London Addressess

In this modern digital age, is it time to ditch the idea of a traditional office structure?Many new start-ups are adopting the 'lean' method of operation where they only use the bare bones of a company structure to function. This means that less time and money is wasted on facilities that are not essential to their business in this day and age, like a bricks-and-mortar office set-up.Many businesses have been adopting the technology to go paperless for the past few years, and many organisations have taken things a step further by eliminating the daily commute to work in favour of their staff choosing to work remotely from home.So is it now time for everyone to think differently by going virtual and outsourcing as many office tasks as possible? Judging by the growth in the popularity of virtual office services over recent years, the answer in a lot of cases is yes!By freeing up your time and using a high-quality virtual office service provider, such as Your Virtual Office, you can give yourself more time to be productive as you will be free of all of your time-consuming office-based tasks.

The benefits of going virtual

There are several very valuable benefits to be had by choosing a virtual office service. However, if you already have an established office, you may worry that switching to using a virtual office service may disrupt and upset your existing staff.One thing to consider is that by getting rid of your bricks-and-mortar office and allowing your employee's to work from home can save you thousands of pounds in office rental costs as well as the costs associated with power, IT infrastructure and other utilities.In the USA, a study by Stanford University found companies can save as much as $2,000 per employee just by letting them work from home.You could introduce remote working for your existing staff while at the same time outsource your every-day office administration tasks to a Complete Virtual Office Service such as the package offered by Capital Office, London.This means that you will still be able to have your incoming business calls answered professionally in your company name and either has your calls forwarded to you, or messages took when you are busy and passed on to you electronically.

Saving money on a business relocation

One of the main benefits of using virtual office services is that you can free up valuable space in your workplace and put it to better use.For example, if your business is growing rapidly, you may face the expense of having to move your business to larger premises. This can mean incurring expensive moving costs, having a new IT infrastructure installed in your new workplace to meet your needs, extension or replacement of the business fire alarm system, higher business insurance costs etc.Instead of having to move premises rapidly to meet your accommodation needs, you can stay put for longer by getting rid of your office and converting the room for more production workspace.

Putting your plans in place

When you have decided that you want to go virtual with your office, it is time to put together a plan of action.Depending on where you are starting from, there could be big changes that you have to face. For a solo-entrepreneur working from home or from a rented workspace, this will be easy because you don't have an office as such.However, for an already-established business owner with a brick-and-mortar office, there will be a major impact ahead for everyone concerned.Sit down with your staff (if you have any) and work out a transition plan for how your business will get its work tasks done.Moving to a virtual office isn't as easy as ditching the office cubicle. You need to agree on how your existing staff are going to work together and collaborate on projects. This could be by working remotely from home and using a tool such as Trello to communicate and share work with colleagues.

Introduce your virtual office service early

By bringing on board and using your virtual office services as early as possible, you and your staff can get used to how the service works and how it allows you and your staff the free time to concentrate on your transitional plans.This allows your workplace to start from a position of understanding instead of confusion about your plans and having to cope with a lot of changes all at once.

Hire a well-established, trusted virtual office service provider

To make the transition as smooth as possible for your company, choose to work with a well-established and experienced Complete Virtual Office Service provider, such as us.Capital Office, London is always willing to go that extra mile for our clients. based in City Road, London, since 1971 we have been in operation for many years and are an integral part of thousands of UK businesses of all sizes.Our London-based virtual office staff have years of experience in customer service and business support roles and are perfectly placed to ease your business into the digital world.

What services are included?

