By Bond Collective Staff
Ask the question, “What is a virtual office?”, and you may expect to get an answer straight out of a science fiction book or from the cutting edge of computer-generated virtual reality (VR). But a virtual office is less complicated than it sounds and is available right now to help your business succeed.
What Is A Virtual Office?
There are several definitions for what is a virtual office floating around out there. Type the words “define virtual office” in Google’s search bar and you’ll get this:
The operational domain of any business or organization whose workforce includes a significant proportion of workers using technology to perform their work at home.
Honestly, that’s much more complicated than the concept of a virtual office should be. Here’s a simpler definition:
A virtual office service is a way for your business to establish a mailing address without the expense of leasing and staffing your own office.
As a freelancer or startup, can you afford a workspace on Broadway in New York City? Possibly, but the chances are slim. By securing a virtual office at Bond Collective, you can have that impressive address — and much more.
Our friendly staff will accept and store packages and mail so that your business can appear professional and established with a business address, even while you continue to work out of your home, garage, or the corner coffee shop to keep costs low.
Simply stop by Bond Collective during business hours and any one of our Community Managers will be happy to show you to your private mailbox and retrieve your packages. They’ll even help you box and ship outgoing packages and letters so you don’t have to fight the crowds at the post office or shipping store.
And while you’re there, you can purchase a day pass to our coworking space or conference room, where you will be able to work in style and luxury with like-minded entrepreneurs and digital nomads from around the world.
That’s a virtual office and that’s what it can do for you and your business. But the benefits don’t stop at mail service and a place to set your laptop.
Benefits Of A Virtual Office
1) Cost
How much would it cost your fledgling business to rent an office and staff it with a receptionist between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.? Probably more than you want — or can actually afford — to spend at this point.
With a virtual office, you pay pennies on the dollar (maybe even fractions of pennies on the dollar) when compared to running your own place. That helps you keep costs low when you need to the most.
2) Professional Image
As a freelancer, entrepreneur, startup, or small business, it’s vital that you channel as much of your capital toward growing your brand. That means your office space — and the image it projects — may take a backseat to other necessary expenses right now.
But with a virtual office, you can establish and maintain a professional image without having to worry about securing your own space, decorating it, furnishing it, and all the headaches and expenses that go along with it.
3) Infrastructure
Infrastructure is second only to rent when it comes to pain points for a developing business. Getting the services you need for a brand new space is extremely expensive, not to mention time-consuming.
With a virtual office, all of that infrastructure is included in the low monthly fee. You don’t have to worry about the heating, the cooling, the internet, and who’s supposed to work when.
4) Time
A virtual office pays dividends with time. It removes the hassle and stress of managing your own larger workspace while at the same time, giving you and your team more hours in the day to focus on and grow your business.
5) Location
When you set up a virtual office, you also get the street address associated with the building. That can do wonders for the image of your business and brand.
For example, at Bond Collective, we have some of the finest, most prestigious addresses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia, so you don’t have to settle for a second- or third-tier address somewhere else.
6) Networking
A virtual office gives you a legitimate reason to network with other business-minded professionals without having to go out of your way or out of your comfort zone to do it.
Most virtual offices, like those at Bond Collective, are maintained in coworking spaces where entrepreneurs, freelancers, and business team members of all sorts hang out, work, and intermingle.
Imagine meeting, talking to, and getting advice from a potential partner, investor, or CEO while checking your mail. That’s a possibility — actually, a probability — when you set up a virtual office at Bond Collective.
7) Flexibility
As we mentioned above, most virtual offices have some type of coworking space attached to them. That means that at Bond Collective, for example, you have the flexibility of upgrading from a mailing address to all the amenities that such spaces have to offer.
Not only could you rent a hot desk (a first-come, first-served space), a private desk, or even a private office (while still preserving your mailing address), but you also receive access to conference rooms, meeting rooms, and services such as:
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24-hour access
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Guest reception and greeting
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Black-and-white printing
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Luxurious furnishings and beautiful decor
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Photo & sound studio
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Private phone booths
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Rooftop lounge
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Pet-friendly spaces
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Complimentary fresh fruit, beer, coffee, and tea
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Tasty treats and beverages for purchase
All of that for one low monthly fee. Plus, you can upgrade or downgrade your membership anytime you want.
So if you’re renting a virtual office in August, you can expand to a private desk in October and contract to a hot desk in December. That’s unprecedented flexibility that is generally unheard of in business.
8) Comfort
We challenge you to find a post office or shipping center anywhere in the United States with workspaces and decor as fine and luxurious as those at Bond Collective. “What does this have to do with a virtual office?” you ask. If you’re like most on-the-go entrepreneurs and employees, you can literally work from anywhere.
Now think about this: would you want to set up your laptop in the corner of your local post office? Absolutely not! But check your mail at a virtual office in any one of Bond Collective’s six locations and you’ll be treated to some of the finest workspaces you’ve ever seen.
