Cyberoffice for Your Startup
Muncie, Indiana NEWS – Not every business needs physical office space. In fact, many companies can save thousands of dollars every year by using a virtual office instead of a brick-and-mortar one. As Entrepreneur reports, the average cost of an office rental is around $2 per square foot every month. For the typical office of 1,500 square feet, maintaining an office will cost about $36,000 per year. This is money that could be wisely invested into other aspects of your business. Placing your office online may be just the trick to save money and make your business boom.
Office in the Cloud
The advent of cloud technology has opened the doors to innovative new ways to do business. At its most fundamental, a cloud is an offsite storage system where you can upload and download your documents. Modern cloud platforms have gone one step further and allowed for file synchronization and Software as a Service (SaaS) integration, which means that your cloud-based office is available to you as long as you have internet access. You can write documents, fill out forms and create presentations that can be shared with coworkers or clients with a click of your mouse. There is no need to drag anyone to a desk.
Digital Walls
One of the benefits to having an office is that you have walls which help to define functions as well as time in and out of the office. This can be accomplished in your virtual space as well. Online work spaces allow you to define a digital office space, complete with personal offices and community meeting areas. Employees get the feel of being at work and you, as the boss, can check to make sure that they are checking into the office and officially starting their workday. By having these virtual walls, it means that you can enter their space, making a managerial statement while directing the workflow.
Virtual Conference Room
Creating the digital walls helps to separate people into departments, but one of the big benefits of an office is that you can bring these people together as often as you want. In our online world, video conferencing makes this possible. Some cyber office platforms have a conference function included or you can use the tried and true systems Google Hangouts or Skype. Both are free for their basic packages with a small monthly rate for expanded functions like multi-person conferencing. With the same effort used to send an email, you can establish live meetings with staff or clients without the need for 200 square feet of conference room space.
Global Management
One of the disadvantages of a brick-and-mortar office is that it limits your geographic area for business and human resources. The average commute time to work is about 25 minutes in the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. At 45 mph, this gives you an area of 1,100 square miles from which to recruit employees. This means that if your office was in Los Angeles, you would be able to recruit from one-fifth of the area. A virtual office lets you do business and hire staff from anywhere in the world. By removing the commute time, you are eliminating the geographic constraint, allowing you to tap into the best resources globally.
The Place for E-Commerce
E-commerce is growing by around 15 percent per year, making it one of the fastest growing business sectors in the world, Internet Retailer says. Creating a virtual office positions your company to take advantage of this trend. While creating your digital office, add a virtual store to give your company a robust online presence with global revenue streams.
