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Since the creation of the world wide web, home business start-ups have sky-rocketed in number. For many, the idea of starting a home-based business can bring them a new pathway to a lucrative career without feeling that they are simply working a job that is lining the pockets of others. Many people start home businesses because it can offer them the flexibility of building a business around the needs of their growing family.By drawing inspiration from notable entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon from his home garage back in 1994, we can realise our dreams of owning our own businesses and carving out our own slice of a niche market.The internet has made running a small or micro business much simpler. Modern technology has also enabled us to roll up many important business tasks into one, so we can now automate things that would have taken up a lot of our time in the past, such as bookkeeping, invoicing, banking and managing our business accounts.Social media tools and communications management apps allow us to stay connected with our existing clients, as well as take the hard work out of marketing our products or services to new customers. All these digital tools allow us to compete with the big boys on the same platforms and enable us to win a piece of the action.No matter what business idea you want to try out, or if you can see a gap in the market for a solution that you can provide, there has never been a better time to launch your own business.Let's take a closer look at some home-based business ideas that you may find appealing, especially if you have the desire to work from home, but haven't quite found your niche just yet.

Private Tutor

There are so many different educational, teaching and learning areas you can enter into. You don't necessarily have to be a trained academic that has a masters degree in mathematics either! It really doesn't matter whether you have a passion for algebra, can speak fluent French or German, can play the guitar, bake amazing cakes, love flower arranging, can turn a lump of wood into a thing of beauty or can code in five different computer languages – if you have a skill that you are passionate about, you can offer your services as a tutor for that particular subject.Whether you choose to run live online courses in real time via Skype, create a video course for subscribers to download and watch in their own time, or run weekly classes at your local community college in the evenings, there could be a niche opportunity for you to utilise an existing skill or passion for a subject that you can share with others.For some ideas take a look at Tutorful for inspiration, or check out what evening classes your local community college offer. You may spot a gap in their programme that you could fill with a skill, or you could approach a different college with a talent you have that your local college already provide.

Graphic designer

There are so many business opportunities open to a good graphic designer. The fact that you work from home usually makes no difference to the customer as they will only be interested in your results. Just about every business launched today needs a good foundation of design to work from. Graphic designers are constantly in demand to help create company logo's, come up with creative images for brand recognition and marketing design coordination.To be successful in this line, you will need to have a genuine creative spark, a good imagination and a willingness to learn and keep up with new design technology. The added benefit of being a graphic designer is that you don't necessarily need an awful lot of space to get going. Working from a spare bedroom or home office can help to keep the costs down while you get yourself established.

Florist

People love flowers and they are very popular gift choices for significant events throughout the year, such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduation, landing a new job, to celebrate a new baby arrival, Valentines Day, and Christmas. Not forgetting that flowers are the gift of choice to help cheer up poorly loved ones that are having a spell in hospital or recovering at home.Starting a floristry business from home is a great idea if you have some spare space like a garage or outbuilding that you can turn into your workshop. Hiring a bricks-and-mortar shop can help to get your business noticed, but they can come at a hefty price with commercial rent and business tax to pay out, let alone paying out for utilities such as water, heating and electricity.Because floristry is a very visual creative art, you should take advantage of raising your awareness on a social media platform that uses a lot of imagery, such as Instagram. With floristry, seeing is believing, so you can set yourself up a wonderful portfolio of work and keep photographic galleries of creations to suit every niche market.

Freelance Writer

If you have a way with words, then freelance writing can offer a very flexible home-based business to start up. Again, there are many different niches you could look at working within, so if you have a particular passion that you would find easy and inspiring to write about, then you could look at creating useful content to sell to others, or write your own books or guides and publish them yourself to sell.There are writing opportunities on freelance job portals that you can bid for, or you can attract buyers to book your writing services by creating a profile and outlining what you can offer. It is also worth approaching newspapers and magazines to pitch ideas and articles. Newspaper and magazine editors are always on the lookout for fresh content so they may be willing to pay you for topical articles or even hire you to write some copy for them.Look on Twitter and other social media sites for job opportunities. Quite often a company will circulate a journalism request, so if you spot one that is right up your street you could be on to a good thing for future bookings, especially if they like what you submit to them.

Virtual assistant services

If you have worked in admin and find yourself a natural at organising your workload, running diaries and communicate well with people, then working as a virtual assistant could be an ideal business idea to start!There are many small business owners, sole traders and solo-entrepreneurs that would really appreciate a hand with a lot of day-to-day admin tasks that need to be done, but can keep them from doing other important things.You can expect to given tasks such as handling customer enquiries and communications, uploading web content, managing diaries and appointments, inputting orders and more, depending on what your customer needs you to do.You will need to set out exactly what tasks you are prepared to do and what hours you will be available for work. You will also have to decide how many clients you can handle at one time.These are just a few of our favourite working from home ideas, but there are many more that you could look at, for example:

• babysitting
• cake making
• car valeting
• childminding
• cleaning services
• computer repairs
• DIY handyman services
• dog walking
• eBay seller
• entertainer
• garden maintenance
• Ironing services
• pet grooming
• translation services
• personal training