The main aim of using a complete virtual office is to completely replace your every-day reception and administration duties that would normally need a brick-and-mortar office and a team of staff to complete for you.You don't need to worry because Your Virtual Office can take care of everything for you leaving you free to concentrate on your important work without the telephone distracting you or having to stand and open all of your incoming business mail every day.Complete Virtual Office London Package Overview:

• Choose an 0207 or 0203 Telephone Number
• Divert Calls Your Calls to Us
• Forward / Scan / Collect your mail
• Free EC1 Meeting Room Use
• Global Mail Forwarding Service
• Impressive London Address
• London based PA’s taking your calls
• Out of hours voicemail to email
• Packets & Parcels signed for
• Secure Online Payment
• Under 60 Second Sign up
• Unlimited Calls Included
• Unlimited Letters Included
• Use your Existing Number

Improve your business image

For a sole trader or solo-entrepreneur without an existing office, having your own complete virtual office at your fingertips will give you a professional virtual PA and will really help to boost your company image.It can be difficult for many micro-business owners to be taken seriously by their target audience, especially if you are wanting to break into the B2B market. Most large companies do not like dealing with sole traders, so even though you can do your job with one hand tied behind your back, it can be hard to convince a large company to work with you.However, when you have your own professional PA taking your calls and relaying messages, it gives your business a more professional image and status. This may be all you need to get your foot in the door and into the good books of a B2B partner.Our complete virtual office package combines our highly sought-after central London business mail forwarding address with a professional and experienced virtual PA telephone answering service.

Make your communication key

When you have remote staff working from home and a team of virtual office workers, you should always make sure that communications are kept up between everyone.Communications with your staff and services should be done on a continuous basis, but this is even more important in a virtual world where you no longer share a physical workspace with your employees.By using good collaboration tools such as Trello, shared emails and conducting Skype meetings to keep up your connections, you will help to keep everyone informed and ensure that no-one feels neglected or isolated from the team.

Arrange social meet-ups

Although you are moving to a more digital-driven, virtual workplace, you should still set aside some time for meetings and social events.While many of your staff may be content for you to stay in contact via online chat functions, you may still want to connect with your best people outside of the virtual world to reinforce your company culture and make them feel valued as a person.While it is easier to set up a virtual office from scratch for a solo-entrepreneur, it still can be the right choice for your expanding company. As long as you hire the services of a professional virtual office provider such as Capital Office as Your Virtual Office, London, you will never regret your choice to step into the virtual world.

There is no denying that the invention of the internet has changed the face of work for the better. No longer do people need to be an employee and have to commute to a place of work every day to earn their living.Being a solo-entrepreneur and trading online can give an individual the freedom they desire from the shackles of a traditional 9 to 5 job where you are working to line the pockets of others.Long gone are the days when the whole purpose of starting up a business was to keep growing it until it reaches the size of some giant monolith to completely dominate a business sector.These days more individuals are choosing to become solo-entrepreneurs to provide themselves with a comfortable living to equal that of a regular day job.One of the most popular home-based choices is to work in e-commerce selling goods, services, information or unique products that people can create themselves.

The need to be a savvy entrepreneur

There is also no doubt that if you want to succeed in the world of online selling that you need to be savvy about what you choose to sell, especially on selling platforms such as eBay, Amazon or via your own online shop.For those who buy in products to sell online, you need to have more than a gut feeling that something you buy to sell on for a profit is going to work. This is where you should make good use of free product research tools to spot the latest trend and jump onboard.

Product research tools for spotting trends

One of the best tools for seeing what is trending on eBay is HERE. You can use this tool to spot the current 'hot products' that people cannot get enough of, but also what products are on the rise that can be your next lucrative best seller.This tool will also help you to see what products are taking a nose-dive, so if you are currently stocking items that are falling in popularity, you can decide to jump ship to a trending product to ride that wave instead.Researching what products are hot can give you some inspiration on what to sell if you are starting from scratch and have no idea where to start.Another very useful tool is the eBay Most Popular Tool. You can look at potential new markets to enter that you have an interest in or some background knowledge about. Use this tool like a search engine for eBay. Key in your search terms and the tool will generate a list of current auctions.Not only will you be able to see specific auctions that match your search terms but you will also see which auctions have the most bids and watchers. You will quickly get an idea just how popular a certain niche is that you may want to enter.

