Virtual Office - Get rid of the desk

In the current economic climate, many businesses are becoming increasingly mobile. Gone are the days of meeting at the office or heading back to the office in order to get anything done. Many businesses in fact don’t have a physical office but can manage with a virtual office. The only requirement for a virtual office is to be in contact at all times and to be able to access data at any given time. Below are a number of items that are essential for a virtual office.

1. Get a first-class smart phone with a good unlimited data plan. Ensure you take the time to learn how to use it and put the tools available to you to your best advantage. Don’t forget that this will hold a lot of your business contact details, so keep it charged and invest in an in-car charger and Bluetooth headset.

2. Invest in a new laptop. Ensure it has your required need in terms of memory and software etc. Get the super-gigantic hard drive. Spend the extra money for a hefty RAM upgrade. This will save you the hassle of an upgrade in 12 months. Try to back up everything on your laptop to a server at home or external hard drive just in-case your laptop breaks or gets stolen.

3. Wifi of USB internet dongle. Ensure you buy the best connectivity service for your area. It’s no good buying cheap if your connection drops every two minutes. Being in touch with your virtual office is essential for receiving any messages and incoming correspondence.

4. A good quality multi function printer. This will give your documentation a high quality, professional feel. Most multi-function printers can also be used as a photocopier and fax machine and ink cartridges appear to be getting cheaper.

Whilst the initial outlay for equipment may appear expensive having a virtual office can increase your reputation and give you reinforced professionalism. In the long term, reduced costs of having no rent on an office space to pay, makes having a virtual office a cheaper option with increased credibility.

12 recession busting tips (part 2)

7. Wifi. If you have an office, rather than having structured cabling, think about implementing Wifi. When Wifi was first introduced as a solution at the start of the decade it was unsecured and ropey to say the least. However, new Wifi can broadcast strong signals of a good range securely thus negating the need for costly structured cabling. This also gives you the option to move your staff around freely and increase your network base without having to install another network point.

8. Empower your employees. We all know in times of recession that stress levels in work are dramatically increased, as targets become harder and harder to attain. However, if you’re constantly brow beating your staff and telling them they are under performing then they will under perform and will soon become demoralised eventually sinking into the vicious circle so many companies are now facing. However, empowering the staff you have and making them feel valued doesn’t cost anything and will, even in the face of adversity, generate better productivity and raise the moral of the staff. “Happy staff are productive staff”

9. Cleaning. It’s easy to consider your cleaning costs as minimal i.e. £300 per month. But when you’re looking to cost cut then this should be in your arsenal. Empowering staff to empty their own bins, clean their own cups and simply take turns on hovering the office can easily reduce this luxury cost from £300 per month to a mere £10 per month.

10. Marketing & Virtualisation. Online marketing and media is far cheaper than using the traditional magazine and press method. More and more people are using the internet and when they search for a particular product or information most people type it into Google. Spending money with an online PR company and SEO company could save you thousands of pounds over a year in advertising and paper marketing.

11. Postage. Keeping people informed of your products and news releases isn’t easy. Most companies do this through postage; however, complimenting your virtual office and virtual solutions, this could be done using emails electronically. A bulk e mailer will cost you approx $30 per month and not only will you save on postage but also paper, printing and probably design costs. Since your using emails, why not email your invoices along with a read receipt to make sure your client has received it.

12. IT. This is one I would always recommend as the computer equipment you use can slow down your productivity, frustrate your staff and most of all keep the customer waiting thus increasing your phone bill. Keeping up to date with the latest computer equipment is not essential because new technologies come out every day, however, keeping them virus free, memory abundant and ensuring that they work smoothly with the software you need will go towards guaranteeing high delivery standards and reducing indirect costs.

12 Recession busting tips (part 1)

1. Hot Desking. This is a great concept and some of the serviced office companies provide it. This can also be beneficial to some of the corporate companies that have staff working on the road and need a desk. The basic concept is that you pay for the time your at the desk. Anyone can use the desk and it has a data connection point, sockets for your laptop and a phone line to plug into and the facility to print documents. The easiest way to explain it is as a “pay as you go desk”.