So if you’re struck by inspiration or you get an important call from your biggest client, you don’t have to try and do business in a busy public area. Instead, you can purchase a day pass (or find a corner lounge) and conduct your business in style and comfort.
9) Convenience
Convenience may not be something you consider when thinking about a virtual office, but once you experience the heart of business and social activity, you’ll never want to work anywhere else.
That convenience also extends to public transportation and overall accessibility of the virtual office. Bond Collective’s coworking spaces are located in some of the most convenient areas of cities across the country so you don’t have to worry about anything but getting the job done.
10) Front-Desk Support
The best virtual offices — like those at Bond Collective — provide front-desk support to streamline your workflow.
Not only does the front-desk support accept, sort, and forward your mail and packages, but they can also field any phone calls from clients and customers while you’re focusing on your work.
That saves you the difficulty and expense of hiring and maintaining your own full-time staff.
11) Market Presence
Not only is a virtual office an excellent way to maintain a workspace in your hometown, but it is also one of the best ways to establish a foothold in a new market. With a virtual office, you can set up a local address and phone number without having to spend your hard-earned capital on a long-term lease.
Then, when you go to visit, explore, and research the potential market, your virtual office becomes a workspace away from your workspace…without the cost of buying or renting a physical location full-time.
12) Easy Setup
By nature of their design, virtual offices lend themselves to quick and easy setup. You don’t have to remodel the space, connect utilities, or buy furniture and equipment. Everything is already there and ready to go.
All you have to do is bring your team and their necessary technology and you’re ready to get to work. What takes days, if not weeks, with a conventional office, takes an hour or less with a virtual office. That’s ease of setup like you’ve never experienced before.
13) Inspiration
Working from home, the corner coffee shop, or even your own dedicated space can be incredibly isolating and demoralizing — even for your team.
14) Technology
Transporting a laptop is an easy task these days. But when you add in the necessary routers, cables, Wi-Fi modems, and printers necessary for even just one person — let alone a team — you’d need a truck to get to work every day.
But when you work from a virtual office, everything but the laptop is there and waiting for you to plug in and go. That makes getting to and from work a much easier prospect.
15) Productivity
A virtual office removes many of the day-to-day concerns that managers face when their team works from a conventional, leased space. A quick scan through this list reveals just a few.
When you don’t have to worry about overhead, utilities, and cleaning anymore, you and your team can focus on being as productive as possible.
Is A Virtual Office Right For You And Your Team?
A virtual office is an excellent solution in a variety of situations. Do any of these apply to you?
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You’re an entrepreneur just assembling your team.
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You’re a freelancer working in a home office and don’t want to use that physical address for business-related correspondence.
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You’re a digital nomad who needs to maintain a mailing address for paychecks and invoices while you’re away.
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You run a startup and you don’t have the capital to secure and staff a space of your own yet.
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You’ve traveled from another state or another country and you need a mailing address to get your business started and lend it some legitimacy with investors.
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You’re in the process of setting up a satellite office and need a place to receive bills and the like.
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Your team works remotely online, but you still need a central business address.
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You want a more secure address for accounts receivable payments.
There are so many situations in which a virtual office would make running your business easier. It doesn’t matter how large or small your company is, a virtual office is right for you, your team and your business.
Establish An Impressive Address At Bond Collective
Don’t let the difficulty and expense of maintaining a physical space get in the way of growing your business. Establish an impressive address and give your freelance career, startup, or small business everything it needs to succeed by reaping the benefits of a virtual office at Bond Collective.
Bond Collective’s Virtual Office offering allows business owners and entrepreneurs to establish a business address without the added expense of paying for actual office space.
With a Virtual Office from Bond Collective, there are no more missed delivery slips, no more lost packages, and no more stressing over mail forwarding. Our friendly staff accepts packages and mail from all the major carriers. Additionally, we will store your packages and mail so that you can pick up your items whenever it’s most convenient for you.
Simply drop by during business hours and any one of our Community Managers will be happy to show you to your private mailbox. They’ll even help you box and ship outgoing packages and letters so you don’t have to fight the crowds at the post office or shipping store.
Even better still, the benefits of our Virtual Office Space extend far beyond your packages and mail. With a Virtual Office from Bond Collective, you can create credibility for your business without the cost and headache of keeping an actual, physical office. This is ideal for international entrepreneurs and business owners who are just starting out in the United States.
Our Virtual Office Space offering also helps companies of all sizes reduce the costs associated with overhead — one of the largest expenses businesses contend with. That savings can mean the difference between success and failure in the current fast-paced and competitive business climate.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a digital nomad, a startup, or a business (large or small), our Virtual Office Space offering can help take your business to the next level regardless of where you are in the world.
Visit any one of Bond Collective’s many locations in the United States, including workspaces in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Illinois, Tennessee, and Texas. Then take advantage of our coworking spaces, dedicated desks, and private offices to suit all your team’s needs.
To get started or to learn more about virtual office and coworking benefits, visit BondCollective.com today.