5 Main Types Of Businesses That Benefit From Virtual Offices
The digital era brought significant changes in the business environment. Many business owners and entrepreneurs are willing to find a more affordable and flexible way to run their companies, without renting a physical office and paying elevated overhead costs.
Virtual offices use modern technology to provide all the advantages of a brick and mortar office at an affordable price. Virtual offices allow business owners to run their companies remotely from anywhere in the world and enjoy important benefits such as a professional business address, rentable meeting rooms, telephone answering services, mail forwarding, and more.
A virtual office can be used by a wide range of businesses that do not need a physical space, from freelancers and start-ups to more established companies looking to grow without being physically present at that specific location.
5 Types Of Businesses That Benefit From Virtual Office Services
1. Freelancers
Freelancers who rely on the services provided by a premium virtual office provider can gain credibility and strengthen their business reputation. Even if they are able to use their home address as their business address, this can have two main negative consequences: their home address will be available to the public (which is not a great idea not only for their businesses reputation but also for safety reasons) and their business meetings might not be as effective as they expect them to be. This is because there is a huge difference between having a face to face business meeting in a home office (which, again, it is not a great idea for the business reputation as well as for safety reasons) or a cafe where background noise can be distracting, and a professional meeting room provided by a virtual office.
2. Start-ups
A virtual office is perfect for start-ups whose owners want to enter the business environment on a limited budget. In the beginning, it can be difficult to pay high overhead costs (fixed overhead, such as property tax/building rent and business insurance, and variable overhead, such as building maintenance) before they even begin making a profit. In other words, reducing overhead costs by renting a virtual office can help start-ups make a profit and grow faster. Alternatively, start-up owners can use (just like freelancers) their home address as a business address, but this won’t help their business reputation at all, let alone the safety reasons. And last but not least, a start-up may have fewer chances to grow without other significant services provided by a virtual office (for example, without a telephone answering service, business owners should spend most of their time answering phone calls from customers instead of focusing on the main business activities).
3. Small and mid-size companies
Virtual offices are suitable not only for freelancers and start-ups but also for more established companies that are looking to reduce overhead and find affordable business solutions that are as effective as brick and mortar offices. For example, if a company has employees who are highly proficient in technology and can work remotely as a successful and strong team, why should the company’s owner pay for a physical office? More and more businesses are becoming aware that physical space is necessary only if managers and employees must meet to work (such as teams working in advertising or creative industries). Otherwise, they can simply save money by shifting to a virtual office.
4. Scale-ups
Scale-ups that want to grow in a new region but without being physically there (by opening a new shop, office, or a branch office) can rent a virtual office that allows them to respond effectively to changing economic factors. Virtual offices give them the chance to have a near-instant low-cost presence in a new location or even in multiple locations. As a result, they can boost their sales in another region even if they do not have the money to open a physical branch or store (because virtual offices offer limited financial risk exposure). In other words, larger companies that are willing to expand into new markets can highly benefit from the cost-effective solutions that virtual offices bring them.
5. Companies testing the market
Businesses should test a new market or segment before launching products or services and investing resources. Virtual offices allow companies (no matter their size and the products/services that they are preparing to launch) to have a better understanding of the current target market/customer without investing a high amount of money. Basically, they can define new segment opportunities with very low costs. Also, there is a slight difference between “companies that want to grow in a new region” and “companies that want to test the market” by using a virtual office.
Companies that want to expand and are ready to launch a new product or service can rent a virtual office as a cost-effective business solution (customers and suppliers will believe that a business is actually operating from that specific location) while companies that want to test the market can use a virtual office in order to identify at an affordable price the product or service that fits the new segment best (and once they identify it, they are free to expand in that location by continuing with a virtual office or renting a physical space).
To conclude, a wide range of businesses can use a virtual office. Even if some business owners may believe that they are suitable only for freelancers and start-ups, virtual offices can bring various benefits even to mid-size and large businesses that want to lessen the risk of expanding into new regions or test new markets.