Don't put all of your eggs into one basket!

While the above research tools are very handy, try not to get stuck into the mindset of only selling on eBay to make a profit.

There is a potentially better way to use the data that you can glean from these research tools:

1: Find out what is trending2: Source them at the best possible price3: Sell these products elsewhereFor example, instead of buying in a trending stock to list on eBay, look at selling on Amazon, other online auction sites, through your own Shopify store or even via Facebook.By doing this you will be selling hot products that are in demand but via different media channels that may not be nearly as saturated a marketplace like eBay.

eBay vs Facebook marketplace

eBay has been around for a few years now and it has become the 'go-to' place for selling off the junk from your attic, your old baby clothes and second-hand goods that you no longer want.However, the savvy entrepreneur saw a lucrative opening here to source new and second-hand goods to sell on for a tidy profit very early on in the auction site's history.Now over 4 million people are selling on eBay in the UK alone, with an estimated 190,000+ registered businesses trading on the selling platform.This can feel a little overwhelming to a sole trader trying to establish a niche on eBay. It can be a very saturated marketplace where competition is high.However, a great alternative to eBay can be Facebook. There are not only local selling groups on the network but the Facebook Marketplace is now positioned itself to be hot on the heels of eBay and a genuine competitor for those looking to sell products online.

It's all about the fees

What is great about selling on Facebook is the fact that there are ZERO fees. This means you get to keep all of your profit from the sale. With eBay, you will have to pay selling fees which cut into your profits.You need to weigh up your options here because you do get a wider audience with eBay so if you are selling something small, lightweight and easy to post, you may be better off paying the fees to reach a wider audience.eBay will take 10% of the total sale price including postage when your items sell. Factor in your PayPal fees on top of this and what you are left with isn't so appealing.Most of Facebook's sales happen at the local level through local selling groups. This is a great option if you have something to sell that your local community will be interested in.In a test conducted by a team from Money Saving Expert where they sold 20 various items on eBay and Facebook, they found that 14 out of the 20 items sold for more on Facebook after fees were taken into consideration.Facebook is all about connecting with people and supporting your local community, so people are now looking to harness the power of Facebook to sell their goods to the local community through local selling groups for free.

How do you sell on Facebook?

So, let's say, for example, that you have sourced a job lot of t-shirts. You simply post an ad on Facebook advertising your shirts, and interested buyers will contact you.From here you can arrange for them to drop in to look at your shirts and pay you cash for one or more if they are happy with them. It is a bit like a modern take on the old newspaper classified ads.Again, if you try to diversify your selling through various sites and platforms such as eBay, Amazon, other auction sites and Facebook, you will reach a wider audience than simply sticking to eBay.However, one surprising fact that the Money Saving Team discovered while testing both sites was they found it quicker to shift things on local groups that remained unsold on eBay. Something to think about if you are carrying a lot of dead-stock that is listed on eBay!

The downside to selling on Facebook

No selling platform is going to be perfect and with Facebook, you do have to factor in that their local selling groups are run by volunteers.This means that Facebook won't get involved in the transactions between you and your customer. But it also means that there is very little comeback if you experience problems with your customers.If you run your business from home and your Facebook customers drop in to pick up their good from you, then any unhappy or disgruntled customer will know where you live.This can be a worry if you have young children or elderly relatives living with you that you will want to protect. So this needs to be weighed up before you decide to invite strangers around to your house.