2. Working from home. More and more companies are allowing their staff to work from home. This reduces the costs of working in offices and allows staff to work from the comfort of their own home. Staff log onto the computer system as they would at the office and would have access to all of the systems remotely. Interestingly enough companies are reporting better performance from staff that work from home against those in the office environment.

3. Reducing carbon footprint. By running virtual offices and having staff working from home you can soon see that not only the reduction of direct costs such as utilities, office lease, cleaning etc but there also the environmental issues such as the reduction of co2 by staff not having to travel to work, less electricity used, less heating etc.

4. Virtualisation. The influence of greater technologies, hi-speed broadband and a recession that keeps people at home has opened new opportunities with companies opting for “pay as you go” micro services such as “virtual assistants”. These are secretaries and P.A.s which offer their services on a per hour basis thus negating the annual cost of having people in an office all of the time and probably under employed.

5. Virtualisation part 2. Again the Internet and hi-speed broadband means that you could reduce costs further by utilising video conferencing for meetings rather than having to get everyone in the same room. You can now get people to simply log on to the conferencing software with their web cam and you have a virtual meeting. Some companies have gone to the extreme with this and use online reality programmes such as 2nd life.

6. Virtualisation Part 3. With a virtual office you can just use it as a mailing address or you can use it in conjunction with a telephone answering service. This is a call centre who represent hundreds of companies but will answer your number as a company representative and put the call through to the right person. This gives the impression to the caller that you have either a professional front desk or a professional switchboard. Again this is better than hiring staff for this task as they would generally be under employed and cost far more than the “Pay as you go” service.

Part two will reveal how you can save even more money and get more from the staff you employ.

Saving Money - Virtual Office

Henrik Klouseman, owner of Sun-Eigenschaften Übersee in Germany has a winning formula. Selling overseas properties in boom time is easy, but when times get tough, you have to change and adapt to the economic conditions otherwise you soon become a statistic and the business goes under.

Henrik noticed that property sales had started to diminish and looked for a solution that would instantly reduce costs. One of the first things that all companies look at is the “luxuries’”, such as new computer system, company nights out etc. But this wasn’t enough, the costs were still too much.

Faced with making redundancies Henrik had one last option. He set up a PC at his house, which would act as a server. He then purchased his 5 employees a laptop each and broadband USB key. He then advised them all to work from home and he closed the office. Henrik then opened a virtual office in Berlin. Because the office address was in a more prestigious address the outside world saw that he was expanding. The virtual office also offered call answering service, which allowed him to redirect all calls to the relevant staff.

This saved Henrick approx 7,500 Euros’ per month

Office 5750 Euros Per Month
Utilities 100 Euros Per Month
Server & PBX rental Cost 500 Euros Per Month
Office Water cooler 15 Euros Per month
Office Receptionist 975 Euros Per Month

This was a massive saving of nearly 90,000 Euro per Year.

Each sales person logs on and reports for work over the phone. All work is still logged through the home server and is monitored to make sure all employees are still working.

This move has been a positive one with the employees. Their performance has improved and this is possibly because there is no travel time and no expectation of dress code therefore less time is taken to get ready for work, plus there is no travel time home either. Employees feel that they can spend more time at home with their family (or more time in bed as one employee told us).

Because of this virtual office solution Henrik is looking to expand his operation. He is now considering opening another virtual office in Frankfurt. Henrik’s only complaint is that it will take him 2 months living in a hotel in Frankfurt when he sets it up. This is to ensure that he employs the correct people for the job and also makes sure he is on hand to iron out any teething problems.

Henrik is very excited about the expansion and hopes to roll this out further in the future. Henrik said, “I wish I had implemented this a couple of years ago”

Written By: Sam Wilson (Berlin Business News)

The Definition of a Virtual Assistant

If you’re looking to enhance your virtual office the ideal solution is a virtual assistant. So what is a Virtual Assistant? You've probably heard of one before and wondered what is a- 'Virtual Assistant? The best definition I could find is: ‘A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent contractor and a home-based entrepreneur who uses the Internet, phone, fax, email, and other technology to communicate with his/her clients.’ But that didn’t tell me what they do. So I did some more digging.

