Your Office is Where YOU Are

After looking through some materials that i thought would be helpful in getting people to better understand what this concept of a virtual office is, i found a pretty literal and informative piece that is a great starting point about how virtual offices work.  The bottom line about working in this atmosphere, and the fun part about it, is that every virtual office is completely different, based on that fact that you create your own rules.  Your virtual office is located wherever YOU are, it operates however and whenever YOU want it to, and it utilizes whatever business features YOU want it to.

For some people, this freedom is ideal and creates a very successful working environment, and for other people, this freedom is a bit overwhelming.  You may be better at focusing on the day to day tasks of your business operations, where as creating your overall operating framework may not come as natural-besides, this is what corporations have done for us for years and years.  Not to worry, there are endless resources around you helping you to create your business plan, know what materials you will need for your business operations and decide what tasks you would like to do yourself and which ones you may want a local business center to handle. Whatever your questions are about starting or running your virtual office, the answers are out there for you.  Check out the tips from This How Stuff Works article, and know that your local business center exists exactly for this purpose-to maximize the convenience of creating and operating your own home office, mobile office, or whatever type of office that be.

How Do the “Winter Woes” Affect Your Business?

With a recent snowstorm under our belt up here in Seattle, I can’t help but think that in this kind of weather it is a perfect time to work virtually.  Why would anyone want to spend hours in bad weather commuting to an office when virtual capabilities are so common today?  For our local Seattle clients, we offer options like VOIP (voice over internet phones) where you can take a phone home, connect it to the internet and you now are an extension of the office.  They can take incoming calls, make outgoing calls – all as if they were sitting at their desk, and we love knowing that we are helping to make business a little bit easier during these harsh winter months. Read more about how the winter woes affect business all around the country, and can be a great thing!

A La Carte Eating In the Corporate World

The beauty of a restaurant’s a la carte menu is that it’s the perfect solution to getting all of your favorite dishes, or a little bit of everything-whatever you choose.  It makes sense that this freedom to choose should crossover into other parts of our lives to maximize efficiency, affordability and the ideal consumer experience.  In the business-center world, where we aim to help professionals create their ideal working environment, an a la carte menu means selecting only the business services that you require which are offered with the goal of raising the professional image of your business.

 

In our business for example, service packages can be bundled or offered individually.  You simply choose what is needed to run your business, without owning the systems.  You may need a permanent street address, rather than publishing your home address or a P.O. box.  Conference rooms and day offices are available by the hour or day to meet with clients in a quiet, professional atmosphere.  Video conferencing with associates reduce travel time and budget expense. Your telephone calls are answered by a friendly receptionist, who then transfers the calls to you or voice mail.  Our services are about YOU and allowing you to work the way you work best-which varies for almost everyone.

 

A local hotel manager recently commented that when he procured services for his hotel, he would start calling businesses until he found one that had a “live” answer.  Then negotiations would start.  His belief was that any business that had an automated answer probably was operated by a single entrepreneur who was out on call and wasn’t large enough to handle his needs.  This said, we know that there are a lot of professional small businesses out there who could greatly benefit from something like professional answering services to help their corporate image.

 

Choose the features you need to make your business thrive!

Creating Your Own Virtual Office

The concept of “virtual office” has really taken off recently.  The idea that work atmospheres and corporate arrangements have become more flexible, in large part due to what technology has enabled,  is a positive thing.  The next step is figuring out how to maximize your own corporate arrangement and find a situation that is most effective for both you and your clients.  If you have a work-from-home arrangement, the virtual office concept really allows you to benefit where want to.  Do you like doing your work at home but need a professional space to meet with clients?  Would you rather have another location (separate from your home) associated with your business either for professional or privacy reasons?  With your at-home set up, does it make more sense for you to use administrative services at a local business center than have fax machines and other devices taking up space in your family room? Whether the answer to these questions is yes or no, the great thing is, there are local business centers that provide this “virtual office” option for you, to use it as you like.  Almost every client of ours uses their virtual office differently, some every day, some once a week, some a few times a month.  If you have an nontraditional work set up, which has become so increasingly common, take a look at local resources to see how they can help fill the holes that you may be experiencing in your home office or mobile office.  Today, the possibilities are endless (and affordable)!

Business Resolution for the New Year

Working from home or operating in a mobile-office atmosphere has its advantages, especially when it comes to saving on overhead costs that often come with running an office.  But these work setups can also create challenges when it comes to establishing a professional business front and identity that clients respond well to.  Often times, the difference between having a professional front (one that has a local and relevant phone number and address and that provides a professional environment for meeting with clients) and one that doesn’t, will be the difference that your clients notice when choosing between you and the competition.  If you haven’t done so yet, make it your New Years resolution to develop a business identity plan so that your appearance in the corporate world matches the hard work that you put in everyday!

Work From Home Wonderland

With today’s businesses having minimal resources to work with, it is possible that more employees are getting the opportunity to work from home either part time or full time, or operate in less conventional office settings.  We see a lot of this,  whether it be business men and women who get stir crazy from their work-at-home gigs and are looking for a more business minded environment, or employees who may be working in a mobile office atmosphere in between sales appointments etc. and need a so called “home-base” convenient to their territory.  Luckily, there are endless resources available providing tips/help for business men and women and we found a great work from home reference base provided by Entrepreneur, full of all kinds of great information.  Our tip? Balance out your work from home isolation and get motivated by spending some daily or weekly time at a corporate business center!