How to protect your home address when you have a home-based business

One of the main worries for entrepreneurs running a business from home is how to keep your private home address off the public record to help keep your family safe.The last thing you want is for an unhappy customer to be banging aggressively on your front door and upsetting your family members.There is a very professional way around this problem that many thousands of solo-entrepreneurs use to keep their personal address private. This solution also offers the extra benefit of giving your small business a more businesslike image.What we are talking about here is using a business office address service such as our London Office Address and Mail Forwarding package.By using our service you can give your home-based business a professional image with a highly prestigious London business address. Your company address would be based in the heart of London's business district at:Your business or personal nameKemp House152 – 160 City RoadLondon, EC1V 2NXBut it is not only having a highly prestigious company address that you can benefit from. Our in-built mail forwarding service is also included in this package.This means that we will receive your business letters, parcels and signed-for documentation at our London based offices and you can then choose what you want to do with your mail.You could choose to have all of your mail forwarded to your home address, scanned and emailed to you, or if you are local you can call in and collect your post in person – keeping your private residential address off the Public Register of Businesses kept at Companies House.Our London address and mail forwarding services are trusted by thousands of small businesses that want to keep their home address private to protect their family and property.This is an instant service that once set up can be used immediately. You even get the free use of a modern, well equipped London based business meeting room.Overall you get to protect your home address, keep your family life and business life separate and also impress your customers with prestigious London-based bricks and mortar business address.Give our friendly team a call for more information on +44 (0) 207 5663939 or email us at office@capital-office.co.uk if you need more help.

It can be seriously difficult to learn ways for managing stress effectively when you are a busy entrepreneur launching and building up your new business.You spend your time rushing from one urgent task to the next with little thought given to how juggling so many jobs at once can have a negative impact on your mental health.This is why so many new entrepreneurs burn themselves out in the first three years of business and end up having to fold their business because they can no longer cope with the strain.

The Difficulty of creating a healthy balance between work and home life

While stress can affect anyone, it can be much easier for a paid employee working a stressful job to switch off when they leave the office. This isn't always possible for an entrepreneur to do, especially when they have the success of the business weighing heavy on their shoulders 24/7.Solo entrepreneurs are more likely to have stress-related health problems because they will have a more difficult task managing every aspect of the business over the long-term.Learning how to leave your work at the office is your first crucial step towards successfully managing your stress levels.While most entrepreneurs function well without much help, it is the fact that they are carrying the whole load of the business and working so many different roles within the workplace that ends up dragging them down.Let's take a look at some top tips to help you better manage your stress levels and keep you motivated and productive at the same time.

1: Stop burning the candle at both ends

The most beneficial thing you can do for your health is to get adequate sleep. When we sleep we not only repair and regenerate our brain and body, but going without enough sleep will leave you more stressed and unable to concentrate or make good business decisions.Make your bedroom as peaceful and comfortable as possible. This means removing any electronic devices at night that could disturb your sleep.Think about making your bedroom into a tranquil escape where you can close the door and forget about the world. Here are some tips:

• Fit blackout blinds on your windows. Studies show people sleep deeper and for longer when their bedroom is as dark as possible.

• Remove electrical gadgets such as your TV, mobile phone, laptop, tablet and games machines.

• Splash out on some luxury bed linen that makes you feel pampered when you go to bed.

• Invest in a memory foam mattress and soft pillows for ultimate comfort.

• Get an essential oil diffuser and use relaxing essential oils to gently fragrance the room.

Make sure you schedule regular time away from work each week so that you are not working every single day. Treat yourself to a family day out or a romantic meal with your partner.

2: Manage your time more effectively

There have been lots of studies over the years that show that entrepreneurs become more stressed out when they are running a chaotic schedule.What you need to do is to maximise your productivity and make every minute count. You can do this by writing yourself a to-do list that prioritises the six most important tasks you need to complete each day and list them in order of priority.Ignore everything else that is not on your list. Don't get distracted by emails or social media, just focus on working through your 6 tasks on the list for that day.If you don't get everything on the list done, then move that to the top spot on your list for the next day.If you work on a computer, download a Pomodoro tracker to help break down your time into 25-minute bites. The tracker will give you a short break after every 25 minutes to stretch your legs, get a drink and refresh your mind.