A Virtual Assistant is like having a PA but more. They provide Admin support, business assistance such as Meeting planning, business travel planning etc. But they also do more. When I looked into what a virtual assistant does, I was amazed at some of their skills.

- Website and Graphic Design
- Website Maintenance and Updates
- Online and Offline Marketing and Promotion
- Accounting / Bookkeeping
- Data Entry
- PowerPoint Presentations
- Advertising in Print Media
- Desktop Publishing
- Custom Ad Design for print media
- Travel Arrangements
- Writing, Editing & Researching Services
- Secretarial Services
- Word Processing
- General and Legal Transcription Services
- Database Management
- Personal Assistant Services
- Event Planning
- Technical Support
- Coaching / Consulting
- Customer Service

Most Virtual assistants are ex-PA’s or secretaries, looking to expand their client base globally. There are a few advantages of having a virtual assistant such as you only pay for what you need, you don’t need an office for them and as its their own business they generally put more effort into ensuring your work is completed to the highest standard and on time.

To become a Virtual PA all you need is some basic equipment and software;

- Computer and/or Laptop
- Cable, Satellite, or DSL Internet Service
- Modem
- Fax Machine
- Printer
- Copier
- Scanner
- CD Burner

As the virtual office arena increases the virtual assistance industry will grow rapidly, especially as the recession develops, which is hardly surprising as businesses are looking to reduce costs. PA’s and secretaries have found it increasingly more difficult to find work and have started their own businesses while being at home with their family.

Written By: William Jones (Office Entrepreneurs UK)

Virtual Office - A report

Recent research recently conducted by Doug Washburn. With the help of Christine Perkett, President and founder of PerkettPR — an organisation of all virtual employees — they studied the IT infrastructure, productivity, and green benefits of a company for the last ten years. The organisation is reliant on workers and employees geographically scattered and heavily reliable on remote access to systems and information.

The virtual focus was the main theme of the research, the initial conception began with a virtual exchange. Doug and Christine were initially intrigued by Twitter an a tweet that Christine submitted to her huge following on Twitter.

Surprisingly some of the findings in the document center on what seem to be "common sense", but are not always obvious to workers or to organisations:

• Creating a standard for computing and mobile device configuration is critical, especially when, as with users, all IT support is remote.
• Centralized administrative functions are also key; despite the lack of a physical office, an operations staff can help with streamlining processes as simple as ordering office supplies, which can stymie a virtual workforce and sap valuable time.

For all of the standardisation, Perkett is not just a virtual organisation, but one which is profitable and productive. Part of the research found:

• Virtual workers are more productive; time savings from not commuting — coupled with flexible working hours — leads staff to be 50% - 75% more productive based on analysis compared to traditional, commuting office workers.
• Virtual workers are greener; the company has calculated its CO2 savings at 4.4 tons of Carbon Dioxide per year, the equivalent of running 33 laptops 24×7x365!

The best practice document, published this week on the Forrester website includes a series of checklists and workbooks outlining critical elements for green companies, virtual organisation, and remote workers.

Top 4 Virtual Solutions

1. Virtual Office

Most people assume that virtual office is just an address where your office is registered. However, virtual office can be much more than that. A virtual office can also be a real office but with out all of the associated costs. For example if you wish to meet a client then you can usually book a meeting room and a day office. The meeting room gives you the professional look you need when meeting your client and a day office simply makes it look like it’s your office. All of these services are paid for as you use them rather than lengthy contracts. Depending on which service you use, you can even use conference facilities if you’re looking to meet more than one client.

2. Virtual Assistant

This is a new innovation in the Virtual office world. There are many PA’s, secretaries and assistants sitting at home and looking for work that suits their time scales. As long as you’re not after someone sitting in an office then a virtual assistant can do all the normal secretarial work you need. The only difference is that they work remotely, do it within your time scales, but only charge you for the time it took them. This is a great money saving option if you need letters dictating, report typing up, travel arrangements organising, meetings scheduled etc, allowing you more time to concentrate on the operation of your business.

