If you don’t have a lot to spend on fixed office premises and in fact, you don’t actually need a dedicated office space just yet, a virtual office could be the ideal solution.
It’s also a great option for small businesses finding themselves unable to get anything done due to a heavy volume of phone calls and other correspondence to deal with.
The right virtual office package should give you a professional postal address and telephone number, so you receive all of your post and never miss a call. Some SMEs use services that only provide postal services or call answering, rather than both, but this is far from an ideal solution for most businesses.
A virtual office will provide you with these four key benefits:
- Boost your credibility – a professional business address for clients to contact makes you seem more credible, more reliable and more stable
- Impress clients – with an address, phone number and a professional call answering service, you will make the very best impression on clients.
- Never miss calls – most businesses can’t afford to miss calls, but it does happen unless you have a dependable and professional call answering service to handle all calls and ensure nothing slips through the net
- Save time on correspondence – if you’re constantly interrupted by the phone or you’ve no time to even answer it, you’re not being efficient. A dedicated contact point for calls and correspondence could drastically improve productivity in your office.
Does it matter where your virtual office is based?
Some people have the misconception that because their office is virtual - and doesn’t relate to where you actually work or where your customers are – that it doesn’t matter where a virtual office is based. This is not strictly true, for a couple of important reasons.
The first is the all-important postcode, as well as the area code of your telephone number. Your prospective clients and customers will instantly spot whether your virtual office location (although they will not realise it’s a virtual office) is based near a major city or somewhere they have never heard of.
Why does this matter? Well, having a postcode and area code of a major city like Leeds, for example, gives the impression that your business is based near a successful, thriving city – close to existing business networks, contacts and a wide range of resources. It is good for the branding of your company to have this connection to a major city, especially one that is a hub for big business such as Leeds.
Do you need access to meeting space?
If you occasionally need access to professional meeting rooms, it looks much better to clients if your meeting space is the same as the address and postcode of your virtual office. This is why combined services offering both virtual offices and physical meeting space exist, and why they work so well for many small businesses.
At Carrwood Park in Leeds, for example, virtual office customers can use meeting space – fully equipped with furniture, projectors, power and refreshments – for a discounted price. So, if you do ever need to meet in person, your clients can come to your virtual office address and have a meeting in professional, fully equipped office space. You might not use it a lot, but just having this option available can come in very handy just in case you do need meeting space – it certainly saves looking around for dedicated meeting space in the right location.
A virtual office could work for your business – find out how
To find out more about the benefits of virtual offices and what we can offer at Carrwood Park, download our free virtual office package brochure. Read this quick guide before signing for your virtual office and for more helpful advice and tips on everything from virtual offices to meeting rooms and co-working, subscribe to the Carrwood Park blog.