3: Outsource your non-income generating tasks

As an entrepreneur, especially if you work on your own, you will be tasked with doing every single job needed to keep your business going.This means that you will be spending a large proportion of your waking hours on tasks that don't directly generate any money for your business.While these tasks are important and essential for running your business smoothly, your time could be better spent on tasks that will bring in money to improve your bottom line.Think about outsourcing your necessary everyday financial and administrative tasks to professionals who can handle these jobs on your behalf. These tasks include:

• Your business bookkeeping and accounts
• Answering your business phone calls
• Opening and organising your mail
• Complete virtual office services

This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to employ your own office staff or bookkeeper.If you can pass off what you can to other people via using a local accountant and using virtual office services it will work out cheaper than employing your own staff and having to move to larger and more expensive premises.

Using virtual office services

As an entrepreneur, you cannot be an expert at everything. It is practically impossible to manage everything yourself – there simply isn't enough of you to go around or enough hours in the day!To be an effective and successful entrepreneur, you need to learn to delegate tasks to others so you can focus your own time and effort on tasks that will be more lucrative for your business.Look into using a complete virtual office service such as Capital Office, London for a very high level of support at competitive rates.

4: Don't let your business consume you

Find things to enjoy that are not business-related. It can be easy to lose your self-identity when it becomes wrapped up in your business. You are far more than your business, so find other things away from work to be passionate about.Be careful not to spread your focus in too many different directions though, or become overly distracted with something that is also very mentally draining or time-consuming.Finding a nice balance between work and your social life is the key here. Choose things that energize you rather than drain you of energy.

5: Don't be afraid to say NO!

As an entrepreneur, it can feel like you are going against nature to turn down work opportunities.However, you need to realise that your time is precious. You need to focus on doing a good job with your tasks that are already in hand rather than accept everything that comes your way and spread yourself too thin.Think quality over quantity! At the end of the day, this is what will bring people back to you for some return custom.To reduce your stress levels and lead a healthier life, you need to appreciate the value of your time and effort. Learn how to say NO to things, especially if you have a bad gut feeling about them.Admit to yourself that you simply don't have the time to take on the job or have the available focus needed to be able to deliver high-quality results.

Practice saying NO!

If you have never said no to anyone so far, it may take a bit of getting used to. Practice saying no and rehearsing what you are going to say ahead of time.This way you will feel more confident about refusing a request that you know you cannot handle or will struggle with.

Don't wait any longer - start today!

Start today by getting the support you deserve from Capital Office, London.Take a look at our Complete Virtual Office services to see how you can benefit from using our top-rated professional business administrative services.

What's included:

• Choose a 0207 or 0203 Telephone Number
• Divert Your Calls to Us
• Forward / Scan / Collect your mail
• Free EC1 Meeting Room Use
• Global Mail Forwarding Service
• Impressive London Address
• London based PA’s taking your calls
• Out of hours voicemail to email
• Packets & Parcels signed for
• Secure Online Payment
• Unlimited Calls Included
• Unlimited Letters Included
• Use your Existing Number

If you only want us to handle your business calls on your behalf, then take a look at our professional Unlimited Call Answering Service.

Professional Call Answering Service Overview:

• Unique 0203 or 0207 London number
• Unlimited Calls Included – No Cost Per Call
• Calls are taken in the name of your business
• Unlimited volume of calls
• Quick Online Secure Payment
• Messages taken or call transferred
• London based PA’s taking your calls
• Out of hours voicemail to email
• Use your existing number
• Live Call Transfers

Still not sure? Don't hesitate to contact our friendly team who will be happy to help you! You can email or call us:Tel: 0207 5663939Email: office@capital-office.co.uk

Here at Capital Office, we are often asked questions about our virtual office services from business owners that are interested in working with us.We thought it would be useful to explain how we operate and also to compile a list of the most common questions that we are asked about our virtual business services. We hope the following information and FAQ's help to answer your questions, but if not then do not hesitate to contact our friendly team who will be happy to answer your questions.You can give us a call on 0207 566 3939. Email us at OFFICE@CAPITAL-OFFICE.CO.UK Or pop in to see us in person at our offices at Capital Office, Kemp House, 152 - 160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. Our offices are open Monday to Friday 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.