3. Virtual Reception

A virtual reception is a great compliment to a virtual office. A Virtual Reception is when a client is looking to get hold of you, they dial your number and would be greeted by a receptionist, who would then attempt to transfer your call or take a message. They would answer the phone in your business name and would give the impression that the caller has come through to the company receptionist. Again you would pay a nominal monthly fee and then a small amount for each call transferred there after. This is a great feature if you have 2 or 3 employees within the business and your all working either from home or on the road. The business appears to be a lot bigger to the outside world and no one knows where you are. This service is usually very flexible and there’s a varied range of services from just answering the phone to full outbound telemarketing.

4. Virtual PBX

Virtual PBX works in many different ways. For example if you have 20 people working globally for you, but you want to advertise 1 number, the pbx system will divert all calls as required and in some cases VOIP is used which keeps the cost to a minimum. Again no one ever knows where the team is based and gives your company the unified look. A lot of businesses use this facility not only because of the unification but the cost savings on a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system. This system work in the same way as skype Voice where you can call people over the internet either on their internet system, Mobile phone or Landline.

Written By Richard Smith

Virgin Media upgrades is good news for Virtual Office users

Using the internet to support your home business, either through Virtual Office services or Internet services, requires quality, hi-speed internet communications. Virgin Media's press release below is great news for all virtual office services.

Virgin Media the UK’s only provider of fibre optic broadband services across the country, makes history this month with the completion of Britain’s first next-generation broadband network. Having spent the last 18 months conducting significant upgrades using the latest DOCSIS 3.0 technology, Virgin Media has tripled its network capacity and is the first company to offer ultrafast speeds of up to 50Mb to over 12 million homes across the UK.

Virgin Media will also start a new pilot to trial a range of upload speeds of up to 10Mb – much faster than the download speeds of most ADSL connections. In addition to trialling the technical capabilities of the DOCSIS 3.0 network, the trial will explore the demand for higher upstream speeds for bandwidth hungry families, on services such as video conferencing, multiplayer gaming and home working.

This week the company will also launch the “Freedom” netbook, its first ever branded laptop. The bespoke laptop, available in black or Virgin red, has been optimised for 50Mb speeds and will be packaged with top of the line software. Both new and existing customers will be able to get the laptop at no additional charge when they take selected great value bundled packages.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media said, “As the first company to bring broadband to the UK ten years ago, the completion of our next-generation network marks another pioneering moment for internet access in the UK. We are delighted with the performance and reliability of our 50Mb service, and with the customer feedback. Now the roll-out is days from being complete, we’re ready to take 50Mb to the next stage of development and reinforce our leading position in the broadband market.”

Virgin Media is currently piloting the real-world deployment of 200Mb speeds in Ashford, Kent.

This is great news for all businesses in the UK looking to use Virtual Office facilities as this means that they can access their virtual office services including VOIP services quicker and cheaper than ever.

Press Release from Virgin Media

Virtual Office - the Green Solution

Eco office is the way forward. Or so it seems! Most people are becoming more conscious of the eco damage that we are doing to the planet. From recycling household waste to children in school recycling paper and plastic bottles, the impact on the planet will hopefully ensure a brighter future for generations to come.

Our carbon footprint doesn’t stop at home, but continues in the work place. Not all business are set up for recycling or reducing their carbon footprint and frankly most of them are not interested because of the costs. For example if we wanted to recycle paper we would simply put it in our recycle bin and this would we recycled for free, whereas a business would have to pay for this facility.

One of the advantages of a Virtual office is that you are reducing your carbon footprint. How????

You don’t have to drive to an office, thus you don’t have to use fuel for your car. You will also have a reduced mileage, which means that you will have less wear and tear on the car and on the tyres, thus less production costs for replacements and thus less carbon footprint.

You don’t have to light, heat and maintain a real office, again reducing the carbon footprint not just in the utilities but also in the maintenance,.

