You’ve started your business, got off the ground and have some revenue. What do you need now? Some help to increase revenue further and boost your presence in the market place. Going from a one man operation to having staff can be a huge task.
But what if there’s another way? If you could take on staff to help you with the general running of the business but not fork out for the office lease and be bogged down with the organisation and payroll.
Let me introduce you to… drum roll please…
The Virtual Office
There are 7 reasons why a virtual office is good for business:
1. Limited risk
2. Flexibility
3. Options – work from office, home or both!
4. Technology and infrastructure
5. Increased revenue
6. Valuable Support
7. Upgrade and downgrade as and when required
Here are our reasons:
1. Limited risk
You can grow your business without tying up your capital and without risking what you have already built up. You have to consider, not only the cost of employing additional staff, but also the time taken to train them up that can take you away from operating your business. For some businesses it is too much. To go from doing it alone, to having an office, a lease and a payroll. It’s a huge step for a small business. A virtual office enables you to do it without the overheads and associated risk. You won’t have to fire anyone if they don’t work out. You don’t need the initial outlay of time and money. These things are dealt with so you can take the next big step without the huge risk.
2. Flexibility
It’s about setting things up to suit your business and its needs. A virtual office gives you the flexibility to do things your way and to have support staff on hand should you need them. Need a break and for the business to keep ticking over? You have a way to do that and avoid burning out from working constantly to keep your business in business.
3. Options – Work From Office, Home or Both!
Not sure if you need an office for the whole week? Choose what arrangement works for you and keeps you most productive. Some owners will spend two days at home, and when they are in their office space they run all their meetings. Many have actually got rid of their real offices, downsized their staff and are using the desk and meeting room facilities. They find it a successful way of running their business.
4. Technology and Infrastructure
A virtual office gives you access to technology and infrastructure that you would never afford as a small business. You could not justify setting up a secure network with a photocopier and colour printing. In your virtual office space you can have ten to twelve in a room… ***Tech specs required for network etc.***
5. Increased Revenue
This is the core thing, to make more profit. So all the staff that you employ, you need to make sure that they are revenue-generating staff, as opposed to admin support staff. Going into the serviced office or virtual office environment, you’ve got access to all the support staff, but you don’t have to pay them individually. You can make sure that all your staff are much more valuable to your business. This is one big way that a virtual office can increase revenue. The business has reduced its overheads extraordinarily. It has avoided leases, and rents, infrastructure and all sorts of things taken for granted that are needed to run an office. All this is taken care of so business revenue can be increased quite easily.
6. Valuable Support
You don’t have to do it alone, but as mentioned above you don’t have to fork out the expense for hiring staff at the same time. Support staff are provided for you, are professional and on hand when you need them. Answering the phones and undertaking admin tasks that would take up your time. If you’re putting a tender in for a contract that you really want, but have to have a minimum of x amount of staff you can put down the support staff. They are your staff. It’s a great thing for a small business or start up, to actually have the support as and when needed, instead of having to pay for and organise additional support themselves.
7. Upgrade and Downgrade As and When Required
Another benefit is the flexibility of being able to upgrade and downgrade. Some businesses grow so suddenly they need extra space within a matter of days. They don’t want to wait and miss out on opportunities. On the flip side businesses sometimes experience the need to downsize and can have the adaptability to take up less office space but do not have to look for premises elsewhere. At SOI we’ve had some companies using our serviced office that have chosen to go away for six weeks over Christmas. So they had say a two-person office. They moved out of that two-person office, became a virtual office, and then they moved back into an office when they came back in February. This helped to manage their costs.
