Virtual office are becoming increasingly popular and with good reason. As the price of renting property continues to grow, especially in cities such as London, people are just not able to afford to rent an entire office floor or building for their company.
Fortunately virtual offices have come into play and are offering people and businesses a range of benefits, five of which are detailed below:
1. Price
One of the biggest benefits about hiring a virtual office is the price. It is, hands down, much cheaper to take on a virtual office than trying to rent somewhere suitable, especially if you want somewhere in London. As such, virtual offices are extremely popular with start-up and micro businesses, who obviously don’t have the money to be paying extortionate rents on office space.
Of course, having a virtual office, in say London, still gives you a physical address in the City so for all intents and purposes, you are paying a greatly reduced rate but still getting the prestige that comes with having office space in the City.
2. Customer and client perception
Even though working from home is becoming increasingly common, there is still a big perception problem. Many people are still very traditional and don’t believe anyone can put in a good day’s work at home instead of in the office. Likewise, people who work at home, away from the City, might fear their customers or clients perceive them as being separated from the business world.
When people are looking for a service or product and they visit someone’s website, you’d be surprised at how much the address can influence their purchasing decision. People are much more likely to choose to do business with a company when they have a recognised business address, i.e. are not working in a residential area in the country. A virtual office provides this business address and therefore encourages positive customer/ client perception.
3. In-between offices
Virtual offices are ideal for individuals and businesses who are just not ready to take the big step of renting an office space. It may be that the individual or business has a one or two year plan to complete before they can comfortably afford to move out of their home office.
However, the development of their company might demand they get help with administration and the general functioning of the company, i.e. telephone answering, fax availability and conference facilities. In this manner hiring London based virtual office space gives individuals and companies what they need to function as a business without crippling them with huge rental costs.
4. Sales based businesses
For companies who operate throughout a wide geographical area, i.e. salespeople and consultants, it doesn’t make sense to pay out a lot of money for office space when there’s never anyone in it. However, even though a permanent office is not needed, a postal address and telephone number is still required and employees will also still need somewhere to take meetings.
A virtual office is therefore perfect, for it gives such employees the option to give out an address and contact number if a potential client/customer was to require it. A virtual office also gives such companies the freedom to hire PA services as and when needed, instead of having to pay for a full time member of staff to give administrative support to people who are never around.
5. No need for commitment
One of the things that really gets in the way of businesses being able to function as they truly want to is the, often crippling, costs of moving office space. You often have to sign up to rental contracts, which will have a specified amount of time on them. If you wish to move out before this time is up, you may have to pay an early settlement sum, which is not ideal.
A virtual office, however, is a lot more flexible.
Not only does it give you everything you need as far as a good office location and administrative services goes but you also have the freedom to upgrade to larger space or downgrade to smaller space at short notice.
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James writes for Cranfield Tech Park. When not writing about serviced office space in Milton Keynes, he can often be found trying to work as virtually–and infrequently–as possilbe.