This also extends to the waste you create as a business. Paper is one of the biggest waste products from any office and 76.4% of paper in business is not recycled. I am sure someone will do the calculations but if you think the average box of paper is 1 tree then you will soon get an idea of how much paper is wasted and how many trees could be saved.

Its inevitable that business will soon be taxed if they do not actively recycle or reduce their carbon foot print which is why you should consider a virtual office solution right from the outset. A virtual Office solution is one of the best options to make your business operate greener.

Eco offices are a thing of the future and buy looking to the future and making the decision now to go green, may just save you a lot of time and money in the future. Virtual offices are becoming more and more popular as the outlay costs are minimal, you can set most of the costs as a fixed monthly cost, thus allowing you to budget better and as its all done online, contracts, agreements, statements and invoices can all be done online which reduces postal mail and the carbon footprint that generates.

Written By: Nicky Smith (Business Futures UK)

The new solution to Virtual Office

For business people globally, whether they are currently in business or just starting out, the economic turmoil is making it increasingly difficult to justify spending, which is why people are looking at virtual office solutions.

Traditionally, when starting a new business, the decision is whether to convert a room in the house into an office or where to locate the business premises


Both options present downsides. Convenient and cost-effective as it maybe, the home office is likely to have many distractions such as kids and pets and are not the best place to host important client meetings.

Renting office space can be expensive and when starting out can be risky. Finding the right office space, with the right facilities in the right location at the right price can take up a lot of your valuable resources and in most cases will tie you in for 3-4 years which at this early stage in any business can be a bad idea.

For years, many small businesses wrestled with these challenges. Most businesses are not aware of the options available and are surprised when they are introduced to Virtual Office services.

The Best of Both Worlds

A virtual office - This is possibly one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal for small businesses that want to limit their start-up costs and establish themselves alongside larger competitors. For a small fee and a fraction of what it would cost to set up a fully serviced office, small businesses can now use virtual offices to produce a professional image alongside the larger businesses, offering the professional outlook needed to compete in today’s markets.

A virtual office is a real address, real services but operated virtually. While you continue to work at home or on the road, a receptionist at the "virtual" location handles incoming calls answering them in the business' name, and receives and forwards royal mail and faxes.

A great advantage of having a virtual office is that it gives you a prestigious business address and local phone number, which gives the right impression to potential clients. For example, i2office, the new market leader in workplace solutions, boasts new innovation through technology and design, their rapid expansion is just an example of how they understand the needs of businesses in the UK.

One such innovation is a Virtual office can be used to test new markets, ensuring the cost base, risk and exposure is minimal. However, if the venture is successful, the business has gained an immediate presence in a viable market.

One advantage of a virtual office solutions is that you can have your Virtual Office, Telephone number etc within 5 minutes of setting up online. You don’t have to talk to anyone, everything can be done instantly online without any fuss.

Written By: William Jones (Office Entrepreneurs UK)

Virtual Office in the Face of Economic Uncertainty

Globally Virtual office services are unprecedentedly flourishing. Clients who need to keep up appearances have been flocking to these Virtual Office service providers even though the virtual rents keep going up.

The traditional office leasing market in Manchester and London, after absorbing rent decreases of 25-30 percent over 2008, remain in the doldrums. However, the market in ‘virtual offices’ is booming.

A ‘virtual office’ is an office with an area of zero square metres. A customer who leases a virtual office gets a high profile city address he can use to register his business and send and receive mail, a fixed telephone line and a fax machine that operates 24/7. Operators answer incoming calls as though they are staff of the client and then forward messages to client’s true location. If the clients need an impressive place to meet business partners or customers, they can use meeting rooms equipped with modern facilities.

It’s an innovative – and somewhat 22nd Century - solution to the problem of not having an impressive city center office of your own. Clients can opt for an additional range of services, including the use of meeting rooms, photocopiers, printing machines and Internet. They can rely on the virtual office providers to deliver tasteful decorations, stylish receptionists, I.T. set-ups and even staff to organise a reception service.

That explains why office buildings have been appearing in various town and cities across the UK with nameplates of several companies.

