How
Virtual Offices Work
Inside This Article
1. Introduction to How Virtual Offices Work
2. But where will you do your work?
3. What do I need to make this work?
4. How can we communicate?
5. What about client meetings?
6. The cyber-assistant
7. Setting virtual office policies
8. Legal ramifications of virtual business
9. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
But where will you do your work?
Technically, your office is wherever you are. With the technology
currently available, you can conduct business from almost anywhere.
Your office could be in your home, in your car, in the airport,
on the beach, or even on a mountaintop. In typical situations,
your office will be based in your home regardless of whether
you travel or not. If this is the case then you need to have
a good setup. This includes a quiet location away from the distractions
that being at home will always have. These include the refrigerator,
TV, children, lawn work, dishes in the sink... you name it.
It can be a distraction.
If you want to make it work, you have to have discipline and
you have to make your office a designated work space -- even
if it is in your bedroom or the kitchen. Put it in a place where
you like to be. If your basement is dark and dreary, it's likely
you're not going to enjoy working there. Bottom line... use
the room that will be most conducive to getting work done.
First impressions mean a lot
But, what about your business address? If you're running a business
from your home, you probably don't want your home address used
as the business address. Depending on the type of business it
is, it may just not give the impression you need. In this case,
you have a two options. You can rent a post office box, or you
can use a CMRA (Commercial Mail Receiving Agency) mailbox service
that gives you a corporate-sounding address and a suite number.
Each option has the drawback of requiring you to go somewhere
else to get your mail (although there may be services that will
deliver your mail to you). Post office boxes have the additional
drawback of not allowing you to receive packages because couriers
won't deliver to a P.O. box. If you use a service that gives
your business a suite number (actually, just another name for
a box number), you can receive packages. You also have 24-hour
access and can request notification when a package has arrived.
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