A virtual office is a workspace that gives a business address, a place to access meeting rooms, receive emails, and physical office space without paying full-time for full-time office rentals. A virtual office rental is helpful for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
What is a virtual office?
A virtual office uses a physical location that receives mail and serves as an official business address for the company. You will have a physical presence in any city without the bloated costs of office space rentals. Generally, a virtual office is a combination of:
- People
- Place
- Technologies
- Processes
They all come together to help individuals and businesses work more efficiently, and remotely. You can find the virtual office at:
- business centers
- flexible offices
- coworking centers
The services include:
- Mail forwarding
- Private day offices
- Business address
- Meeting rooms
Despite the name virtual office, it is a combination of both virtual and physical services.
Virtual elements of a virtual office
A virtual office has these characteristics:
- Remote receptionist services. A live receptionist service offers the following:
- remote call answering
- message taking
- basic customer service
Calls are answered using your company name, screened, and forwarded to voicemail.
- Digital mail service. Some virtual office centers will provide a digital scanning service to view scanned copies of mail before forwarding or deleting them.
- Business number. As a virtual phone product, companies choose a business number with a toll-free or local area code.
- Business phone system. The cloud-based phone system in several features, such as:
- auto attendant
- extensions
- custom greetings
- caller menus and so on
Virtual office services are now on-demand and it is flexible. It means the virtual office can be shared across businesses and individuals for the resources to be allocated more cost-efficiently.
Credibility of virtual office
In business, perception is very important. The virtual office helps businesses build credibility. For the new client or investor, a company with an office address appears more trustworthy than the one with a residential address. The virtual office looks more established and it shows that you are thinking long-term.
To potential clients and stakeholders, those things are crucial. You can still get that all-vital perception and credibility with the virtual office for a lot less than the traditional office rental.
Types of virtual offices
There are various office examples and the virtual office layout differs from the others. Yet, while they vary slightly, it depends on the provider and the basic premise is the same.
- Business address. The virtual office can provide you with an address to use to register your business. You can use virtual office addresses on marketing materials and websites.
- Handling mails. The virtual office will receive your mail and set it aside until it is forwarded and picked up.
- Rent onsite meeting rooms for clients to use. You can simply reserve the meeting room when you need it and the center staff ensures everything will be set up for you.
One more thing is about the virtual office supplies that offer optional extras, such as:
- Meeting room rental
- Coworking and more
One of the great things about the virtual office is services are added depending on what your needs are.