Clients save both money and face

The economic difficulties of others have proven to be a golden opportunity for virtual office service providers. For many, business turnover has tripled in comparison with pre-crisis period.

One of the biggest virtual office leaders in the UK, said that he had 50% more clients early this year than he did twelve months’ earlier.

Most of clients say they use virtual office services to save money. A director of a real estate company in Liverpool said that normal office fee is too high for businesses facing economic difficulties. Therefore, he decided to lease a virtual office. “We only need to pay a small amount to see our nameplate hanging over the most modern and fully equipped buildings,” he added happily.

Laura Jones, a manager at a travel firm that leases a virtual office in Exeter, confessed that her firm’s real office is located in a terrace house. "It’s not a suitable place when the staff need to invite clients to discuss business which is why we use a virtual office with additional services". “Our business has become better since we began using the service,” she said.

Written by: Dave Williamson (ipl international)

Virtual Office for Real Businesses

Jonathan Richards decided to start his own overseas property business working from home after being made redundant in the latter part of 2007. He turned his garage into an office setting up his computers and printers and using his home phone number as his business line. Whilst working from home has its advantages using a residential address for business purposes does not really portray a successful business, and when meeting clients its not very practical to take them into your garage at home.

Like all new businesses Jonathan was in a dilemma. The contacts were coming in fast, his client base was growing and having meetings in local hotels became a bind. He knew he had to somehow portray a more business like image. When a colleague admitted that he used a virtual office Jonathan decided to investigate if this would be of use to him.

There are several companies offering this service and Jonathan was impressed to find that he could have a virtual office in any part of the country without him having to be there. He realised that having a proper business address would transform the perception of his business, making his company appear much larger than it really was enabling him to contact larger potential customers.

He signed up with a virtual office company and found that he was able to use their meeting rooms if necessary and also they provided a telephone answering service and lots of extra business support. Now all his stationary, website and email correspondence has the look and feel of a larger professional company.

Written By: Amit Patel

Top 5 UK Virtual Office Locations

Virtual offices offer many solutions for companies all shapes and sizes, whether it’s a full virtual office solution or just an address, there are many reasons why people choose to use one of the newest services available to the business community.

We recently conducted a survey into which are the most popular locations for people to have a virtual office in the UK. 16 out of a 100 people surveyed said they had more than one virtual office and 23 people said that they used it for a prestigious mailing address. It wasn’t any surprise that 62 people said they used it as a cost saving strategy.

Top 5 Locations

London
This was hardly surprising, not only because it the UK’s number one city for business but because of the office rental prices within the city centre. “It gives the right impression to our clients…….. but at a cost that we can afford” was one of the comments.

Manchester
This was also hardly surprising as it the Hub of the north. Manchester Airport offers a global reach from the north of the UK and businesses find that Manchester is a great central hub to the rest of the UK, but again with popularity the prices of offices are rising.

Birmingham
Right in the heart of England and with great transport links, makes Birmingham one of the top contenders for business. Because of its location Birmingham offers a “middle ground” from Manchester and London, which is why some companies are choosing it as a virtual office solution.

Dublin
Virtual office solutions in Dublin are becoming more popular, especially with business registering their head office in Dublin. It not only gives the look and feel of a larger company expanding but opens the doors to the Irish market. Virtual office solutions will also make sure that you have a local telephone number, which can be directed to your mobile.

Edinburgh
As the Business hub of Scotland this was the expected choice for Scotland. As with most of the cities in the UK office prices are rising and the recession is causing businesses to re-think their strategy. Some of the more exclusive offices in Edinburgh are offering Virtual office solutions.

Written By: Shaun Jefferies (Officebug)

21st Century Law

There’s a change in the way law firms are starting to operate in the UK. It’s more profitable, more economical and also gives clients greater access to solicitors.

One law firm started out with just eight partners in May 2008. The company now has over forty-four partners throughout the country and is still growing.

This firm doesn’t have too worry about finding office space big enough to accommodate their growth. The partners are spread out across the country and most work from home. It sounds to good to be true, especially as the firm has a presence in most counties, with prestigious addresses almost everywhere. How?