Do I need an office?

After many years of providing virtual office services for business owners based all across the UK, we talk to people every day that still don't know what a 'virtual office' is or how virtual services work.With the advancements in modern technologies, there are so many different workplace options open to business owners that it can make your head spin! How we work has been changing rapidly over recent years and the traditional office set up is no longer seen as your only choice.These days your business does not need to operate from just one single physical office space. Modern workers are no longer tied to a desk or need to commute to a place of work every day.

Modern workplace options

Whether you are looking to set up a brand new business, or you want to streamline your existing operation to cut costs, business owners can now choose how they operate, including:

• Having one traditional physical office base
• Flexible co-working space
• Running a hot-desking system
• Using virtual office services
• Employing remote workers
• Working from your home office

Office rent and availability

Another factor that will impact on how you run your business is the availability of suitable office space in your ideal location. If you plan to rent office space to work from you will need to find somewhere that is easily accessible to you and easy for your staff to commute to and from each day.What most business owners find is that there isn't often any suitable office space available that not only fits the right location but often also comes with a huger price tag for rent, business insurance, utilities and services.You may also find that renting the office space comes with a very inflexible contract that could be costly to get out of should you find the premises unsuitable further down the line.If you are a sole trader, solo-entrepreneur or small partnership and you live and work many miles outside of a major city, then an alternative office set-up such as a complete virtual office will be of a huge benefit to your business.

What is a Virtual Office?

A complete virtual office can act to replace your traditional office set up where you would normally have physical desks, phones, computers and all the other services and expenses that come along with it.A virtual office is exactly the same, just without the physical element and associated costs and overheads that a physical office incurs.With a complete virtual office package, such as the one available from Capital Office, you are also provided with an official central-London business address where all of your business correspondence goes to.Our team of professional mail sorters will take care of your business post and can even sign for your business parcels and packages on your behalf.

Can I book separate virtual services?

If you don't want to use our complete virtual office solution, you can book each of our virtual service options separately. You can choose from:Our Professional Business Address service (mail sorting and forwarding): A London address for you to use on your company website, company correspondence etc.Our Registered Business Address service: To use with HMRC and Companies House.Our Directors Service Address: To keep your private home address off the Public Record.Unlimited Live Call Answering service: Taking your incoming business phone calls and answering with a greeting of your choice. Calls can be forwarded or a message taken.Voicemail only call answering service: Have your own London phone number with voicemail message taking. Receive an email alert instantly. 24/7 access to your messages with PIN protection. Ideal for business owners that need to work undisturbed.Professional meeting rooms: Benefit from using professional, unbranded, modern, central-London based meeting room facilities to meet with and impress your clients.Our flexible virtual office services offer you the right support at the right time. We are here when you need us and you can easily add on extra services as your business grows and you need a little extra help without the expense of hiring a full-time employee of your own.

What happens to my business mail?

On arrival at our central-London office base, your business post will be handled to your specifications:

• You may want us to collect your post together and then simply forward it to you at your preferred address on a regular schedule that suits you
• You can have your post opened and scanned. We will then forward your scanned letters to you via email
• If you are located close to London or visit the city regularly, then you can arrange to drop into our offices to collect your mail at your convenience

Who would normally use Virtual Office services?

The Virtual Office Service users we help and support come from a very diverse range of backgrounds and business professions.From busy single sole traders who need help managing their business calls when they are busy, to solo-entrepreneurs wanting to build a strong business reputation through using our professional business address services, we can help everyone!Our virtual office services bring benefits to just about any company or business set-up – large or small. Whether you are starting off small and lean to keep your overheads to an absolute minimum, to a large international business that needs to have a London-based presence for their company.

Can I set up a virtual office in the UK for my overseas business?