Don't let yourself become overwhelmed

While it can be a very exciting time to start your own business from home, it can also be very daunting. Be prepared to put in a lot of hard work in the early days and risk sacrificing a lot of your spare time to get things up and running.Once you start to get your business established then you may also face demand rising very quickly, which can put a lot of pressure on you. In this case, it would be wise to look at getting some help with your everyday tasks to allow you to focus on other important areas of your work.A lot of solo-entrepreneurs and small business owners can ease the pressure of managing they are everyday administration tasks by using professional virtual office services such as ours. Capital Office virtual office services can be an ideal solution for when you need to focus on your work, meet with important clients or suppliers, or while you are travelling for work and cannot afford to be tied to your office.We can take care of your everyday administration duties so that you don't have to! We can ensure that every business call is answered so you never have to miss a business opportunity because you were busy in a meeting dealing with clients.Our fully trained and experienced administrative assistants have years of business knowledge and service under their belts, so will work very efficiently for you. Our virtual office team will answer your calls with your preferred greeting and handle each call as you direct us to. We will take care of all your incoming business mail and manage it to your specifications. We offer a lot of flexible options for your mail sorting and handling needs, so you don't need to worry about missing an important business letter or mandatory notification from HMRC or Companies House.If you are quite happy handling your own administrative tasks by yourself, but you could do with a hand to manage your incoming business calls, then you should look at hiring a professional call handling service. There are many benefits to be had from using a call handling service and the main point of it is to free you up from being tied to your company phone for every hour of your working day.Take a look at our professional call handling services to see how we can support you and help your company to grow from strength to strength.

The most popular choice of company formation is a company that is Limited by Shares. For this type of registered company, you will need to have a Company Director and at least one Shareholder. A Company Director can also be a Shareholder, so you can fully incorporate a new company with just one person acting as both the Director and Shareholder.How these two roles operate is of great importance to your new business, so it is handy to know exactly what responsibilities each role takes on. Here we will take a look at what each does and the differences between them.

Management and ownership roles

Technically, a shareholder owns the company, or at least part of it, depending on how many company shares they own. Each shareholder will be issued with share certificates to confirm their stake in the company.A Company Director is the person that is tasked with the duties of managing the company. This means they will be responsible for the day to day running of the company and overseeing every aspect of it, from managing staff to ensuring profitability and steering the company in the right direction.Normally, shareholders have no requirement to actually get themselves involved in the day to day running of the company, but depending on the structure of the company, they may or may not need to be present at shareholders meetings.There are many thousands of Companies Limited by Shares that have very hands-off shareholders who simply invest their money into company shares for their portfolio without actually ever visiting the business site, or meeting the company directors.You can set up and run your own limited company all by yourself and act as both company director and first shareholder. There are many thousands of solo entrepreneurs doing this right now in the UK, and they manage their businesses very well.Many of them will get help running their company by hiring virtual office services, such as our Complete Virtual Office London, to take on the bulk of the necessary admin work while they focus of managing the company and taking it forward.

Directors and Shareholders decision making

Both the company director and the shareholder are allowed to make decisions for the company. Exactly what they can decide on should be clearly outlined within the Articles of Association. The details would have been drawn up as part of the Memorandum and Articles, which is a document that spells out the terms and conditions of the company. The company may also have a Shareholders Agreement in place where the exact duties and responsibilities of shareholders are outlined.

Are there any rules and restrictions?

To form a Company Limited by Shares, you will need at least one person to act as a Company Director. You can have as many directors as you like, and you can also start your company with just one director and add more further down the line.You will also need at least one shareholder to register your company with. Again, you can start with just one shareholder or as many shareholders as you want. You can also sell more shares further down the line and take on more shareholders, or sell further company shares to existing shareholders.A shareholder doesn't necessarily have to be a human either. You can have corporate shareholders where another company may buy your company shares and own them in their company name. As a registered company is seen by the law as a single entity that is separate from its owners and directors, a company is able to purchase shares in other companies just as an individual person can.When you first register your company with Companies House, the identity of the first shareholder or shareholders will be known as Subscribers. This means that in years to come, even if the original shareholders cease to become shareholders, their names will always be on record in the details of the company formation.There are also a few important changes to businesses that you may want to learn about before you create your new company.

Limited by Guarantee Companies

While Limited by Guarantee companies don't carry any shareholders, they do have members that act like shareholders in the company. The main difference is that members will agree to contribute a specific amount of money to the company. Usually, this is as little as £1.00, but the exact amount can be agreed upon in advance of the formation.Just like Companies Limited by Shares, Limited by Guarantee companies can have as many company directors and members as they choose. Again, a company director can also be a company member.For a registered partnership (LLP), there will be a need for at least two partners to set up the company, but members can also be a real person or another company. Again, there are no limits to how many members a partnership can take on.Whether you are looking to set up a Company Limited by Shares, a Company Limited by Guarantee, or a Partnership (LLP), the directors, shareholders or members do not need to be UK residents.

Registering your Company Limited by Shares

When you form your company, you will need to submit certain director and shareholder details to Companies House so that they can register your company and add your information to the Register of Companies. Here is what you will need to submit:Directors information (for each director you are registering your company with): Full name, date of birth, nationality, occupation, country of residence, residential address and service address.For each Shareholder you register with, you will need: Full name, address, share information including share currency, share class – such as Ordinary, Preference, Redeemable, number of shares they hold, value per share, and some personal identification security ID.For a Corporate Shareholder, your registration will need: Company name, director name, and the same share information as listed above.Be aware that all company directors, shareholders and member information, including their registered addresses, will be entered into the Public Register of Companies, which is on public display and can be searched by anyone.If you are wanting to set up your company and run it from your home address, this means that your private residential address will be on public display. This means that you could open up your home to cold callers and salespeople. You can choose to protect your home address and keep it off the public record by using a business address service, such as our Directors Service Address London, to use instead.If you need any further information about how to use our business address services for your registered company, do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help!Call us 0207 566 3939email: office@capital-office.co.uk

