virtual offices
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Economic times are tight for many businesses these days. Many small businesses cannot keep up with the costs of renting a brick and mortar office and paying the salaries of a secretarial staff. Unfortunately, there is still a real need for to have a live human on hand to answer the corporate phone, and for closely related clerical work. In the face of these issues, many businesses are turning to a virtual office solution to meet their needs.
One of the best ways to save money while maintaining an adequate level of service is to use a live virtual receptionist as a professional, pleasant point of human contact for your customers. Reputable virtual offices limit the number of businesses each receptionist takes calls for, so customer service will always be available in a timely manner. If customers must be briefly placed on hold, they will hear soothing music instead of being left to cool their heels in a blank silence. A quality virtual assistant will screen, prioritize and forward your calls by the criteria you set, so your highest priority calls can always be forwarded to you immediately.
In addition to the human touch of a live phone answering service, virtual assistants can forward both faxes and voicemails to your email inbox, where you can deal with them at your convenience. A virtual office solution can help manage your calendar and schedule your appointments. A live virtual receptionist may make calls for you as well as receive them; reminding your contacts to keep their appointments and helping you find new customers.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Using Virtual Office Solutions
Economic times are tight for many businesses these days. Many small businesses cannot keep up with the costs of renting a brick and mortar office and paying the salaries of a secretarial staff. Unfortunately, there is still a real need for to have a live human on hand to answer the corporate phone, and for closely related clerical work. In the face of these issues, many businesses are turning to a virtual office solution to meet their needs.
One of the best ways to save money while maintaining an adequate level of service is to use a live virtual receptionist as a professional, pleasant point of human contact for your customers. Reputable virtual offices limit the number of businesses each receptionist takes calls for, so customer service will always be available in a timely manner. If customers must be briefly placed on hold, they will hear soothing music instead of being left to cool their heels in a blank silence. A quality virtual assistant will screen, prioritize and forward your calls by the criteria you set, so your highest priority calls can always be forwarded to you immediately.
In addition to the human touch of a live phone answering service, virtual assistants can forward both faxes and voicemails to your email inbox, where you can deal with them at your convenience. A virtual office solution can help manage your calendar and schedule your appointments. A live virtual receptionist may make calls for you as well as receive them reminding your contacts to keep their appointments and helping you finds new customers.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Serviced Offices for Your Business
A serviced office is an office that is at another location but allows the users of this service to limit the need for traditional office costs but still maintaining a professional business image. The serviced office works well for small businesses that are looking for a short-term office space solution or for a business looking for a flexible lease. In addition, serviced offices also work well for businesses that are growing quickly, branch offices for larger companies, foreign companies and other businesses looking for short-term business solutions.
There are many reasons why some businesses find a serviced office beneficial such as: an increase in employees, a business growing unpredictably, relocation is needed soon, wasted space in a current location, the need for a more professional looking office and not having enough money to rent a conventional office.
There are many benefits in obtaining a virtual office such as: they are ready to use quickly, flexible leases, little worry about managing the serviced office, flexibility, internal branding and no maintenance of equipment and furniture.
In addition, there are several types of serviced offices such as long-term offices. Long-term offices have 1-2 person executive suites and large open-plan offices that can easily take care of 6-9 people. And, all offices are modular. There are also short- term offices. Short-term offices are offices that are used 1-3 months, are fully furnished and are often available to customers any time they need the space. The branch/ representative offices are used by new businesses and need business services quickly, along with a qualified, professional team. Other types of serviced offices are Start-up offices, Project offices, Team room offices, Disaster Recovery offices and Day use offices.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Working From Wherever You Want
Some people imagine themselves sitting on a beach as their mind daydreams away from work. The idea of work may not seem so bad, however, if you the same beach could be a work site. This is the power that comes with working from wherever you want.
The beach sounds great, but few people would attempt to do all of their work there. Many people do not really like to mix work and play. It is true that most people would probably want a much better view than they have now. The majority of individuals that are employees in big cities would probably get an office that gives a skyline view of the city. The average worker would probably want any office with the great window view.
Luckily, virtual offices give people that opportunity to be anywhere they would like to be. A virtual office service can cut down on traveling and actually improve revenues. There is no office space to rent and the office can essentially move beyond one with a physical location.
It really doesn’t get better than this in the world of business. The live virtual receptionist, for example, can type letters from anywhere. Many retail stores are ditching their brick and mortar buildings for cyberspace. It only makes sense for businesses to implement the same productive measures in efforts to increase revenue.
