Should You Consider a Virtual Office in Addition to Your Home Office?
A virtual office, as the name implies, is truly virtual except when you need a real office, it can turn into one. At a minimum, the virtual office is an enhanced telephone answering service and mail drop. It allows the small business to respond to incoming telephone calls with a live person answering the phone and then redirecting the call. That virtual office can also be a mail drop, giving the business a real street address other than the entrepreneur’s home address or a Post Office box. While there are bare-bones virtual office plans available, a much better alternative is to get a virtual office through an office business center, which is well located in a midtown area in your city or in prime buildings in the suburbs. These business centers have regular clients who they rent space to by the day, the week, the month or longer. For those small businesses that do not want or need a physical office, this same business center will offer a virtual office where you get your phone calls, faxes and mail. It typically is a prime business address that becomes your business address appearing on your letterhead, business cards and sales literature. See: The Virtual Office Part 1 See: The Virtual Office Part 2 See: The Virtual Office Part 3 See: How to Evaluate a Commercial Lease? Carefully! See: Key Commercial Real Estate Terms
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If you will start a business in your home, the addition of a virtual office may be good solution for presenting a professional face to the world. Perhaps you live in a distant suburb of Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami, Las Vegas or New York. Although an office in the city or a Class A building in the suburbs would be desirable, there is no way you can afford it at the moment. 