No matter what size of business you operate, you will know that one of the most important tasks involved in running your business is making sure that your business calls are always answered. Not only that, but answered promptly, politely and professionally.While answering your incoming telephone calls may seem like a pretty easy task, many business owners don't give the job much thought. How your calls are answered can often influence how your company will be perceived by your potential new customers. It can take just a few short seconds for prospective customers to form a first impression of your company based on how your answer their call.Ignoring your phone while you focus on completing other tasks can mean potential new and very lucrative leads are kept waiting for you to answer. Keeping people hanging on the phone for too long can cause great frustration. Most people these days don't have the time or patience to be kept waiting on the phone for very long.We understand that your time is also very precious. If you are trying to run your business with a small team of staff, or even by yourself on your own, you will have many other pressing duties to attend to. As a business owner you need to be able to free up your time to focus on finishing off projects, meet with production deadlines, take meetings with current clients or negotiate with suppliers for your essential business supplies or services. It can be incredibly difficult to concentrate on juggling so many different tasks at once, so when your telephone suddenly starts to ring while in the middle of an important meeting or conversation, you will also feel quite frustrated.

Professional telephone manner

Another aspect of being up to your eyes trying to manage all of your day to day tasks is the fact that when you do get to answer an incoming call, you may not answer it in the best frame of mind. If you have been focusing on a project and your mind has been absorbed deeply in your work, you may answer your phone with quite a disinterested voice. To the caller you can sound tired, distracted, irritated or simply fed-up! This doesn't make for a very good first impression, and can even lead the caller to ring off and go in search of one of your rivals for a better customer service experience.Don't let potential new leads fall through the cracks because you don't have the time to answer your telephone. By using Professional Call Answering Services from Capital Office, you can have a great weight lifted off your shoulders. Capital Office are a leading expert business call answering service provider based in Central-London. We have many years of experience helping thousands of small business owners to manage their business telephone calls.Lets take a look at some of the benefits of using our professional call answering services:

Customised answering with your company name

Image is everything in business, especially when you are trying to win new customers or clients, or want to retain your existing customer base and continue to provide them with a high-quality customer service experience.With our professional call answering services, you will have all of your incoming business telephones calls answered swiftly – no keeping prospective new customers hanging on the line. Your calls will also be answered very professionally and clearly with your own company name. This can give your callers instant reassurance that they have reached the right place.Many business owners worry that by outsourcing their call answering, they will be getting someone answering their calls with a simple 'hello'. This is not the case with Capital Office. Our fully trained call answering staff are all very experienced in providing good quality customer services and are fully equipped to respond to caller queries and questions. This is because we take the time to get to know you and your business, so that we become a trusted partner that is here to help support your business and understand your needs.

Fully customised service

When you work in partnership with a reliable call answering service such as ours, you will be delivered with a fully customised service so that your virtual receptionist will know how to respond to your incoming calls. Your company name, byline, logo and preferred greeting can be easily incorporated into how we answer your calls.

A choice of message delivery options

Whether you are planning to go into a day-long meeting with a current customer, or you plan to be on the road for some time and unable to take any calls, we can tailor our message delivery to suit your needs.You can choose how you would like your messages delivered. This could be by forwarding specific calls directly to your mobile phone should you be keen to speak in person to that caller, or if you are awaiting a confirmation message from someone, we can take that message and forward it to you immediately so you are completely up to speed with your project progress.Should you want your call messages recorded and delivered to you at a specific time, such as later in the afternoon after you have finished all of your important tasks, then this is what we can do. This means that you can work all day in peace and truly concentrate on your important tasks and become fully absorbed without the risk of interruption from an incoming call.Having your thought processes or work procedures constantly interrupted can cause a lot of frustration and delay. Your productivity levels can drop, and a constantly ringing telephone can be very disrupting for any other workers in your office or workplace that need to focus on their tasks without any distractions.It makes sense to place your call handling into the hands of a professional company such as Capital Office. We can provide you with a high-quality service at very cost-effective prices. Our services can also save you a lot of money because you will not need to hire your own full-time receptionist and provide them with an office and equipment to do their job. Our virtual receptionists can take care of your calls for a fraction of the price of employing your own staff.

Real London-based receptionists

Another positive benefit from using our professional call answering services is that your incoming business calls will be handled by real-life, London-based receptionists. Many other call answering providers can use outsourced services from overseas call centres. With Capital Office you will get a professional service from our fully-trained London team, plus the added prestige of using a unique 0203 or 0207 London number for your business. This gives instant gravitas to your company because your prospective new customers will be impressed that your business has a London business telephone number.It is a known fact that when people browse the internet looking for a business, they are more likely to trust a company with a contact number that is based in London rather than an obvious residential address phone number. Having a London-based business number is more impressive and creates a more professional image in the minds of people than someone who works from home and uses their home phone number for their business.Why not sign up for our professional call answering services and get your unique 0203 or 0207 London number for your business and start impressing your clients today!

Further reading:

Can I Use a Complete Virtual Office for My Online Business?How To Get a UK Address for your Expat Mail-Forwarding Needs

There are many thousands of small businesses and solo entrepreneurs that operate their businesses online. For the older generation of workers and business owners that operate and work within a physical, bricks and mortar business, it can be very difficult for them to understand that a business can exist solely online.Many people have difficulty believing that anyone can 'do business' where your company does everything online, and has no physical assets or offices. It can be hard for them to accept that in this digital age, running a company online is entirely possible.However, even if you are running a successful company from your back bedroom or from your laptop as you move from place to place on the road, there will be some aspects of it that still exist in the real world. We are talking about business phone calls, business mail and essential legal correspondence coming from HMRC and Companies House.These all need to be handled professionally and in a timely manner. This is where using a virtual office solution can work for you.

