8 Reasons Why You Would Use a Virtual Office Space

Permanent office space is quickly becoming an antiquated business practice for many entrepreneurs and small businesses. An explosion of cloud services, mobile apps, and soon-to-be 5G services make possible to work virtually anywhere and anytime. The amount of available virtual office space has grown exponentially over the past several years, and it is projected to continue a sharp upward trajectory in coming years. 

Leasing a permanent office can be a huge albatross around the neck of an entrepreneur or small business. In addition to getting locked into a long-term contract, entrepreneurs and small businesses cannot scale to accommodate employee growth, and they pay for unused workspace. While the other alternative—namely, working from a home office—does not come with the same overhead and inflexibility of a permanent office, it also has disadvantages—distractions, unexpected noise, among a number of other factors. 

Reasons Why Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses Should Use Virtual Office Space

For an entrepreneur or small business considering a virtual office space, the following are some of the top reasons to do so:

1. Avoid Expensive Office Space

Permanent office space can account for upwards of 10 percent of a small businesses revenue—monthly lease, utilities, furnishings, and other fixed costs. In the case of entrepreneurs and businesses operating in high-cost locations like New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston, among others, permanent office space can be even higher.

2. Attract Better Workers—Faster and Easier

During a low unemployment such as now, it can be extremely to attract and keep great talent. One of the considerations many workers place at the top of their list of their work-life priorities is work flexibility. Thirty percent of workers have left jobs because of the lack of flexible work options. Another 16 percent are looking for new jobs for the same reason. For employees who offer flexible work options, 80 percent of their employees are more loyal than if they worked for an employer that did not offer flexibility options. As greater work flexibility typically comes with virtual office space, organizations using virtual office space can find workers faster and easier and also retain them. 

3. Go Green

By avoiding a permanent office location, entrepreneurs and businesses can reduce their carbon footprint via using virtual office space. There are tangible business outcomes associated with green as well: A majority of the workforce seeks out companies with a green focus, while the vast majority of business customers and consumers indicate they want to purchase from organizations with an environmental focus.

4. Achieve Greater Productivity

Research shows that virtual office workers are 13 percent more productive than workers who work from permanent office spaces. They also record fewer sick days. Happier and more engaged employees simply deliver better results—which is critical for small businesses where incremental outcomes can mean the difference between business expansion or stagnant revenue, profitability or unprofitability. 

5. Build Diversity

Certain groups in the workforce require greater workspace flexibility—such as working mothers. It thus makes sense small businesses that use virtual office spaces are more diverse than their counterparts that do not. And as research shows that diverse organizations produce better business outcomes than those lacking in diversity, small businesses with diversity do so as well. 

6. Enable Business Scale

Entrepreneurs with virtual office space are not encumbered with long-term contracts that inhibit them from adding employees (if they have run out of workspace), changing office locations, or adding new office locations. Notably, virtual office space gives entrepreneurs and small businesses the ability to expand into new cities or geographical areas without the entailments that come with permanent office space. 

7. Improve Brand Awareness

Very often, entrepreneurs and small businesses cannot afford permanent office locations that garner the respect they need. Most virtual office space is in locations that deliver the first impressions—and ongoing perception—that entrepreneurs and businesses demand. 

8. Collaborate and Network with Others

In addition to distractions that come with a home office environment, professionals stuck in a home office lose the chance to network and collaborate with other members of their team as well as other businesses in a virtual office space. 

Get Started with Virtual Office Space Today

These reasons should be more than sufficient for entrepreneurs and small businesses not using virtual office space. Getting started is easy. With Davinci Meeting Rooms, organizations have access to over 5,000 virtual office locations around the world that start at $10 per hour. 

About Patrick Spencer

Patrick Spencer (Ph.D.) is the President and Founder of TIRO Communications that helps companies develop, build, and manage content, customer, advocacy, and demand-gen programs. Included in its offerings is TIRO Cognition Insights, a data analytics tool that enables B2C and B2B businesses to pinpoint what their customers and competitors’ customers are saying and to identify corresponding actionable product, services, competitive, sales, and marketing intelligence.

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Website: www.tirocommunications.com