The Rise of the Virtual Office.

This month we’ve had some extremely valuable feedback, much of it regarding the impact the mill building has on their customers. This in itself is not surprising; our 200 year old sandstone built textile mill is architecturally stunning. What visitors to the building aren’t necessarily aware of is that of the 69 companies that operate from the site, 20 of these do not have a physical presence, choosing instead to utilise our Virtual Office services. This figure is a marked increase on recent years without any significant marketing of the service. The increase therefore is simply due to a higher demand for these services.  However, when analyzing how, or even why, this is the case, the answers are varied.

The advantages of a Virtual Office differ from business to business. For many, a virtual office simply provides a prestigious address, ensuring not only is there somewhere for post to be sent, but that they the address used has a positive impact on their business. This might be because their business is based at home but they want to give the appearance of a larger operation, or to circumvent any negative perceptions they feel a home address might give. For a number of our clients it could be because their work is contentious and for safety reasons they do not want to use their home address.

A recent report showed that Cumbria had an extremely high percentage of small businesses and that this figure was growing. Looking at the companies who use our service this only provides a partial answer as some of our clients are quite large with physical addresses elsewhere in the country. For these companies the benefits are based around providing an address in the county when tendering for business without the costs for an actual hub.

For some companies, the virtual office is more than simply an address, but also a way of ensuring good quality office services at the fraction of the cost of employing staff and having a physical office. Some clients use us on an almost daily basis to provide reception duties ensuring that all phone calls are dealt with in a professional yet personable manner. For these clients their overheads are minimized as are any HR issues.  

Cost effectiveness is frequently a deciding factor in many of the decisions in taking a virtual office, but not just the capital cost. Being part of serviced accommodation, many of our companies find that it gives them access to meeting rooms and other facilities but in a way that they only pay for the time that they need. This cost effectiveness is not just a driver for sole proprietors. Where an operation is spread out cross a distance or with several workers based either in the field or from home, the virtual office provides a central base that allows each person to continue with their operational duties, unhindered by dealing with the day to day admin of answering calls for whomever else in the business. This also allows, when practical, for staff to choose their own working hours which can lead to greater productivity, especially if working across different time zones.

Looking back at the names of the companies who have used Warwick Mill’s virtual office services over the past few year, it is evident that some have used our address as they have established themselves and have grown to take actual office space within with business centre. Others remain as a virtual office and will continue to do so for some time to come. Some companies come and go as their business needs change. It is something we’d like to shout about more, but discretion is a major factor of the virtual office. This is one where you really will have to take our word for it!