Why it makes sense to use a Complete Virtual Office

Although virtual offices have been around for quite a few years now, evolving new digital technology has meant that the services they can offer have changed drastically from what was offered originally.In fact, for anyone wanting to launch a brand-new business idea, they are now able to put 100% of their time and effort into developing and growing it without having to be distracted or have their time diverted towards other essential day to day tasks that need to be done.In the old days, setting up a brand new business meant that the business owner needed to look for offices to rent, lay out a lot of money for deposits and securities for the office space, then go through the quite long-winded process of looking for staff to man the office, such as a receptionist to answer the company phones and take in their business post.The office set-up alone could be a huge drain on resources, and with most entrepreneurs working on a very tight budget, seeing a large slice of their savings disappear on building rent and staffing costs can be very frustrating. Then there is also all of the extra expenses to add on, such as telecommunications equipment purchase and installation, building insurance, gas, electricity and water to supply and pay for, furniture, carpets and curtains to put in to make the place comfortable for the staff.All this extra time and expense paid out even before your business idea has even been launched!Luckily, there is a perfect solution that allows modern entrepreneurs these days to skip all of this expense as well as the time-consuming tasks of setting up and running a physical bricks and mortar office for their business.

Running a lean online business

Using the services of a complete virtual office provider, such as Capital Office, will allow your virtual office to become an essential part of your team. When you want to run a lean business and strip your resources down to the absolute bare bones of what is necessary to run your business, you will quickly learn that one of the biggest drains on your finances will be running a physical office and paying for your full time staff.Why would you do this if you are working from a tight budget when there is a perfect solution all ready and waiting to go in a complete virtual office set up.By choosing to use a complete virtual office service, you can have a very cost-effective way to effectively manage all of your day to day administration tasks that are essential to the successful running of your business – but you will not have to spend a single penny on office rent, equipment costs or staff wages!By outsourcing your admin needs to Capital Office, you can be giving yourself a great strategic advantage. There amount of time saved on sorting out your office can now be dedicated to developing your business idea and getting it launched ASAP.

How virtual office services work

Instead of you trying to answer all of your incoming business calls and sorting your business mail single-handedly, you can be out meeting clients, developing your marketing strategy or working on your plans for expansion.Our complete virtual office services are already set up and running in Central-London and staffed with highly trained, professionals with many years of administrative and customer service experience under their belt. You simply book our services, give us your required information, and we will take care of the rest! There is no having to rent offices or hire staff – we have everything you need and can start working for your business within a day.

Our complete virtual office services can be yours in three simple steps:

• Sign up now online

Choose a suitable package online and complete our simple online order form in under 60 seconds.

• Start using the service

Once your registration is complete you will be able to start using our prestigious City Road office address as your own instantly.

• Your post is processed & calls answered

Once we start receiving your letters and calls we will handle this the way you have asked us too.By choosing our Complete Virtual Office services, you will be benefiting from a strong partnership with us that allows you to concentrate on your urgent projects and meetings, while leaving the running of your office in our safe and capable hands. You can be rest assured that we will take good care of you and your business. Capital Office has been helping entrepreneurs and small business owners to run their companies for many years from our Central-London offices.Why not take a look at our Complete Virtual Office packages and choose one of our flexible plans that suits your needs and your budget. You will be so glad that you did!

Further reading:

What Benefits Can Your Business Get from a Virtual Receptionist?5 Benefits for New Start-ups Using a Virtual Office

Expatriates often find that they still need to have a reliable mail forwarding service to enable them to carry on receiving important letters and documentation, as well as a way to ensure that any stray mail doesn't end up going to their previous address back in the UK.Keeping a safe and reliable UK address can be essential for any British expats, especially if they are planning on travelling around to see a bit of the world before settling down into their new life abroad.To stop your mail going to the wrong address, getting into the wrong hands, or ending up who knows where, it makes sense to get yourself a secure and trustworthy UK mail forwarding address service that will guarantee to get all of your mail to you, no matter where you are in the world!

Have a physical UK address in London

Capital Offices are here to help with our services that are ideal for expat mail-forwarding. You will get a real address that exists in London, and our team of professional mail-forwarding staff will take good care of your incoming mail, giving you great peace of mind.We offer a very flexible service where you tell us exactly what you want us to do with your mail. You could choose to have it saved up and forwarded to an address of your choosing on a regular basis. Or if you prefer, we can open and scan your mail, and then send it by email the same day so you are kept completely up to date with your post. This can be very handy, especially if you are waiting for some important news or a confirmation.Our scan and email service can be very convenient if you plan to travel for a period of time, or if you live and work abroad, but move around a lot with your work. Using this service will ensure that nothing important goes astray.

Expats mail-forwarding service benefits

There are many benefits to using our expat mail-forwarding service. We have listed just some of theme here for you:

• Choose a physical mail forwarding schedule to suit your needs
• A UK address can help to maintain your UK credit score
• Less hassle for your family members to manage your post
• Scan and email options
• Very cost-effective service to help you save money
• Your mail forwarded to your chosen address wherever you are in the world
• Unlimited mail included
• No set-up fees
• Parcels signed for
• Confidential and secure
• Global courier service

Don't forget that you will also benefit from using our prestigious Central-London address.

