Business

Office in the country of incorporation or virtual office for business?

Virtual offices are a viable option for home-based startups, offering the service of a fixed address without paying the overhead associated with actually having one. Providing most of the features of a real office, including a virtual office address with mail forwarding and administrative support, at a fraction of the usual cost, virtual offices are ideal for those who need less overhead, flexibility, and higher performance.

What is a virtual office?

A virtual office is a shared office service that provides a permanent business address in a certain nation to overseas enterprises or persons working from home. Such a service offers its customers different services, which can usually be contracted in packages or modules, according to each need. Below we mention the main ones:

  • postal service;
  • telephone call management service in various modalities: voice mailbox, call forwarding or call forwarding and call answering;
  • a fax receiving service, usually through a system called efax or fax to email;
  • fiscal, commercial, and judicial direction.

Who uses a virtual office?

Such services are extremely beneficial to small businesses and individuals who operate from home and do not have the finances to hire a traditional office space or do not require it. They may rely on a physical post office address on a prominent street in any city by using a virtual office. Which positively affects the reputation and the first impression of customers. In addition, such services also allow them to manage their phone calls in a more professional manner.

Quite often, some providers also provide additional services to their customers. Yes, for an additional fee, clients can have an office or meeting room in a modern office building for a few hours, in case they have to meet a client in person or conduct an interview or meeting. But of course, all this for a price much lower than what they would pay to rent their own office. In some cases, it is even possible to use the address of the virtual office as the registered office and the registered office of the company. For this purpose, a sign with the name of the company is usually fixed in the “hall” near the entrance to the building.

Medium and large companies can also benefit from using a virtual office. They can establish a global presence in the various countries whose markets they want to access. In the early stages, it is useful to have a mailing address and local telephone numbers, or even hourly offices for interviewing potential clients or recruiting for future permanent representation.

Types of virtual offices:

Focused on local or land-based businesses

These cater to small businesses and traditional companies, often serving as their registered office. They usually have good facilities (offices and meeting rooms) as their clients often need to use them for presentations and meetings. They are very strict when it comes to verifying the identity of their customers.

Focused on offshore business

This type of virtual office is dedicated to managing the mail and communications of offshore companies and individuals who seek privacy above all else. They are generally less demanding when it comes to identifying their customers (although there are a few cases where at least a copy of the passport is not requested) and handle personal data in a more confidential manner. In many cases, they do not have office space for rent because their clients usually conduct their business operations elsewhere.

Mixed virtual office

Of course, there are also virtual offices that try to attract both types of customers and therefore have all the necessary services. This applies primarily to those located in large financial and business centers.

Given the experience and needs of their clients, many companies, including Hoxton Mix, provide virtual and temporary office rental services. The advantage of this service is that it adapts to all types of budgets, sizes, and situations. Everything is organized so that your company can start working today.

In addition, users themselves can choose additional services for renting virtual offices and temporary offices, namely:

  • services related to accounting, legal field, and personnel selection;
  • secretarial support, hourly private office and/or meeting room rental, messaging, printing, document scanning, computer rental, multimedia projector, phone calls, additional furniture, secure storage, acrylic board, conference phone, English and Chinese document translations languages, etc.;
  • international contact center maintenance so that companies have a much closer and direct relationship with their customers and/or potential customers (marketing research, telephone surveys, sales campaigns, collection management, attention to complaints, attention to orders, etc ).

Cons of having virtual offices

Every coin has two sides, and virtual offices have their downsides.

Lack of discipline

Moving into the office every day can instill a sense of discipline that entrepreneurs working from home often struggle with. A virtual office only offers a physical address; he fails to instill the work ethic that comes with going to the office every day.

Lack of professionalism.

You may not always be able to host clients in your virtual office (often this depends on the service provider). Therefore, a virtual office may show unprofessionalism even if it is not true.

Lack of social interaction

One of the great things about working in a real office is the daily interaction with colleagues. A virtual office cannot give you the same experience, even if it solves your business problems.

Virtual offices are not a rule for everyone, but rather a necessity. Some companies or the self-employed may be better off with a real office, while others can benefit from a virtual one.

Will a virtual office for business be the best option for you? We cannot unequivocally answer this question without knowing the peculiarities and subtleties of the company’s functioning. But there is hardly any point in arguing with the fact that doing business in the current realities is fundamentally different from the methods that were relevant at the end of the 20th century.

And in order to choose the most suitable option for yourself, we recommend that you contact the experts to discuss the terms of an individual consultation.

Ben Williams

Ben is a freelance writer and journalist who is a regular contributor on multiple national news websites and blogs.

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