This is probably one of the finest examples of how one of the countries fastest growing law firms is setting one of the industries newest trends - Virtual Offices - companies that don’t need office space to operate but still want the prestigious address and the support when its needed. Using only a laptop computer, mobile phone, wireless Internet and computer networking, they can remain connected to each other and their clients without ever stepping foot outside of their front door.

Across the Atlantic the 2009 Legal Technology Survey Report by the American Bar Association reported about 6 percent of more than 880 attorneys surveyed said they use a virtual office (that’s a 4% growth in one year), while about 77% said they use email and remote office technology in some way (a rise of 13.7% in the year).

One UK Law firm said “We chose this model as its' cost effective and works nationwide enabling us to grow, but we are in the early stages,” Wilson said. “The main advantage has been that we can offer solicitors in most towns throughout the UK with prestigious office addresses next to the bigger law firms.”

Wilson is looking to expand globally and because his model in the UK is so successful, he is looking to start his expansion in to Europe. The Virtual office solution for Law firms was first seen in the USA, where groups of lawyers across states linked up to form a network of law firms which could assist anyone in any state and only had to remember one company name.

“This is not just a cost-savings model,” Wilson said. “Yes, it saves a tremendous amount on overhead, but it also allows our staff members flexibility in the hours that they work.”

Wilson said he started the firm in 2008 because his law partner at his former firm was not as willing to hop on the green and virtual bandwagon at the same rate as him. He said the firm saves on warehouse storage costs by scanning all documents to CD and then shredding the paper to recycle.

One of the advantages of the Virtual Office solution is that they hold meetings with clients at either the clients offices or they simply book a meeting room for the duration of the meetings required thus enabling them to answers phone anywhere, anytime

Written By: Andrew Havey (Glasgow Business News)

Virtual Office to the rescue

In the current economic climate, dynamic entrepreneurs and small companies are jumping to virtual offices as a means to incomparably reduce overheads. A virtual office delivers the full package. It gives the services and facilities of an actual office space without having a tangible building. This can be beneficial for a small business to cast an image of a much larger establishment.

Virtual Office can be based anywhere in the country, but when your looking for the backup and support of offices you should ensure you consider a place which has the backup of an office. i2office currently based in Milton Keynes is launching with one of the most innovative systems on the market today.

Offering Virtual Office, Meeting Rooms, Office Space, Free Phone Calls and even disaster recovery, http://www.theservicedoffice.co.uk has everything needed to ensure you can give the right impression from the out set.

Virtual Office services not only offer an office address but can also offer a service where they actually answer the phone using your business name and forward the call to you. It gives your company credibility and the impression your business is well organised.

Virtual Office for the Small Business

Small business company owners, as well as larger company owners, everywhere around the planet have been checking out virtual offices. They want to know what these virtual offices are and how they may be of use to them. Here is some information that may answer some of the questions that they have.

These are offices around the globe that offer virtual solutions in the real world, such as a real address in a prestigious area, a virtual telephone number that routes through to you directly, meeting rooms that impress your clients etc. All of these are run from your laptop and are booked as you need them. Most of the virtual office solutions don't tie you in for months on end and you can use various services separately or as a full package depending on your requirements and financial constraints.

Numerous advantages can be seen from utilising virtual office facilities. For instance, whenever you have need to have a presence in a count or location near to your clients, you can give the impression you have a well organised set up locally, with the backup of meeting rooms, daily/hourly office use and all for a fraction of the cost.

One of the main features I like is having a receptionist that greets your clients professionally in the lobby of the building whilst your in the conference room waiting for them to arrive. It gives your client the impression that your professional.

The virtual office can be set up and used in a variety of ways, depending on your requirements. Phone calls can be sent on to your mobile phone or another existing telephone number. As a result, the phone calls are accepted on whatever phone that you prefer.

The savings that are seen from using a virtual office are making it a more popular option with small business day in and day out. The financial savings of a virtual office against a fully functional working office makes owning a virtual office an intelligent decision in these difficult times.