UK Address for your Business

Many ex-pats choose to live and work abroad to benefit from living in a sunnier climate with guaranteed warm weather for most of the year. They can often also be business owners that have made the move from the UK and will want to carry on operating their company from abroad.It can be very reassuring to keep a UK-based business address for your company correspondence. It can also help you to continue to project a prestigious company image, especially if you choose to have a business address that sits in the heart of London's business district.Capital Offices are based on City Road in London, and you can use our prestigious London address as part of your mail forwarding service with us. This means you can use our EC1 address on your business letterhead, website and company documentation. Your customers or clients will be impressed that you have a Central-London business address!

Your business address will be:

Your Business NameKemp House152-160 City RoadLondon, EC1V 2NX

How do I set up an expat mail-forwarding service?

Capital Office have been in operation for many years and helping those who need a UK based mail-forwarding service. We have refined our service to be very easy for you to use. Simply book our mail-forwarding service via our website and choose how you would like your forwarding service set up.Hiring our mail-forwarding service will also mean that you don't need to rely on a relative back home to handle all of your mail for you on your behalf. If you don't want your mail to become a burden for a loved one, then by using our service you will be taking the burden of minding your mail from their shoulders.We are proud to be one of the leading providers of trusted and professional mail-forwarding services in the UK. We are also one of the most cost-effective services you can find, so you will be saving yourself a lot of money with Capital Office.The most inexpensive way to get your mail forwarded to an address overseas is to have your mail collected and stored securely at our offices, and then forwarded to you in one large bundle to help reduce your shipping costs. It really depends on how often you require your mail and how many urgent pieces of correspondence you will need to deal with.Should you want to talk to us about any aspect of our service, or ask us any questions, then our friendly customer service staff are here to help you. Do not hesitate to contact us to discuss all of your mail-forwarding needs, whether you are an expat or simply work abroad for a large part of the year, we will be able to help you!How to contact us: Call us +44 (0) 207 566 3939 Email: <OFFICE@CAPITAL-OFFICE.CO.UKFurther reading:What Benefits Can Your Business Get from a Virtual Receptionist?How Virtual Offices and Flexible Work-space in London will help to Bridge the Brexit Gap

With more and more companies offering business owners virtual services via the internet, a greater number of companies than ever before are taking advantage of the many services on offer, such as the one being offered by Your Virtual Office. A sole operator or entrepreneur can save themselves a lot of money by using someone to outsource different parts of the business rather than them having to hire out a large building to accommodate a full suite of in-house staff, as well as avoid all the overheads of supplying and running essential IT and telecommunications equipment.

A popular option for the single business owner or entrepreneur is to use a virtual receptionist through our professional call-handling package to help manage essential aspects of the day to day reception duties without the need for employing someone on site. But what are the benefits of hiring a virtual receptionist, and what can most businesses expect get from using such a service?

Ideal employee

For starters, a virtual receptionist can be available to your business needs 24 hours a day and doesn’t need time off for sickness or holidays – that’s because you are outsourcing to a virtual service rather than hiring an individual receptionist. The virtual service provider will have a team of people to handle all the individual services you need and this means there are none of the usual limits and barriers that you find with hiring a single member of staff to work on site.

Having a virtual receptionist service on hand also allows you to offer your callers a professional receptionist service at any time, ideal if you want to conduct in-depth or drawn-out business or client meetings where you don't want to be disturbed, but you cannot afford to miss any important incoming calls.

For those small business owners who may only need a voicemail only service to cover periods where they are out of communication, such as during business meetings, travel times or while away on holiday, then there are even low-cost services to suit you too!

The financial costs of hiring a virtual receptionist is also much less than taking on a full-time employee, especially when hiring the service over the longer term where you can get great value for money. Not only do you get that very important extensive receptionist coverage you require, but you don’t have all the associated costs that come with having someone offering this service within your business – there are no holidays to accommodate, pension plans to contribute to, sick days to cover, equipment to provide, or other expenses.

Avoid employee issues

Many businesses will have hired temporary staff over the years to do this kind of work and while this can be a great option, at other times it doesn’t work out quite so well. By using the services of a virtual receptionist, you are accessing professionally trained people who will be able to perform this service all of the time, no matter where you are based or what your line of business is. The kind of experience and professional expertise offered by a virtual receptionist would cost a lot to employ for your company, full or part-time, if you could even find someone that good.

Professional Virtual Receptionists services are also very flexible and are able to be completely personalised to suit your company – the receptionist answers with your company name, accesses your business information and will act as if they were a full-time member of your business team. This means that they can offer a fully comprehensive, seamless, and professional customer service without actually being physically present within your company, or ever having to set foot through your doorway.

Virtual Services Available

As well as ensuring that they answer your incoming business calls with a warm and friendly tone using your company name, your virtual receptionist will also know about your company background. They will be able to intercept and direct an incoming call confidently, politely and efficiently.

Depending on your business needs, your virtual reception services can be tailored to meet your requirements. This can include routing calls to the right person, transferring calls between different sections of the business, taking messages while staff members are unavailable, and even for the screening out sales calls and nuisance callers.

By simply outsourcing your essential company receptionist duties to Your Virtual Office, you can have all the professional services that a full-time receptionist offers without the need to hire any full or part-time employees whatsoever.

You can save yourself a lot of money too because you also don’t need a physical location for them to be based – no need to have an office within the premises with a phone system and a desk. There is no need to have an office at all for your administration needs if your business model doesn’t’ require one. And you can keep down the costs of overheads such as electricity, office rent, stationery, land-line and mobile phone costs by outsourcing this service while still offering the best possible customer experience to everyone who calls your company.

For many businesses, one of the first things they believe they need to acquire to become a reality, or a bona fide business, is a physical premises to operate from – usually an office or shop space. And while this remains the case for many types of business, others have begun to explore a better option to help combine their need for a company space with the lack of need for a customer facing facility – the virtual office.