The role of virtual offices has become important because companies are able to compete for more business. It no longer matters where an office is located anymore. Obtaining clients in New York is no longer out of reach for companies with employees in Alabama. The virtual office goes to places that employees don’t have to go to. The business has a chance to flourish simply because they are no longer limitations on the geographic location.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Virtual Offices: Web Conferencing Solutions
Web conferencing has become a part of the world of vocational technology. With more and more people opting for a virtual office as compared to the traditional office set ups, telecommunication has become very important. For those that work from a virtual office, they have to communicate through video, audio, text, live virtual receptionist and live phone answering services. Files, your desktop, a browser or even a power point presentation over the Internet can be shared. Thus more IT companies have been inventing newer and more efficient ways to allow this communication to flow with ease.
International communication is the biggest advantage of video web conferencing. For those working in a virtual office, web conferencing is important to bring together the various clients and employees around the world. Due to the rapid globalization of our markets, every firm has employees that work from abroad and clients from various countries.
Online training and support can be provided to employees through a ‘webinar’ or a web-based seminar. A presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar can be transmitted over via the Internet, which can be one or two-way. Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS), which provides online facilitation, tools to help in the web conference. Voice over IP (VoIP) can be used for real time audio communication.
All these products that web conferencing gives us are easy to use and do not need software and external installation; it can all be done at the touch of a mouse. They cost less than hardware-based video conferencing and are available anywhere. Other benefits include increase of employee morale after using advanced technology, improve safety and reduce travel risks. With the world growing leaps and bounds, we should too should get on the bandwagon and make use of the gifts the IT geniuses have given us.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Save Money: Go Green at Work
A virtual office has now taken over traditional office spaces in the form of working from home and thus opting for your personal office at home, telecommunication and live conferencing, which still holds the integrity of the business professionalism. With increasing costs for non-renewable resources and growing global population and demand, the need for virtual offices has become a norm.
By using a virtual office space instead of a traditional one you can eliminate over 13,000 pounds of CO2 that is released into the atmosphere during the commute every year. It helps in reducing individual or an organizations carbon footprint. The carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases used by any individual or association. On average American workers spend approximately 47 hours per year commuting during the rush hour. This is equivalent to 23 billion gallons of gas used during the traffic hour. Since you work from home, there is less time spent on the road, which reduces the time CO2 is getting pumped into the air. This also reduces the dependency of humans on oil and the crazy prices that come along with it. Other ways to reduce our carbon footprint is by using carpools, electric and hybrid vehicles etc.
Traditional costs can be reduced by simple organization. Go Green with Virtual office spaces! Use energy-saving computers and settings rather than desktops that take up more energy. By digitalizing, the usage of paper is reduced and when needed recycled paper should be used. This office set up helps to cut back on energy and money used for business trips as telecommunication takes care of them. The costs of afternoon lunch and also amount spent on office attire can be saved.
After looking at all the benefits of a virtual office, the most important has to be a balanced-life. As people work from home and have more time from their eliminated commute they have more time to spend at home with family and more time for extra-curricular activities. This keeps the employee stress-free as time management is left up to them. With the increasing world population, climate change and natural disasters we all should sincerely make efforts to change our lifestyles and contribute with a virtual office!
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
The Virtual Office Solution for Los Angeles Entrepreneurs
If you are a Los Angeles entrepreneur in search of an office for your work, look no further than a Virtual Office Los Angeles provider. A virtual office allows you to reduce traditional office expenses while keeping the professionalism every business needs. A virtual office will service an established building in some of the most prestigious business districts in all of Los Angeles. These offices are top of the line buildings that will give you a real address for your clients while allowing you to save money on a traditional building lease.
Some virtual office solutions allow you to choose from many different features, such as how much telephone assistance you want. If you want an automated answering system or a virtual receptionist answering system, a virtual office can provide what you need, giving you not only a real address for your business, but also real people that are there to help you. Some virtual office businesses also give you shipping benefits such as ship ready prepaid services, which allow you to ship flat-rate prepaid envelopes to any location in the United States with free pickup and no weight limit.
Virtual offices in Los Angeles are amazing buildings that can impress even the pickiest of clients. There is no need to worry about which one spot to set up a business at if you are on the move all the time or are just looking to save money on business expenses. Virtual offices can provide everything your business needs to succeed and flourish into one of the most productive businesses in your industry. A virtual office allows you to put your customers first while saving time and money on a typical office. The benefits of a virtual office greatly outweigh the benefits of a regular business office, with savings in time and money and a worry-free location. If you are an entrepreneur looking for an office for your company, look for a beautiful office space in Los Angeles and start enjoying the amazing benefits it provides.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Why Call Forwarding Services are Priceless
There are many benefits of having a virtual office. There is no expensive overhead, utility bills and staff, which are some of the costly drawbacks of having a traditional office. Being virtual can drastically reduce the operating expenses that some businesses incur by having a standard office space. One of the key benefits of virtual offices is call forwarding.
