How a Virtual Office Address Program Improves a Business’s Legitimacy and Success

We live in a time where anyone with a dream of opening up a business, or even an enthusiastic hunch, can do so without breaking the bank. The first step in achieving legitimacy for a budding enterprise is to establish a business identity that says to the consumerist world that the business is not just a passing whim based out of a dining room table -- but that there is some substance to it since it’s housed in a professional workplace environment. That is the beauty of a Virtual Office provider. It’s legitimizing, and it speaks to the seriousness and determination of a businessperson to succeed without over-extending one’s financing or forcing itself into a lengthy term commitment. It’s a prudent and ideal hedge and stepping stone in the journey to greater success -- or even a business empire.

A Virtual Office plan, with its many components and advantages, most notably it’s address/mailbox feature, allows an entrepreneur to project that his or her business is beyond just the home-bound, ‘good idea’ stage. It shows that it is firmly established in a professional environment that can receive people, clients, mail and packages, hence forming the foundation for a legitimacy and a confidence that a prospect or client can bank on knowing that there’s a basic business structure in place, which is a critical step for any new business, especially a freelancing, solo-perineurial one.

There was a time when a Virtual Office itself wasn’t sufficiently legitimizing, often considered the space of last resort for an under-financed and under-committed businessperson, or a place where someone unemployed/in transition would park a pseudo/long-shot business in the hopes of getting lucky or buying time until latching on to a top-notch job. In that sense and in those times, in certain circles, Virtual Offices were sometimes considered the opposite of how they are regarded today -- more of a business de-legitimizer, a holding pattern for someone’s ultimate next step. But those days are long gone.

A Virtual Office plan, starting with an address plan plus the possibility of phone answering or meeting space option has gained tremendous momentum and popularity for the past ten years, to the point where today it is regarded as the wise and necessary jumpstarting step that demonstrates lean and savvy business planning, plus financial prudence. No longer is an enclosed, full-time, expensive, fixed-term, leased office -- that, at most, is used 40 hours a week, but usually a lot less these days -- a business requirement for gaining legitimacy and confidence in the marketplace. A Virtual Office, starting with a legitimizing address program, is not only highly acceptable; it also legitimizes an entrepreneur’s business acumen, wisdom, and respect for their, and their client’s expenses, which is why a Virtual Office is such a hugely successful work-way today, and more so tomorrow.

About Ray Lindenberg

Ray Lindenberg is President of WANY - The Workspace Association of New York, and IN-Cert - The International Cooperative of A+ Certified Workspaces; and is the Chief Consultant & Innovation Officer at the Winning Workspaces Hospitality Group.