A virtual office is a service that provides businesses with a physical address without the costs of a long lease, administrative staff, and other office-related expenses. In other words, you can run your business from anywhere in the world and still have a mailing address, phone answering services, meeting rooms, and videoconferencing tools. Virtual offices are a popular choice among startups and small businesses due to their affordable price and flexibility, allowing them to have a place to meet their clients at a lower rate than a traditional office. However, a virtual office can become a thorn in your business’s side if it isn’t done right. That’s why it’s essential to know the ins and outs of how to set up a virtual office.
If you’re considering using a virtual office, your business is likely to be scattered throughout several locations. So, you need to think beforehand about the required steps to guarantee productivity and security when employees communicate with the virtual office staff or coworkers based in another location. Of course, an important part of running a virtual office is using the appropriate tools and resources to help employees fulfill their roles, such as project management software, videoconferencing, and cloud collaboration tools.
When it comes to physical addresses, you need to choose logical places that your business should operate from. For example, let’s imagine that most of your clients are located in Washington and New York. In that case, it wouldn’t make sense to open a virtual office in Texas. It’s also important that the phone system is properly set up to make sure that your virtual assistant can seamlessly transfer calls to you without the client realizing it.
Being able to have a physical address anywhere in the world is amazing, but a virtual office can only succeed if you have the right tools. Here, we picked out the main platforms that any online business needs:
Technology has shaped everything around us, including how we work. Now it’s possible for an entire business to have employees in every corner of the globe communicate as if they’re all in one office. It’s all thanks to web conferencing software like GoToMeeting, which was first released in 2004 by Boston-based company LogMeIn – also known for the VoIP service Grasshopper and other entries in the GoTo series, like GoToWebinar. GoToMeeting is known for its speed, letting you set up a meeting with just one click – saving you time whenever you want to have a quick call. The service can be accessed through its desktop apps, browsers, mobiles, or by dialing into a call from anywhere in the world. GoToMeeting offers three different tiers that will suit your needs depending on your business’s size, but you can first test the software by taking advantage of the free 14-day trial.
When it comes to payroll your business needs software that fits like a glove, integrating seamlessly with your company’s needs. For many small and medium-sized American businesses, Atlanta’s OnPay is the perfect solution. Available in every state since 2011, cloud-based service OnPay has gone beyond payroll to help businesses with some key integrations, free HR services, and tax calculations. In fact, the service is so confident of its tax calculations that it provides an error-free guarantee and will pay any penalties that may occur from mistakes. OnPay is reasonably priced compared to its competitors, with a crystal-clear pricing structure – it even gives away the first month for free. Additionally, the service offers potential users a 30-day free trial to thoroughly test it out first.
With over 20 years of experience, is known for being ahead of the curve, providing a wide range of products, including online faxing and web conferencing software. RingCentral RingEX offers unlimited domestic calling and text messages, advanced call handling and phone management features, plus desktop and mobile apps to combine everything into one polished VoIP platform. Even better, it comes with a personal AI assistant that is a game-changer for anyone needing to take calls or follow up on clients.
It’s possible to see everything for yourself with the interactive demos, but testing its features is also possible via the 14-day free trial and 30-day money-back guarantee available. To know more about what RingCentral has to offer, we recommend calling the company at +1 (888) 295-1724 for a custom quote.
Setting up and running a new business can be overwhelming, which is why having a reliable service to help you avoid any headaches is essential. Established in the U.S. in 2021, Business Anywhere offers four essential services on one single dashboard: business registration, registered agent service, virtual mailbox, and online notary. Small business owners can sigh with relief thanks to all that’s offered by this simple and efficient provider.
While Business Anywhere doesn’t have a mobile or desktop app, the modern browser-based service works like a charm. In as little as five steps, remote registration allows customers to establish a virtual office with their very own personalized dashboard.
Despite the lack of free trials, the company does offer plan bundles that come with a variety of extra services included. While Business Anywhere may be perfect for a start-up, since the four services cover pretty much everything a new entrepreneur may need, it also brings a lot to the table for already established players.
IPVanish made a strong entrance as a VPN service provider in 2012, long before VPNs became so common, and it’s been further improving its service ever since. Fundamentally, this solution specializes in providing customers with secure and encrypted internet connections across all devices.
Offering customers an impressive 2,200 servers worldwide to choose from, IPVanish is both comprehensive and reliable. It’s also one of the few VPN providers that manage a big portion of its infrastructure in-house, owning 80% of its servers and only using self-developed software for its service. This reduces the company’s reliance on third parties, making it an even more trustworthy option.
As one of the strongest VPNs on the market, IPVanish also boasts a vast range of features that not only provide faster speeds but also permit a custom encryption level and all other elements of a VPN connection. With prices starting as low as $2.99 per month, users certainly get a lot for their money.
There are many reasons that make getting a virtual office worthwhile. One of the most important is the ability to have a physical address, which is legally required for LLC businesses. Additionally, if you work with clients that need some level of formality, it’s better to meet them in an office space than via web conferencing, and a virtual office can be your meeting place.
But there’s a lot more to virtual offices. Depending on the service you get, virtual offices also answer phone calls, curate emails, forward your mail, greet unexpected visitors, and much more. In other words, they can take most of the administrative work off your shoulders to let you focus on more crucial tasks. There are even providers that have financial and legal staff on their payroll to offer you technical advice on how to deal with paperwork and taxes as a small business. Finally, having a virtual office helps with SEO geolocation, which lets your business benefit from the ‘near me’ feature in search engines even if your business is online-only.
Running a virtual office is no easy feat. And while meeting software, online payroll, and virtual phone systems are essential to succeed in a virtual office, they’re just the first steps. Security, remote team productivity, and reliable online document storage are also important for any company with employees located across various locations. So, make sure that you do your homework to know which tools to get and policies to implement.
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