The 9 key benefits of virtual offices
If there was one lesson COVID-19 taught us, it is that we should never hesitate to take advantage of innovations and trends around us.
Prior to the pandemic, the idea of working remotely, and running a business from virtual offices was becoming a trend. But because many of us weren’t up for it, we ignored it.
I guess we both know how that worked out for many businesses amid the pandemic.
Just imagine how much you would have saved in terms of time, money, and effort, and how much you would have made in terms of revenue if your business hadn’t closed office during the pandemic.
While we can’t change what’s happened, we can at least learn from our mistakes, and embrace a concept that’s been beckoning on us all for far too long.
Besides saving us during a pandemic, there is a boatload of benefits for taking your business office and operations virtual.
What is a virtual office?
A virtual office is a normal office that has no physical space. It exists online. Its staff is online. And all its business operations are completed online.
The 9 key benefits of virtual offices
1. Boost business credibility
One of the biggest benefits of a virtual office is that it allows businesses to use virtual office addresses. And with virtual office addresses comes the chance to put your name up in any city or country of their choosing.
What that means, in a nutshell, is that with a virtual office address, a business can easily claim it is in the heart of London or Paris, even though it is operating from the bedroom of its owner in another town.
This ability to claim any location of your choosing is actually good for business because choosing a virtual office address in a well-known area relevant to your business further creates a positive impression of your business.
For example, if you are a tech company and use a virtual address in Silicon Valley in San Jose. This can increase your reputation as a tech brand and projects the right image to clients.
2. No more commute time
Another benefit of running a virtual office is that employees (and even you) get the chance to save themselves the stress and time associated with the daily commute.
In traditional brick-and-mortar office operation systems, office workers always spend two to three hours every day preparing and commuting to work.
If employees are allowed to work remotely and virtually, these extra hours can be channeled into more productive exercises for the business.
3. Ability to work from anywhere
Another key benefit of a virtual office is the ability to log on from wherever, whenever. Whether you wish to work from home, beach, park, or a holiday trip, virtual office systems allow you to stay on top of all business processes from the comfort of wherever you are.
This flexibility makes the entire process of running a business more enjoyable for both employees and employers.
4. Makes employees more productive
In research conducted at the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health in Australia, it was found that sitting at your desk for more than 11 hours a day increased your risk of death by more than 40 percent in the next three years regardless of other activity.
Unfortunately, there is no escaping “sitting at desks for hours” in traditional office systems.
But with virtual office systems, nobody needs to sit in one position for long hours anymore. Everyone can easily work from wherever they desire, and however, they desire.
5. Endless talent pool
Another huge benefit of running a virtual space is the opportunity to target an endless pool of talent.
Unlike in traditional office systems where organizations can only target talents within a certain mile radius of their business, virtual office systems allow companies to target talents from anywhere in the world.
Since a virtual office has no physical space, it simply means that businesses can hire workers remotely from every corner of the world.
6. Less overhead
This is perhaps the most important of all the benefits of a virtual office. Unlike traditional office setups, virtual offices require no overhead costs like an office lease, utility bills, furniture cost, hardware cost, etc.
In short, virtual offices don’t require all the associated costs that come with having a brick-and-mortar space.
7. Makes it easy to scale up
After operating for some time, it’s normal for a business to want to scale up. But, in order to do that, most organizations usually need to relocate to a larger space.
Unfortunately, the process of moving offices is not an easy or a cost-free one. Oftentimes, you’ll need to pay the moving company, hire an IT person to help with detachment and re-installation, and do so much more.
But you can save yourself all that stress by running a virtual office.
A virtual office allows you to expand your business without needing to move to a larger office.
8. Makes market testing easier
New emerging businesses can also leverage the power of virtual office to establish a presence in a new location or have multiple offices around the country while testing out the market there without the cost of relocating to that area.
9. Save money on technology
Everybody knows that tech is one of the biggest consumers of costs in organizations.
As we so regularly see in brick-and-mortar office spaces, organizations usually have to invest in lots of computer desktops, software programs, hardware machines, and so much more before they can run their processes smoothly.
In a virtual office system, this is not the case.
Since most of your staff are remote workers, they will be responsible for their own IT needs, thereby saving you from the recurring costs of IT overheads.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, the 9 key benefits of virtual offices.
Whether you like it or not, the world is going both digital and virtual. And so, it’s high time you too joined the train. Otherwise, you risk missing out on all the amazing benefits that come with virtual offices.
