Working from home can be amazing. There’s a ten-foot commute, the dress code is pajamas, and nobody ever steals your favorite coffee mug. On the other hand, that lack of a professional location means that you can sometimes take a hit in the professional reputation department. So what’s to be done? Well, you have a few options.
- You can keep doing what you’re doing— to heck with public perception.
- You can rent an office, leaving you on the hook for a ton of money.
- You can join a coworking space and share an “office” with other independent workers.
- You can sign up for a virtual office service.
What is a virtual office?
A virtual office provides an address away from home for potential clients or customers to interact with. It serves to keep your personal and professional life at a healthy distance while you continue working from home (or the library, or the cafe). At its foundation, a virtual office is a professional address for sending and receiving mail, and sometimes also phone, voicemail, and receptionist services.
Without a virtual office, clients can track you to your home address and phone number, a situation that’s just waiting for that one person with poor boundaries to cause a fuss. A virtual office provides a home for your business that exists even when you’re working from your living room.
How does it work?
Mailing address
When you sign up for any virtual office packages with Victory Workspace, you receive a business address at our Walnut Creek location. How you handle this mail is up to you. You can choose the locked mailbox option, which means you can pick up your mail in person just as you would with a PO box or the mail sent to a physical office space away from home.
Or you can opt for mail forwarding, in which case all mail sent to your business address would then be forwarded to your home, allowing you to pick up the mail from your own front door. Regardless of which option you choose, we can also sign for packages delivered to your business address, meaning you don’t have to be present to receive larger deliveries.
The address is yours to use on your website, business card, or promotional materials. It’s your business’ real address, you just happen to run it remotely.
Phone services
Some virtual office packages also include phone services. This means you get a business phone number (either local or toll-free) and a voicemail box. You can choose to have all these calls go to voicemail or have them forwarded to another number.
This gives you the freedom to work using your personal cell phone without having to share your phone number online, cutting down on spam calls, scam calls, and solicitations.
Receptionist services
Premium virtual office packages also include virtual receptionist services. This means a real, live human who answers phone calls to your business number as though they were your employee.
The receptionist then handles those calls however you prefer: by forwarding them to you, directing them to your voicemail, taking messages, scheduling appointments, or telling them (professionally, of course!) to go away.
Victory Workspace offers a variety of virtual office packages that best suit your needs.
From the most basic to the most detailed and hands-on, there’s a virtual office package that’s right for you and your small business. Interested in learning more? Contact us.
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