What is a Virtual Office?
If you are starting a new business you have many decisions to make before beginning to make or sell a product. You must determine what type of business entity to create (LLC, S Corp, or C Corp), where to establish a banking relationship, what address to use for the business, where should you work and whether to use your cell phone as the business phone. Making these decisions may seem to be an annoying predecessor to building a product but they are very important. Some of these needs can be resolved by engaging a virtual office provider.
A virtual office is a business office without the expense of real estate. Also known as a mail service provider or business identity provider, a virtual office provider offers three basic components to a new business owner. These three components may be offered and priced individually or packaged to include a discount for including multiple components.
Mailing Address
A virtual office provider will allow you to use their address at an office building which has a good business address. If customers recognize the street address, it adds instant credibility to your new business. UPS Shipping Stores or other shipping stores also provide the use of their address but those offerings usually include a box number, a less attractive business address. The price may be less, but the image is also not comparable. With a good virtual office provider you can get a penthouse image at an address that your customers will recognize. This address legitimizes your business instantly with people who are considering a purchase of your product or services. Prices for mail services range from $50 per month for medium image locations to $99 for a higher image offering.
Telephone Services
Some providers offer a telephone number for your business and the option to have your phone number answered by a live receptionist. Having a business phone number is important for your business because it provides a better image. It allows the opportunity to have an image of staff members at your company by providing receptionists to answer all calls and distribute them to you. If someone calls your business, it is very unprofessional to have their important call go directly to a voice mail box. For the best sales effort, those calls need to be answered by a live receptionist even if the call is then forwarded to voice mail when you are not available. Additionally, if you use your cell phone for your business you should expect to receive calls after hours which may be annoying or just arrive at an inconvenient time to answer. Even if you don’t opt to have your calls answered by a receptionist, those calls can be forwarded to your cell phone, but when they arrive you’ll recognize the call as a business call and can answer the call when you might otherwise ignore a suspected spam call.
Meeting Rooms
If your business might require that you meet with your prospective clients, a virtual office provides conference rooms in which to hold your meetings. The conference rooms vary in size and price per hour but offer an impressive alternative to meeting in a Starbucks. The meeting rooms usually have an impressive image and technology that allows you to project from a laptop onto a wall mounted TV screen. Meeting rooms range from $20 per hour to $50 per hour or more for large rooms. Discounts are usually provided for full day reservations.
An impressive image
Collectively these three basic offerings provide you with a terrific image for a small amount of money compared to renting traditional office space. To learn more about these basic offerings you can search for “virtual office” or see our specific product offerings at YourOffice. Prices start at $50 per month. We are Denver’s largest provider and have over 275 virtual office customers using some combination of these services every month. Find out why!