As the notion of flexible working becomes more of a reality, and a central part of many businesses working life, many business owners are examining new ways to work. Technology and progressive management techniques also mean that the traditional bricks and mortar office is not always an essential requirement for a modern business. Changing business structures, flexible working arrangements and the outsourcing of services have all meant that the virtual office may be the perfect solution for your business.

What is a virtual office?

Virtual offices allow your business some of the key benefits of a traditional office without the need to hire a dedicated physical space, such as an office block, or a commercial premises that also contains a suite of offices. A virtual office can offer a professional city centre address, call handling, mail sorting and reception services that allow the business to portray a professional image to the whole world without the inconvenience of having office or building space to rent and other associated costs. Virtual office packages start with a very basic ‘address only’ options that can handle mail forwarding and create a physical business address. This means that you don't have to use your own personal home address on your business paperwork and then have to suffer being inundated with junk mail and cold callers at your home.

In addition, businesses can also use services that assist people working from home such as PA services and access to meeting rooms at a discounted price for when you need somewhere professional to meet with important clients. It even offers call management services to cut down the time spent answering the phone. These services can be a Godsend to busy entrepreneurs who need to focus on getting their business off the ground without all of their time being taken up with the necessary day to day administrative tasks of running a company.

When is a virtual office the right option?

The cost difference between a virtual office and real bricks and mortar office is obviously significant, especially for address only and mail forwarding services where you want to keep your home address private and separate from your business. Added to this is the prestige of having an EC1 London city centre location for a business address that most business owners couldn’t afford to rent for their traditional office space. But cost alone isn’t the only way to know when a virtual office is the right choice.

The trend for people working from home has grown steadily over the last ten years or so as more people either work freelance, start their own business from home, or simply conduct their company role from their home address. Rather than being a temporary solution, it has become a lifestyle choice for a wide range of people – from parents to people wanting to live in rural locations or even in another country.

However, there are still some who see this business model as offering problems – people located in far flung places, removed from the ‘real’ world of business as they work from home. Often a physical address is used as a defining factor when choosing a business to work with and a home based business may miss out due to this. By replacing the registered address from a home address to a virtual office, a business can cut through this preconception and offer a traditional style address to look more professional in the eyes of prospective new customers.

Another option is for those home based businesses who need extra services but don’t want to commit to running a full office suite just yet. Or they have an office that they are happy with but it is in a more remote location and when you are London-based, this can sometimes be seen as a negative. Some 74% of businesses currently using virtual office services are working with companies based in the City or West End of London but who aren’t ready to commit to a physical office space in these locations.

Geographical benefits

Another part of the flexible, home working business model is that employees can be remote or satellite workers that are spread across diverse geographical areas where a permanent office space for this type of business simply doesn’t make any logical sense. However, a central address to use for correspondence purposes as well as for client meetings and even to use for personal assistant services can be highly beneficial. Quite often these service are used by a sole trader, freelancer or single entrepreneur who needs PA services to support them in their work.

A high quality complete virtual office service will act as part of the team, adding an additional level of professionalism to the business, as well as helping to manage essential administration duties. It allows businesses that are using flexible and modern technology options for their business to also offer a physical address that fulfils some traditional requirements and is also a very cost-effective way to get a professional London address. The virtual office services can also be scaled up and down as needed and cancelled within a short notice period if the needs of the business should change. This is not so easy to do in the real world with live staff that you will have to hire and fire as your business develops and matures. It also allows core staff to work wherever suits them best rather than wasting time commuting into the office every morning and thankfully avoid that dreaded rush hour traffic!

The tech industry is booming at the moment, and there are new start-ups taking their first steps into the business world almost on a daily basis. However, just as quickly as new start-ups get going, just as many are floundering. Industry experts will tell you that the key to starting up a successful business is fostering, maintaining a very high level of efficiency, and having a virtual office.Most start-ups have to work to very tight budget constraints, so it makes sense for them to utilise their resources in a sensible way. This means making economic decisions with regards to business premises and staffing levels. These are two essentials that are very draining on your budget, but without them it can be almost impossible to establish and run your business.This is where having a virtual office is incredibly useful for new start-ups. When money is tight and your time is precious, having a turn-key solution that is already set up and ready to handle all your necessary day to day administration and running tasks to allow you to function can be a Godsend.Lets take a closer look at the top five reasons why having a virtual office is key to the successful grounding of a new start-up business.

A cost-effective solution

Let me ask you a question. You have a set budget to spend on getting your business off the ground. Would you like to spend the bulk of your available budget on renting premises and buying office furniture, hiring staff, and spending out on all the necessary insurances to meet current health and safety standards, or would you prefer to spend your money on developing your new product or service?Virtual offices are so very cost-effective, efficient and convenient. There is no hiring or firing to do, no staff training or providing them with facilities such as car parking, toilets, kitchens or staff rooms. There is not office furniture, computer equipment or telephones to buy. You can hire our complete virtual office that has everything you need at very affordable prices. The cost is a drop in the ocean when compared to what you would need to lay out for your own office suite.Plus on top of these benefits, you can easily scale up your services on demand to meet your growing needs as your business expands. So when you would have outgrown your first small office, had you set it up yourself, there is no need to search for larger premises, move your office and suffer the down-time while everything is being dismantled, moved and set back up again. With a virtual office, you simply have more services added to your plan. Easy!

