Bizstartup.ie - Start Up Kit

It’s one of the classic business archetypes – the entrepreneur who starts a business in a spare room, and ends up a global player. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, for example, famously began Google in a garage – complete with hot tub and remote-controlled door, so the story goes.

Such stories sound great with hindsight, but not every spare-room business does so well. First impressions count, and these include your business address, if and how your phone is answered and where you meet potential customers and investors.

Small business owners know all that, of course; the dilemma is what to do about it. An impressive office costs money. So do people to answer the phone pass on messages and receive visitors. How can you ensure those vital first impressions are positive, without saddling yourself with too many overheads?

For many companies, the answer is to go virtual. You assume the presence of a more established company, at a fraction of the price of leasing prestigious office space.

Reasons to go virtual

  Virtual offices allow home-based, start-up and small businesses to project a good image, without paying for expensive physical office space. For a set price a month, you gain a professional office address, a dedicated business phone number, which is answered by a local receptionist, and post and call management.

Another option is to use serviced offices. These provide fully-equipped workspace for one to 100+ people with options to suit different budgets and needs. Depending on the provider, you can rent serviced physical space by the hour, the day or for longer periods of time.

People use virtual and serviced offices for a variety of reasons. Why they use them governs how they use them, so it’s a good idea to consider which features would best suit your business.

• Many SMEs want a prestigious address. For example, Regus’s most popular virtual office locations globally are New York City’s Chrysler Building, London’s Berkeley Square and Sydney’s Citigroup Centre. Such an address on your letterhead can work wonders for your image. It sounds more professional than a house in the suburbs, and is an impressive place to meet clients and investors.
• Some want a more professional image. For home-based companies, the nightmare scenario of a call from a major potential investor being answered by your three-year-old son is all too common. And when your main customer calls, do you really want your conversation punctuated by the sound of the kids arguing? With a virtual office, you can have calls answered by a trained receptionist.
• Some use virtual offices for the flexibility. You can travel around the country, meeting clients or marketing your ideas, secure that the phone is being answered professionally.
• Many entrepreneurs want to escape the feeling of being chained to the desk. Unfortunately, this feeling is replicated when you sit at your new desk, unable to leave it in case you miss vital calls. With a virtual office, you can head for the shops, the gym or the beach, secure that no one will be any the wiser.
• Others want to lose the distractions. As well as being costly, running an office consumes time. You have to manage support staff; equip and maintain the office; sign for mail deliveries … the list goes on. Using a virtual office means someone else does those tasks for you, freeing you to focus on core activities.
• It’s a way to expand into new markets. Many SMEs use a virtual office to establish a presence in another city – from New York or Paris to Shanghai or Kuala Lumpur. It is a great way to project a presence before you are ready to physically set up shop there. When you do want a physical presence, you can use serviced offices – either by the day or longer-term.
• Some use a virtual office as a permanent arrangement; others use it as a staging post. They may then upgrade to a campus office (a private work area in an open-plan environment) or a serviced office. If you base your virtual office at a location that offers campus or serviced offices, you can grow without having to change your business address or find new premises.

Setting up a virtual office can often be arranged with just a few clicks of the mouse. The benefits are obvious, but it’s worthwhile thinking about which features really matter to you.

Do you just want mail redirected from your business address to your actual office? Or do you want telephone answering as well? Do you want a desirable address in a global financial centre? Or do you want somewhere closer to home, so you can use workspace, meeting rooms and video-conferencing facilities minutes from where you live?