There are many benefits from having your own home based business. There are cost savings, time savings and other lifestyle benefits. One of the biggest drawbacks however is a lack of social interaction and missing out on potential new business opportunities because your simply not aware of them!
At the core of business is the interactions between people. There’s a customer and a client and communication is critical in order to make your business successful. If you have poor interpersonal skills or poor communication skills then you really need to work on that as much as possible.
One of the drawbacks of the home based business is the isolation. Isolation can lead to depression, lack of motivation and ultimately the failure of a business due to a loss of momentum.
Effective business communications requires practice. You have to be communicating every day with as many different people as you can to avoid losing the skills.
Working in a coworking space or serviced office environment may allow a home based business person to overcome this isolation. The real question is, how much business are you loosing not how much does it cost you. There are tremendous benefits of working in close proximity with other similar companies to yourself. Even the most benign conversations can impart vital information and in some cases have completely changed the direction of a company or personal career.
There are numerous anecdotal stories of companies gaining more work than they can handle as a result of participating in a serviced office. Of course, it’s not an automatic recipe for success, you don’t just move into a coworking or serviced office space and hey presto you have more work, but it’s pretty well understood that when you are surrounded by other small businesses or larger businesses who need services then your chances of success improve.
So, if you’re bashing away at your business and you’re feeling a little blue or can’t seem to get things going, maybe a serviced office might help to give things a boost. Many serviced office operators have flexible terms so you can try, and buy. Don’t be afraid to ask for exactly what it is you’re looking for.
Chris Mosely is CEO of The Cluster which provides Coworking Melbourne
Virtual Office
In business impressions count. Making the right impression is vital. A Virtual Officeprovides a professional front-end for your home based business. It typically provides a city based address (or prestigious address), a receptionist to answer your business number with your own company name and local phone number, voicemail services including voice to email forwarding, IVR or Automated Interactive Voice Response, fax services and even in some cases hot-desking and boardroom or meeting room facilities.
A Great Virtual Office Package Accelerates Your Business
Services and prices can vary. Most Virtual Office service providers offer cheap entry rates and charge additional amounts for telephony, fax services, hot-desking and boardroom facilities depending on how these are utilized. The general pricing strategy is pay-as-you-go. The more services you use, the more you pay for. The less services you use the less you pay for. Some Virtual Office service providers offer complete packages that include most or all of the services you might need. This might appeal to people who like to know exactly how much it will cost them each month.
An Entrepreneaurial Virtual Office = New Business Opportunities
Getting in the right environment with the right people is a clear recepie for success. The Cluster already has over 40 entreprenerial businesses of all shapes and sizes collaborating and helping each other out in this outstanding virtual office environment.
Get the edge with your new business by being located at the best address in town and mixing with some of Melbournes best and brightest. Why not let you office expenditure work harder for your business.
Contact the Virtual Office Entrepreneur
Chris Mosely is CEO of The Cluster which provides Virtual Office
Serviced Offices allow small to medium sized businesses or businesses that are rapidly growing interstate to establish themselves quickly and cost effectively in a given location. Setting up a new office from scratch is a very costly exercise and in many cases simply cannot be justified.
Setup costs can include but are not limited to office wiring (electrics and power), desks and office equipment, fit-outs (partitions, doors and security features), lighting, emergency and fire-protection audits, airconditioning maintenance, rental bond, personal guarantees(making you personally liable for potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars), and possibly a bank bond also.
In addition to setup costs, there are significant ongoing costs also. There’s the monthly rent, body corporate fees, electricity, Internet, Telephony, cleaning, security, water, council rates, contents insurance, public liability insurance and council services. By the time you’ve established your new office you’ve shelled out enormous sums of money and time. For a small company with limited cashflow this is not a smart option and many businesses fail because they do not properly look at the costs of establishing an office.
This is where the fully serviced office comes in. Many savvy entrepreneurs utilize serviced offices. Small to medium or rapidly expanding inter-state companies can utilize existing shared infrastructure. Serviced or shared offices allow companies to share expenses amongst a number of different companies all working together in close proximity whilst still operating their own individual businesses.
There are very big differences between the types of services and pricing strategies of the various shared office service providers. Many service providers provide small entry fees and charge for all additional services required. Others provide packages which can provide most of the services you might require.
Chris Mosely is CEO of The Cluster which provides Serviced Offices