus monthly mail forwarding postage costs if required, it is one less job on your list.
Benefit to you:
- Mail is sent directly to your inbox, which you can check from anywhere.
- Less time and effort spent collecting your mail only to find it is the paper version of the estatement you already received.
Automated Phone Direction
If you require a landline phone number, we can provide one for you (this a small extra cost in addition to your Virtual Office). We have chosen not to offer phone answering services, as there are dedicated call centres much better equiped to give you a good experience than we can.
Your landline phone number will be directed however you choose – this is often your mobile, but could be an answering service or staff member. When you miss a call you can even get a notification via email or sms.
We can set up a range of messages depending on the time of day or day of the week that will play when your caller rings your number before handing over to ring to a real person. This message is useful to orient your callers that they have called the right place, and also to add things like business hours for out of hours phone calls.
Benefit to you:
- You get a professional landline phone number.
- We can set up messaging, giving an even better impression to your clients. This can also convey important information.
- Never struggle with grabbing paper and pen when writing down details from a missed call – details are sent straight to your email or phone.
- A small monthly fee for a very large impact to your business.
Access to Meeting Room Hire
Our meeting room is available for hire on an hourly, half day, or full day rate. Whilst it is true that you do not need to have a Virtual Office with us to hire our meeting room, it can provide benefits if you are.
Benefit to you:
- We already work with you, so it is easier to follow up with you.
- As you are already a paying client, you will be billed monthly, rather than at the time of booking for your meeting room hire.
- You will already be familiar with the area, parking, us, and our office, making it an easier process for you.
- Your clients will already associate you with our address, so it is not a big surprise for them to come here and meet with you. In fact, they probably expect it, and will feel like you have invited them to your space, adding to your professional image.
- You can pick up your mail while you’re here.
Business Support
You can access our laser printer and scanner for your printing and scanning needs. If you need help with business administration tasks, we may be able to help you with those too for an hourly fee.
Benefit to you:
- No more special trips to a shop you didn’t otherwise need to visit.
- Printing is free with your virtual office service for small volumes (a nominal fee will be charged for large volumes).
- The printer can print from a USB which makes it even easier, no dragging your laptop around or remembering to email us in advance.
- Scanning can be done to USB or can even be sent straight to email for your convenience.
- Getting help with your business administration tasks frees up your time so you can focus on doing what you do best.
Support for You
One final benefit that we haven’t properly highlighted yet is that of connection. We recognise that being in business for yourself can be incredibly isolating. Even when you are busy with clients and other people who are part of the day to day running of your business, you can easily feel alone. Sharing our ‘home’ means you are part of something bigger, and have a bit of backup instead of muddling through on your own.
As you can see, there is much more to a Virtual Office than ‘just’ an address. It provides so much benefit and flexibility to you and your business. Contact us today to see if we would be a good fit for you.
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