Whether you are a sole trader running your business from home, from a workshop, or providing mobile services where you to your customer, you still need to be able to dedicate a lot of your time towards your everyday business admin and office-based tasks.
When you are a 'one-man-band' (or one-woman-band) it can be extremely difficult to keep on top of all your essential admin duties while you are busy working for your clients or customers. This is where getting the support on offer from a range of different virtual service providers can be a real life-saver.
There are many types of business set-ups being run by sole traders from e-commerce, business consulting and private tutoring to trade services and childcare providers. In fact, according to Government figures, sole traders make up nearly 65% of UK businesses. This really shows that the self-employed really are the backbone of the UK economy.
Home-based business owner
One of the easiest and most low-cost options for a sole trader is to set their business up from home. This can help greatly to keep overheads down, especially when you are starting up a new business on a very limited budget or maybe by using your own personal savings to get started.
While this can be a very convenient option, just like any other business set-ups, it doesn't come without its own set of inherent issues.
Because you are based at home you can save yourself a lot of time and money not having to commute to an office-based job every day. You could spend your whole day working from your home office or spare bedroom without even changing out of your pyjamas! As long as your work doesn't involve any face-to-face meetings with your clients, you could get away with not having to buy yourself any smart work clothes too.
Never escaping from work
There are so many benefits for sole traders to choose to work from home that the thought of never having to go out to work in the cold wind and rain, or even stepping out of your cosy slippers can be too tempting not to take up.
However, because you can never really escape your home office it can be difficult for you to switch off and disconnect yourself with your work at the end of the day. Too many sole traders admit that they are constantly checking their emails and phone messages throughout the evening when they should be relaxing or spending time with their family.
A vast majority of home-based sole traders will also often find themselves catching up with their business administration tasks in the evening after they have finished for the day with their clients or have completed their other business duties.
Making the best use of your available time
Ultimately the success of your business boils down to how effectively you use your time. If you want to make your business a success, but don't want it to take over your life 24/7, then you need to become good at leveraging the tools that are available to you.
As your business grows you will notice that your to-do list will also grow at a matching rate. There will be a point where you will start to struggle to spread your time thin enough to cover everything and perform your tasks to a satisfactory level.
You need to accept that you can no longer manage to do everything by yourself, right? So, what can you do to ease the pressure on your shoulders while at the same time ensuring that every single business task is done properly and effectively?
If you prefer to keep your business small and don't want to hire a full-time assistant to help you out, then you should seriously consider making good use of professional virtual services that will help you complete everything and will continue to help your business to grow and become more successful.
Let's take a look at the four top reasons why you should consider using virtual services to help you run your home-based business more efficiently.
1: Keeping your business overheads as low as possible
It is fantastic that you have launched a successful home-based business, but if your success now means that you need more help and support, you will have to look at renting office premises and hiring staff to help you manage your day-to-day essential business tasks.
Renting office premises and hiring employees can be incredibly expensive. You will probably need to wave goodbye to your hard-earned business profits as you will need any spare cash you generate to cover your increased overheads.
Your business will now not only be operating to support you and your family but also to support your new employees and cover your extra business overheads, such as office rent, power and utility bills, business premises insurance, IT and infrastructure maintenance etc.
However, if you would prefer to forgo all these extra expenses and keep your business small and to remain operational from home, you can avoid all of these extra drains on your business income by choosing to use professional virtual office services instead.
Using virtual office services such as those offered by Capital Office, London, will open the door for your business to run more efficiently without the need to spend your money on expensive office rent, employing staff and all those extra bills that come with going down this path.
You can benefit from:
- A professional receptionist to take all of your business calls and messages
- Having your business post managed for you
- Having a prestigious business address in the heart of London's business district
- Have your own 0207 or 0203 Business Telephone Number that is separate from your home number
- Out of working hours voicemail to email service-based
- Business packets and parcels signed for
- Mail forwarding to an address of your choosing
- Free central London business meeting room use to impress your clients
Above all of these benefits, you get to keep your overheads small because you will not have a need to run an expensive office. Plus the fact that because you are using virtual staff, you don't get the headaches or stress associated with looking after the financial and physical needs of your own employees.
Using an expert team of trained administrative staff through our virtual office services will mean you can concentrate 100% of your efforts on your business, whether that is meeting with clients, fulfilling your customer orders or creating your products without constant interruption.
2: Give off a professional business image
We all know that in the business world 'first impressions count' so rather than let your customers think you are running a kitchen-table business from home, your customers will think that you are a professional set up with your own suite of offices.
Running a home business where you are dealing with face-to-face customers can also run into trouble because it becomes impossible to separate your work life from your family life. How does your other half feel about you inviting strangers into your home, especially if you have young children around?
There is also the worry that should you have a disgruntled and unhappy customer, they will know where you live. Do you really want to risk them bringing trouble to your front door that will disturb and upset your family? It is a thought that scares a lot of people working from home.
You need to consider your business reputation, especially if you are going after any high-priced contracts. In a lot of industries perception is important, so a large company isn't going to trust a contract with a hefty price tag to someone working from their spare bedroom, even if you could do the job with your eyes closed.
When you think you could own your own prestigious Central-London business address and telephone number set in one of the world's most highly-desired business districts for just a few hundred pounds per year, there really is no argument!
When you need to meet with an important client that you want to impress, you can arrange to use one of our smart business meeting rooms. Our meeting rooms are unbranded and your business guests will be greeted at our London offices by your very own professional receptionist. This will leave a very lasting positive first impression of your business in your client's mind.
3: You can be available for your family
One of the main reasons why so many people choose to work from home is to build a flexible business around the needs of their family. Because you are at home you will always be able to be there for any of your family members, so if one of your children catches a sick-bug and needs to take a couple of days off school, you can be there for them.
You can take care of your family members while still being able to do some work-related tasks at home knowing that your virtual team members will still be handling all of your day-to-day administration duties that help to keep your business ticking over.
4: Outsourcing the tasks you don't like
Let's face it when you start up your own business your enthusiasm and passion for your business extends to making and selling your product or offering your services, but all those dry and boring administration tasks that need doing are not the reason why you started your business in the first place.
In an ideal world, you would be left to your own devices where you simply focus your time on doing what you enjoy and do the best. However, in the real world, a business owner needs to wear many different hats.
Take an objective look at all your essential business tasks that you need to do to have a successful business. Look at outsourcing those tasks that really don't interest or inspire you to others that can take care of these tasks on your behalf.
We cannot be an expert in everything, but sole traders are expected to be competent in all aspects of running a business and are expected to comply with rules and regulations set forth by HMRC and other regulatory institutes.
By utilising the services of virtual office providers you can get the help you need to get things done. This includes all of your day-to-day administration tasks that will allow you to be free to carry on doing what you do well.
With a complete virtual office package, you can level-up your business without having to change your business structure or payout to move location. Why not take a look at our range of virtual office services to see how cost-effective our services truly are.
Do not hesitate to contact us should you need any further help or guidance about our professional services. We are here to help!
CALL US +44 (0) 207 566 3939
EMAIL: OFFICE@CAPITAL-OFFICE.CO.UK
Capital Office , Kemp House, 152 - 160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