Convey a professional image

You can never underestimate how important image is in business. A new start-up needs to get itself established as a reputable company that must be taken seriously as quickly as possible. To do this, having a good business address with some gravitas makes you look much more credible in the eyes of others, especially those you wish to do business with as well as your business peers.To stay one step ahead of your competition is important if you want to be successful. You can create, establish and maintain a strong and credible brand to attract customers and investors by having your very own prestigious City Road EC1 London business address.

The human touch

There are also added extras that you can make good use of without the need for them to be a permanent fixture of your business. For example, why pay for your own meeting room when it will stand empty for most of the time? Yes, business meetings are important, but do you need to spend a lot of money on renting premises large enough to accommodate a meeting room when it stands idle for the most part?So what is the solution? Our meeting room hire service is something that you can use as and when you need it. This can save you a lot of money, and don't forget that our meeting rooms come complete with a personalised reception service where a professionally trained member of staff will welcome your visitors and settle them in your chosen meeting room. Our high quality unbranded modern meeting rooms are very comfortable, air-conditioned, fully serviced with full rapid speed fibre optic Wi-Fi and cabled Internet solutions and have presentation whiteboards.Although we offer a virtual office solution that is perfectly tailored to suit your business needs, it doesn't mean you are going to miss out on the personal touch. Don't forget that whether you choose to use our complete virtual office service, or just the telephone answering service alone, there will always be a real life human there taking your business calls in a professional and friendly manner. This can convey a great sense of trust and reliability within prospective clients or possible business associates. The level of professionalism on offer with our virtual office services is second to none.

In-built flexibility

Flexibility is key with any new start-up business. As your business grows, you will want to quickly keep apace with your expansion needs. The flexibility that a virtual-office offers is immeasurable. You can upgrade your existing package to include extra services or have larger meeting rooms to facilitate group meetings, AGM's or small conferences. You can comfortably expand and grow at your own pace without having the inconvenience of moving offices or renting larger office premises.

Seamless continuity

Who needs the disruption of having to move office every year or so when there is no need to? With a virtual office solution you can expand your services to meet the growing needs of your business as it expands. Our services will continue seamlessly with no disruption or downtime that would be associated with an office relocation. There will be no need for a change of address on your official business letterheads, invoices and business cards. There will be no need to notify clients of a change of address and no risk of a communication breakdown that can lead to frustration and lost business.With a virtual office solution, you can avoid many common issues that comes with facilitating your own office space, plus you will be saving a fortune on overheads and administration that comes with running an office. You can free your time up to focus on what is important – the future growth of your company.

When the UK voted to leave the European Union back in June 2016, the business world was thrown into turmoil. No one could say with any great certainty what the future would hold for UK businesses, no matter what their size and trading position with Europe. With some experts speculating that the British economy will take hit, many business owners are now looking at ways that they can tighten their belts and make their business more ‘Brexit-proof’.

As we still don’t know what will happen for the vast majority of businesses because the Brexit negotiations have only just begun, what actions you take to ensure the future survival of your business is largely up to you. However, examining your budgets, cutting your expenses and looking for more affordable and flexible solutions is going to be a top priority moving forward. One area where a lot of money can potentially be saved is from within your own work-space infrastructure.

Just about every business owner wants to see their business thrive and expand, but while budget constrains and uncertainty about the future are hanging so prominently in the air, the last thing you want to do is to enter into long and expensive property leases that could be difficult to get out of. The solution to this of course is to look at setting up a flexible way to cover your expanding office and administration needs without actually having the expense or commitment needed to take on full-time members of staff and provide them with office accommodation.

There are already well-established and reliable services in place that you can take advantage of to meet your growing business needs while the country is going through Brexit. From using a simple call answering service to a comprehensive London-based Virtual Office Package where you can combine a virtual PA, mail sorting and forwarding services, and have the use of a modern business meeting room in a prestigious part of London city to meet and greet your clients.

Regardless of the outcomes from Brexit, London will still remain as one of the greatest cities in the world to operate a business from. Although working environments are changing rapidly, especially with the advancement of technology, there is nothing like having a prestigious London based address to work from. No matter where your company is based, you can benefit from using a Virtual Office that is based in the heart of London.

Flexibility is a major factor

While we go through the Brexit process, business owners are going to be faced with market fluctuations on an almost daily basis. Having the built-in flexibility of a Virtual Office service can help you transition between pre and post-Brexit smoothly without worrying about committing your business assets, or tying your business up in long and complicated contracts that could prove very costly in the long-run.

Having the flexibility that a Virtual Office and flexible meeting rooms can offer with mean you have the agility to scale up or down your requirements as you need them. You will be able to meet the demands of a sudden boost in your business without worrying that you have overstretched your budgets. Should market changes and fluctuations mean your need to downsize quickly, then you are not stuck with an unsustainable contract for business premises or face having to lay off staff.

No matter how rough a ride Brexit will give UK businesses, it will still be important for companies to present a strong and steady front if they are to remain competitive in the future. Your image and how people interpret your company still hinges on you offering a bespoke and reliable service. Using a well-established and experienced Virtual Office service can give your company the boost it needs to continue to exude an air of professionalism and trust, no matter what stage we are at with our divorce from the EU.

For entrepreneurs and small businesses

A Virtual Office package is an ideal alternative solution for small business owners or entrepreneurs with restricted budgets. Many small businesses don’t actually need a full-time, fully staffed office. Having a Virtual Office package in place will allow you all the benefits of a regular office but at the fraction of the price of setting up and maintaining one yourself.

