Virtual Office services for small businesses
An introduction to Virtual Office Services
A virtual office service can provide:
- telephone answering
- a professional office address for your business
- mail forwarding
- diary management
- meeting rooms
- an 08 or 03 or local business telephone number
Many businesses need virtual office services at some time or other, and for many different reasons.
Here is our overview of the different types of service on offer and some tips on what to check for when choosing a virtual office service.
Now Let's Get Started works with The Virtual Office Company to provide virtual office, virtual receptionist and telephone answering services for our visitors. Find out more.
Who needs a virtual office
Using a virtual office service can be very beneficial if you:
- are out of the office a lot
- need to focus on your business rather than answering phone calls
- don’t want to employ staff just to answer the phones
- need occasional meeting space to meet clients or suppliers
- need an impressive office address to create the right company image
- don’t want your business correspondence coming to your home address
- work from home but don’t want to make it obvious that you do
- work from home and want to avoid your partner or children having to answer your business calls, or answering them by mistake!
- need a telephone answering service to support an advertising campaign
Search for virtual office services available in your area.
Business telephone answering services: what to check for
If you’re looking for a virtual receptionist or business telephone answering service here are our tips on what to check:
- how quickly your incoming telephone calls will be answered
- how your callers will be greeted
- how well your ‘receptionist’ will know your business
- whether your callers will be connecting to a noisy call centre
- whether your calls will be handled in the UK
- what the office hours are
- how your callers will be dealt with outside of normal office hours
- if other contact methods, such as email or text messaging, are supported
- how you will be contacted to pass on your messages
- how often your messages will be relayed to you
- whether you will get a summary of all calls at the end of each day
Search for virtual receptionist services available in your area.
Pricing structure
Make sure you fully understand all the charges that you may incur from the different virtual office services on offer and make sure you find out about any:
- minimum charges
- minimum or maximum usage limits
- minimum contract period
- pricing ‘bundles’ that make you pay for services you don’t need
- ‘extras’ that you might be charged
Business addresses and what to look for
If you work from home and do not want to use your home address as your business address use a virtual office service to get a professional office address. Your incoming post will then be forwarded to any postal address you provide, or you can arrange to collect it in person. Think carefully about where your 'office' address should be: if your business comes from your immediate area then choose an address that’s local to your area, however if your business comes from further a field you should consider an address in a large town or city central to your target market. When you’ve decided on the general location, here are some other pointers to consider:
- does the building and its location create the right impression for your business
- is the office is occupied so it looks like a real office, or is it an empty building
- will your mail will be forwarded to you and how often
- are there are facilities for urgent or secure/signed for packages
- can you collect your mail in person if necessary
- when will the office be open for deliveries and collections
- will you need meeting room space and if so, are the rooms and facilities at your chosen location suitable
- if you can use the address as a registered office address for a limited company
Note: you may not always need to pay for business meeting space – for business discussions where you don’t need any facilities or privacy its now quite usual to have business meetings in coffee shops, hotel receptions or even motorway service stations. It may be a good idea to visit the place beforehand if you’ve never been there before just to make sure it will be suitable.
Search for virtual office services available in your area.
Business telephone numbers
In the same way you can create a good impression with the right virtual office address, you can also create a good impression with the right business telephone number. It’s now easy to have business phone numbers that were previously only available to large corporations, such as 0800, 0845 and 0870 numbers. It’s also possible to have a London phone number, or a phone number in anyone of a number of major UK cities, without being physically present there.
The Virtual Office Company will provide you with a local phone number as part of your virtual office or virtual receptionist service.
Or if you just want a business telephone number, see our article on Business telephone numbers for more information.
Virtual Office services for small businesses
An introduction to Virtual Office Services
A virtual office service can provide:
- telephone answering
- a professional office address for your business
- mail forwarding
- diary management
- meeting rooms
- an 08 or 03 or local business telephone number
Many businesses need virtual office services at some time or other, and for many different reasons.
Here is our overview of the different types of service on offer and some tips on what to check for when choosing a virtual office service.
Now Let's Get Started works with The Virtual Office Company to provide virtual office, virtual receptionist and telephone answering services for our visitors. Find out more.
Who needs a virtual office
Using a virtual office service can be very beneficial if you:
- are out of the office a lot
- need to focus on your business rather than answering phone calls
- don’t want to employ staff just to answer the phones
- need occasional meeting space to meet clients or suppliers
- need an impressive office address to create the right company image
- don’t want your business correspondence coming to your home address
- work from home but don’t want to make it obvious that you do
- work from home and want to avoid your partner or children having to answer your business calls, or answering them by mistake!
- need a telephone answering service to support an advertising campaign
Search for virtual office services available in your area.
Business telephone answering services: what to check for
If you’re looking for a virtual receptionist or business telephone answering service here are our tips on what to check:
- how quickly your incoming telephone calls will be answered
- how your callers will be greeted
- how well your ‘receptionist’ will know your business
- whether your callers will be connecting to a noisy call centre
- whether your calls will be handled in the UK
- what the office hours are
- how your callers will be dealt with outside of normal office hours
- if other contact methods, such as email or text messaging, are supported
- how you will be contacted to pass on your messages
- how often your messages will be relayed to you
- whether you will get a summary of all calls at the end of each day
Search for virtual receptionist services available in your area.
Pricing structure
Make sure you fully understand all the charges that you may incur from the different virtual office services on offer and make sure you find out about any:
- minimum charges
- minimum or maximum usage limits
- minimum contract period
- pricing ‘bundles’ that make you pay for services you don’t need
- ‘extras’ that you might be charged
Business addresses and what to look for
If you work from home and do not want to use your home address as your business address use a virtual office service to get a professional office address. Your incoming post will then be forwarded to any postal address you provide, or you can arrange to collect it in person. Think carefully about where your 'office' address should be: if your business comes from your immediate area then choose an address that’s local to your area, however if your business comes from further a field you should consider an address in a large town or city central to your target market. When you’ve decided on the general location, here are some other pointers to consider:
- does the building and its location create the right impression for your business
- is the office is occupied so it looks like a real office, or is it an empty building
- will your mail will be forwarded to you and how often
- are there are facilities for urgent or secure/signed for packages
- can you collect your mail in person if necessary
- when will the office be open for deliveries and collections
- will you need meeting room space and if so, are the rooms and facilities at your chosen location suitable
- if you can use the address as a registered office address for a limited company
Note: you may not always need to pay for business meeting space – for business discussions where you don’t need any facilities or privacy its now quite usual to have business meetings in coffee shops, hotel receptions or even motorway service stations. It may be a good idea to visit the place beforehand if you’ve never been there before just to make sure it will be suitable.
Search for virtual office services available in your area.
Business telephone numbers
In the same way you can create a good impression with the right virtual office address, you can also create a good impression with the right business telephone number. It’s now easy to have business phone numbers that were previously only available to large corporations, such as 0800, 0845 and 0870 numbers. It’s also possible to have a London phone number, or a phone number in anyone of a number of major UK cities, without being physically present there.
The Virtual Office Company will provide you with a local phone number as part of your virtual office or virtual receptionist service.
Or if you just want a business telephone number, see our article on Business telephone numbers for more information.