The Virtual Office - Staying Professional While Working Away from the Office

If your company is looking to save some costs, it may look into something known as a virtual office. When there are less traditional office spaces being used, it is possible to be more productive with time and money. These are not the same thing as “executive suites,” or “business centers” as you must have a lease for those, whereas you don’t need one for the virtual office as many times as the office work is done right out of the employee’s home.

The concept of the virtual office came to being in what is now referred to the Industrial Revolution, where the idea of working from one’s home came to fruition. Though not exactly the same thing, the idea of the virtual office came from the concept of the executive suite, without the lease. The virtual office saves those companies who utilize them, a little more money. The first virtual office company, The Virtual Office, Inc., was founded by Ralph Gregory in Boulder Colorado. It later became in North America as “Intelligent Office.” This concept of the virtual office is now an important concept in our modern Age of Information.

The virtual office concept contains two main ideas, the first of which is communications. Most of the time, you can get a virtual receptionist who uses the highest level of computer software so that your business remains professional at all times. You can also receive the use of a virtual assistant who works by himself without software, but reports to you. This usually does incur a small monthly fee. Your virtual office also provides you with answering services from a central location within the country that your office is located in so that you can provide better service to the majority of your customers.

Not only does the virtual office provide communication services, but also it provides you with space services. These services include a special business mailing address to keep your home mail separate from your business communications, usually a PO box. You can also make sure that someone is available to collect your deliveries. All this is done in a casual work environment where you can report to the main office when you need to. You can also have access to many on-site amenities such as high speed internet, a fax/copy machine, and many other amenities that would usually be found in a regular office.

The most common users of virtual offices are accountants, attorneys, home based businesspeople, tradespeople, stock brokers, and sales representatives. Most find that combining work and home can be more efficient while keeping the expenses of running the businesses lower.

In a recession style economy the trend of virtual office space is rising as it becomes necessary for business owners to save some money so that they can see more profits. This also allows for a more casual work environment for a stay at home parent so that they can save more money on babysitting and child care expenses, as well as gas and wear on the vehicle that commuting to the office would entail.