Written by: USA2Me
If you plan to do business outside of the US, you’ll need a virtual office. There are many advantages to getting yourself a virtual address, the least of which is the ability to ship anywhere in the world. A virtual office space gives you an address and phone numbers that appear to be localized. The service also comes with other perks you’ll need to do business with partners from all over the world. Read on to find out whether a virtual office space is right for your business.
Professional Correspondence Services
The most obvious benefit to a virtual office is the ability to communicate with consumers that are not local to you. You can have a physical address customers can ship to without the need to rent yourself an office space, which saves you thousands on operation costs. These services often come with some form of reception service, designed to field incoming correspondence for you and make sure it gets to the proper destination. You also get a live phone, with a call center-esque environment that can help fulfill your customer service needs. It’s not meant to replace your CRM, but it can help you get in touch with customers outside of your local sphere.
Virtual Space
A virtual mail box rental also has the added benefit of providing a space for you to do business in the form of platforms to host conference calls. It’s common for mail box providers to also grant businesses rights to use a virtual conference room, important for hammering out business deals. These services are bundled with your mailbox, so you usually save quite a bit of money not utilizing third party services to do this for you.
Costs
The biggest benefit is the cost to open a virtual office versus the costs to establish an office in the location where you plan to work. You’re not renting an actual space, so you save on costs to run that space and provide supplies for staff to work. If you work with contractors, a forwarding address can be a huge cost cutter for you. You could get a PO box for your business, but you miss out on the professional image that a virtual office can give to you.
If image is important to you, the start up costs of opening a virtual office far eclipse any other method of opening a business outside of your local area.