Many business owners start off with just mail forwarding and telephone call answering services until they are in a position to afford to set up and run a permanent office. However, very many of them go on to continue using these services or take on a Virtual Office because it is a lot less of a hassle and costs far less than committing to a full time on-site office. With the possibility that physical office space rental may rise sharply post-Brexit, it makes more financial sense to stick with a Virtual Office package where prices will remain stable over the long-term.

It also makes sense that business owners shouldn’t have to pay out to keep a meeting room space that is vastly underused onsite. Using a modern, well-maintained and fully serviced meeting room in the heart of the London business district to meet and greet your clients is going to impress. Hiring an unbranded meeting room allows you to conduct important business meetings in a profession environment where your clients will be totally unaware that you don’t own the building. You get the help of professional admin staff to greet your clients and service your meeting room without the added commitment of having to employ any permanent staff yourself.

A bright future post-Brexit

Flexible work-space hire has grown by 67% in London in the past decade alone and with the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, experts are predicting another sharp rise in these figures over the next few years while the economic marketplace starts to settle down once again. Regardless of Brexit, flexible office space and Virtual Office solutions are not going to disappear overnight. With over 30 years of growth within London, this way of working is looking increasingly more appealing to smart business owners who want to ride the rough waves of Brexit and appear on the other side as a much stronger competitor in their marketplace.

Take a look at our Virtual Office package to see how you can benefit from our professional services.

We can also help you with the following services to assist your business growth and to make your business run more efficiently:

London Address and Mail-Forwarding

Professional Call Answering

Modern Business Meeting Rooms

The main worry around Brexit for most business owners is seeing our strong bonds with Europe being severed and the possible loss of a valuable cross border workforce. Will Brexit make UK businesses less competitive and therefore less attractive in the global market? We simply don’t know yet.

Now that Article 50 has been triggered and we have begun negotiating our exit from the European Union, many businesses are looking at an uncertain future that is going to be hard to predict. We have no real idea how this will impact on us, from concerns about the demand for our exports to finding enough seasonal workers to pick fruit from our fields and orchards or to staff our hotels.

According to figures coming from the Office for National Statistics, migrant workers in Britain reached a record level of 2.15 million during 2016. These figures account for over half of all new workers, so who will fill the gaps in the market for these workers should they stop coming here? There are many businesses both small and large from all sectors that may suffer as a result.

Top bosses from the ever-growing tech industry in the UK says that there are insufficient numbers of home grown engineers to fill their needs, so they actively source talent from across Europe who come here on working visas. Most tech companies have to do this to remain competitive, and any reduction in overseas staff will mean they cannot grow as fast as they need to. This could leave the UK tech industry lagging behind its competitors.

Despite claims from the Prime Minister that she is making workers on EU visas in London a top priority, nothing as yet has been put in place and any failure to do so will be disastrous. Companies across all sectors who rely on European workers will struggle to fill essential roles and would find it hard to attract workers from the EU, especially those who may feel like they are no longer welcome to work in this country.

Could the solution to Brexit be the Freelance Economy?

The freelance economy has grown by 25% since 2009, and is now estimated to generate £109 billion per year in turnover. According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, self-employment grew from 3.8 million in 2008 to 4.6 million in 2015, with around 2 million of those currently self-employed working in a freelance capacity.

Being able to fill a variety of roles across a wide range of industries and carry their existing knowledge, experience and expertise with them is looking like a very attractive option for business owners looking to fill the gaps left by missing EU workers.

Although freelancers are often seen as part of the ‘gig economy’, this isn’t strictly true! The ‘gig economy’ in it’s true sense is made up of quick tasks, and a gig worker is someone that may work for Uber or Deliveroo collecting and delivering things on your behalf for example. A freelancer on the other hand is able to offer businesses essential skills, talents and support no matter where they may reside in the world. They can provide employers with short or long-term flexible support for project developments and can often bring new skills to the table that the company don’t yet have.

Did you know for example that major brand names such as ASOS and Google hire freelancers that make up half of their UK based workforce? Many large organisations hire remotely based freelancers to make up their workforce and have done so for many years. The most obvious benefit of hiring a freelancer over an EU worker is that a freelancer doesn’t need a visa to be able to work for you. Freelancers are going to be far less susceptible to the outcomes of Article 50 and therefore are going to be a more reliable source of talent when making short term or long term plans for the future.

Employment Restrictions

With Brexit will come a whole new raft of restrictions regarding working visas for overseas workers, so business owners are going to have to think long and hard about how they are going to manage their talent with regard to geographical borders. Managers are now looking at ways they can use to attract and retain talented freelancers while still moving their plans for growth forward. A lot of this is going to be down to good management of their freelance pool and knowing which person is going to be the best fit for each new project or role as it arises.

Business forecasters are predicting a shift in focus for many hiring managers. This will involve moving away from bringing in overseas workers and helping them to find accommodation, fit in with the company culture and feel at home to a more hands-off approach with freelancers. Here they will need to put in place a system that makes on-boarding new freelancers more simple, and helping them to integrate smoothly without causing disruption to their current workflow. Focus must also be placed on ensuring that all freelance staff are treated well, paid fairly and most importantly, paid on time. If they want to retain the best workers, they cannot afford to neglect the basics that freelancers rely upon = good communications and regular pay.

Outsourcing tasks that can be done virtually anywhere to professional freelancers has been growing in popularity over recent years. Outsourcing jobs and hiring freelancers is also a great way of keeping business running costs to a minimum. With an unpredictable few years ahead, many small and medium enterprises in the UK are getting ahead by using professional freelancers, hiring virtual offices and personalised call handling services.

With so many uncertainties surrounding life in post-Article 50 Britain, it will pay business owners to embrace the professional freelance economy to support their plans for the future.