Call forwarding services with a virtual assistant will give you the luxury of having someone take your calls while you are out of town, on vacation or simply relaxing at home. Virtual Assistants will professionally answer the phone in your company name and write down messages for you. Virtual Assistants, per your request, can also forward urgent calls to a phone number where you want to be contacted. They will also forward mail you receive to your virtual office anywhere you decide you want to receive it.
Having live phone answering services is an affordable option that perfectly sums up the benefits of the virtual office solution. Call forwarding can provide a great advantage over the competition because a lot of business can be lost by someone not being available to take or answer that critical phone call.
Call forwarding services also have options available where you can transfer customers to other employees or partners by adding extensions that are remarkably easy to set up and operate with just the press of a few buttons. Call forwarding services have options that will play music for the customer on the phone while they might be on hold to speak with you. These small things will give your business that professional presence and look without spending too much money to achieve it.
No matter if it is call forwarding services or virtual assistants forwarding your messages, there is no way a business in today’s world can prosper without considering the immense benefits of these very affordable options.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
The Challenges of Starting a Small Business
Starting a business can present numerous but not insurmountable challenges. Becoming knowledgeable through research, learning to heed the advice of successful entrepreneurs, and becoming proactive in all operations will assist small business owners in facing these challenges.
Here are some of the main challenges entrepreneurs face and strategies to effectively deal with them.
- Developing an idea and vision. As Benjamin Franklin once so aptly put it, you must possess the ability to see what others cannot see. Developing a business idea and plan is the first and most important challenge faced by every entrepreneur.
- Raising capital for startup. To overcome the omnipresent challenge of raising capital, you must develop the ability to sell your idea to investors. Note, however, that convincing an investor about something that does not yet exist presents a challenge within itself. You must be persuasive and have a good story backed by a fortified business plan if you wish to attract investors and capitalists.
- Putting together a strong business team. By team, I do not mean employees; I mean a business management team that will meet routinely to brainstorm and discuss the direction of the business, long and short-term goals, and different strategies to expand it. A business team is a vital, yet largely ignored key to raising capital and getting your business on its feet.
- Finding the right employees. Finding ambitious, trustworthy and loyal employees is extremely difficult. Even if you do find individuals who meet your expectations, if they work poorly as a team, it is in vain and will yield nothing but stagnation. Remember, employees are a reflection of your business its values, culture, and ethic. Hire slow and fire fast.
- Overcoming competition. From an outsiders perspective, competition encourages innovation and production of quality products; it’s a benchmark of creativity. Adopting this view, you should embrace competition and use it to stimulate your creative juices, so to speak.
- Unpredictable business challenges and expenses. As the old saying goes, expect the unexpected. If not handled promptly and with care, these can potentially lead to business failure. Some challenges include:
- Lawsuits
- Inability to make payroll
- Unexpected resignation of staff
- Bad customers
- Poor working capital
- Oscillating government policy
- Unpaid bills/taxes
- Keeping up with trends and changes in the industry. Trends can make or break a business. Seasoned entrepreneurs are aware that trends are friends and they swiftly work to adapt to the latest trends in the market. Spotting and then exploiting trends presents a unique challenge business owner must master, and the most successful businesses are the first to twist trends and steer them to their own benefits. Be an industry leader; don’t follow in others footsteps.
The above are several but not all challenges every small business owner must face as they begin their journey as an entrepreneur. Overcoming these challenges is quite literally the difference between success and failure.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Boost Your Home Business with Virtual Office Services
When your business is expanding, it can be pretty hard for one person to do all the necessary tasks to keep that business moving forward. It’s not hard to set up a highly productive work environment in the comfort of your own home, and a lot of people actually prefer to work away from the hustle and bustle of the modern world. You’re spending less time in rush hour traffic, more time with your family, and you’re actually getting work done.
However, when you’re looking at expanding your business and hiring a few employees, finding a good office location turns into a necessary hassle that not only takes time out of your day, but completely negates all the perks of working from home. This is why a lot of entrepreneurs and freelance professionals opt for a virtual office service. It completely cuts over-head costs because many of these services offer:
- A physical address for snail mail to get sent to and a 1-800 telephone and fax number.
- Customer services representatives to answers your business calls and chat messages 24/7, known as virtual assistants.
- Redirects any phone call to the sales, accounts & billing, or general inquires department and then sends you an SMS or email about your customer’s call.
- Converts faxes to email, email to fax, and voice messages to email.
- Provides support for teleconferencing with as many people as you want.
- May also provide bookkeeping and general accounting services to help keep your business moving forward.
A virtual office makes it easy for your business to grow and creates a situation wherein you don’t have to deal with labor laws in order to expand. This situation makes it completely ideal for small to medium sized business owners who do not have the time or money for a physical office and who need to focus on the work at hand.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +