Things have changed a lot since 2020. More and more people are working remotely and the landscape of the daily work reality has changed dramatically for many people. There are benefits to working from home, but there are also challenges that many people were not prepared for.
Some of the challenges that are the hardest to grapple with, are solutions surrounding the things that an office can offer to your daily work reality that you cannot access when you work from home. This might mean having a less-than desirable office space in your home, or having trouble connecting with coworkers and business partners through virtual means.
Thankfully, there are some really good solutions to the demands and difficulties of working from home and many of them revolve around use of a virtual office to make it easier to run your business from home. Companies like SBN, have revolutionized the way that workers interact with one another and their ingenuity has removed impediments to the work from home reality.
If you want to learn more about how virtual office solutions can improve your ability to work from home, read on!
What Are Virtual Offices?
A virtual office allows employees to work remotely with access to necessary business functions that are accessible online. A virtual office provides all of the conveniences of a regular office space without the need to rent an office building. These virtual locations take over the role of the former physical office address that someone would drive to for work each day.
Anything that you can do in a physical office space can be handled through a virtual office. Best of all, your virtual office will provide a professional presentation to your business that cannot be achieved when you work entirely out of your home office. Being able to provide a business address to your clients and maintaining a business phone number are two major benefits to a virtual office location.
A virtual office can also be tailored to the unique needs of your company. You might only want mail and receptionist services, or maybe you will need to have access to temporary meeting rooms for presentations and other in person meeting needs. Virtual offices can solve all of these needs and much more!
Is a Virtual Office Right for my Company?
The answer to this might depend on the amount of time that you feel that you need to work in person on projects and with clients. That being said, there is nothing that a virtual office can’t do for you and your team. You will feel like you are working in the office each day, despite the fact that you are sitting at your desk at home.
If you want to maintain the feeling of a truly professional working presence, and you are desirous of saving some money on expensive office space rent, then a virtual office is a very viable choice for you to make for your business. Many people who interface with virtual offices state that they did not even know that they were working with a virtual office receptionist, or that they had sent their mail to a location that was not manned by the full team of professionals they had tasked with a job or project.
The line between virtual life and real life is blurring more and more each day, and one of the happy outcomes of this change is the advent of virtual offices.
What Can a Virtual Office Do For You and Your Company?
Virtual offices make working from home a breeze because they allow your company to continue to run the way it did before it was forced to transition to a remote working arrangement. Let’s face it, some companies just do not run effectively on a truly remote work platform. Virtual offices provide the nuts and bolts that hold together the entire process to make each day in your office more effective for you and your team as well as your customers.
While it might be possible to run your business without the help of a receptionist, a professional mailing service, or a professional business address and phone number, there are limited instances where this is the case. Even the smallest business can benefit from the use of a virtual office space and you are probably missing out on necessary conveniences by holding back from making the switch to a virtual office.
Benefits of a Virtual Office
These are just some of the benefits that you will enjoy when you decide to run your home business through a virtual office:
- Business Postal Address
This can be a big help if your business needs to transfer physical items to customers and vice versa. This way, you do not have to give out a personal address for yourself or someone else in the company, and all of your mail will go to a professional address to be picked up at your convenience. This also provides a much more professional experience for your customers when they are mailing things in to your location.
Business mail might also contain sensitive information that should not be mailed to a home address. Having a professional address can limit issues with mail being lost or incorrectly delivered as well. There is nothing more embarrassing than having to go next door to see if an important item was delivered to your neighbor’s flat instead of yours!
- A Receptionist
Some businesses just can’t run effectively without someone to organize meetings, answer calls, and defer people to the right team members. A receptionist also offers up a consistent point of contact to your clients, making your office much more professional and less chaotic. Best of all, this person will not have to attend to small children in the office space with them, or the barking of dogs and other distractions.
Professional phone calls can go a long way toward providing excellent customer service to your clients.
- Scanning and Mail Services
Believe it or not, a virtual office can provide mail services that allow professional correspondence to be sent out to your clients. The mail that is sent to your virtual address will be scanned, and have the right postage applied to it. Being able to track postage and being able to send out professional-looking letters and other documents can have a huge effect on the impression that is made with clients.
- Meeting Rooms
This is one of the best values that virtual offices can bring to the table. Companies like SBN, can offer up virtual meeting rooms that work like conference spaces in traditional office buildings. These meeting locations will provide temporary sites that can be used to meet with business partners or to work on projects with coworkers.
There are often various levels of meeting room that you can choose from, some tailored to providing both reception and food options, while others are tailored more toward short duration meetings that will not require as many amenities. This is a great option to make presentations more professional and to offer out-of-town clients the chance to meet you in person.
- Phone Answering Services
Do you need someone to answer the phone during the hours that you are no longer on the clock? Maybe you need a voicemail service to take care of calls that come in when you are on vacation. Virtual offices can meet these needs as well!
You can set up your virtual office to collect voicemails and after-hours calls, or you can have a full-time call attendant directing calls to the right people within your organization. This automatically makes your business look more professional and you will be pleased when all of your calls are routed to the right people without having to play phone tag on your personal phone with other team members.
What SBN Can Do For You
SBN offers work-focused solutions for the needs of all kinds of businesses. Their flexible approach allows you to mix and match the kinds of services that you need to make your business run smoothly from the comfort of your home office. No more business calls routed to your personal cellphone and no more mailing customers from your home address.
SBN knows that you might need short term assistance, as well as long-term solutions, and you can select from a variety of these kinds of solutions as you craft the perfect virtual office solutions for your unique business needs.
Meeting Rooms
If you need a physical office or meeting room to meet with a client, SBN has various locations that will allow you to do just that. You can pick from a variety of office spaces, from those with reception and catering options, to those that are just intended for quick meet ups a few times a month.
If you just need a workspace to come plug in and conduct some meetings or answer some phone calls away from the noise and hustle and bustle of your home, you can rent a workspace for a set number of hours as well.
These services are essential for many businesses in the London area, and SBN has them covered with beautiful locations that are perfect for your needs.
Mailbox and Mail Services
If you need somewhere to have your mail sent to so you can drop by and grab it, SBN can do that. If you need full mail servicing, including sending out letters and cataloguing received documents, SBN can handle that for you as well! Providing a professional mailing address and expert care for the receipt of mailed documents is often essential to business image and the protection of certain kinds of documents.
Virtual Receptionist
If you want someone to handle the first point of contact with your customers, SBN can help with that! You will be provided with a professional receptionist who will handle and route calls for you and your team. This person can also help schedule meetings and arrange other office necessities for the team.
Customers respond favorably to a receptionist answering the phone and they appreciate the consistency of speaking with the same person each time they call in. Being able to build confidence with your customer base is often as simple as providing them with a familiar person to handle their needs when they call in.
Dropshipping Address Services
SBN can also help you with your dropshipping needs. This can be the perfect solution for those running ecommerce businesses from the comfort of their homes. You will have a shipping address that is not your home location and you can be certain that the mail will be picked up 6 days a week and sent to your forwarding location.
Pack and Ship Services
If you have lots of larger items that need to be sent out to your customers, SBN can help! Even if you need packages sent overseas, SBN can help you to get your business mail sent to the right location and in quality shipping boxes or envelopes that will hold up to the trip.
No more sending out your important items in a box that you have had lingering in your garage. With Pack and Ship services, your professional mail will go out in the right kinds of packaging and to the right location, no matter where you want to send mail.
SBN Can Help You Transform Your Business
There are so many things that SBN can do for your company! Being able to resolve the stress and worry about your business image can help make working from home a breeze. No more trying to find a coffee shop to have a business meeting, or sending out mail that has been hand labeled by you.
Being able to separate your work and personal life is a huge part of the virtual office benefit, and one that you are missing out on if you are trying to provide all of your business needs from your home office. Transform the way your business works by getting a virtual office today!