If you are not a UK resident then you still make use of our virtual office services to give your business a London-based hub. This can help your UK based customers or clients to have a convenient London address and phone number to contact and send mail to.We can forward your mail to an overseas address of your choosing, or you can benefit from our scan and email option to get your business mail notifications instantly.

Can I speak to a real person about your services?

Yes, you can! We have a friendly team of people here at Capital Office that make up our customer service base. If you need any help or guidance about any of our services, you can give us a call on 0207 566 3939 and speak to one of our lovely team members. You can also live-chat with us from our website – we are here to help!

Want to know how you can untie yourself from your company telephone and free up some extra time away from your everyday administration tasks?

Want to know how you can give your business image and reputation an instant facelift?

Read on to find out how Capital Office can help you to streamline your business practices, reduce your stress levels, improve your customer service experience, improve your reputation and free up a whole lot of extra time in your day that you can focus on other important business-related tasks that need your attention.

A day in the life of an overworked business owner

I think we have all been here, most small business owners and solo entrepreneurs maybe still are?

9.30 AM: You have a busy day ahead of you. An important business meeting is scheduled for 10am with one of your most valuable clients. You arrive at their offices in plenty of time for your meeting, but to make sure that you don't miss any incoming business calls from potential new customers you have put your business phone on divert to your mobile phone.

For about an hour your mobile phone has been ringing constantly. Somebody is eager to talk to you, but who? Your phone beeps as you get another voice message left to pick up at some point. You become incredibly stressed and frustrated at the thought of all those missed business calls.

Your stress levels are building up....

Have you missed connecting with a new customer that could prove to be even more valuable than the client that you are about to meet today? You don't know.

Have you completely missed out on a lucrative new business contract or large sale because the impatient caller has now gone to your main competition to get what they need? You don't know.

Your business meeting goes as well as you expect, but because you switched your phone to silent, your focus was being distracted by the thought of all those calls being missed.

You feel overwhelmed.....

On your arrival back at your home office or workshop, you notice the pile of unopened mail sitting on your doormat. You let out a huge sigh at the realisation that you are going to need at least an hour to open and sort through your mail before you can go back to focusing on your work and following up on your business meeting.

Meanwhile, you also realise that you have a countless number of phone messages to listen to, note down and respond to. You throw your hands up in defeat knowing that the best part of the rest of the day will be consumed in dealing with all of your administration tasks.

You have a Ground-hog day moment....

You shake your head and rub your stressed brow at the thought that you will have many days just like this.

• Yes - your administration tasks are important.
• Yes – you need to open and read your business mail.
• Yes – you need to answer your business phone calls.
• Yes – you need to respond swiftly to your statutory mail coming from HMRC and Companies House.

Unfortunately, being so busy trying to manage all of your tasks while dealing with clients doesn't give off a good image. It doesn't instill a lot of confidence or trust from your clients or customers. They will see that by doing business with you they risk their phone calls or important letters being ignored or handled badly.

But how can you do all these tasks and still manage to do the work that you need to get done and build a good reputation for your company at the same time?

Capital Office Complete Virtual Office Solution

At Capital Office, London, we have helped thousands of small business owners and sole traders over the years that seek our help to relieve them of the pressures of coping with their everyday administration tasks.

We understand what it is like to try and juggle dealing with rushed phone calls, hastily written notes and reminders to call someone back, keep on top of your business mail, while at the same time trying to keep your composure in front of your clients to present a professional image.

So, let's take a look at how our Complete Virtual Office services can help you. Here is a breakdown of what's included in the complete package and how each part can help your business to thrive and grow.

Complete Virtual Office London Overview

London based PA’s taking your calls

Firstly and most importantly, you will have our team of London-based native English speaking live PA's taking every single one of your incoming business phone calls. Nothing beats that personal touch of talking to a real person when it comes to delivering top-quality customer services for your business.

Your virtual receptionist will answer your calls with your preferred company greeting and will handle your calls exactly to your instructions. This can include forwarding calls to you or another person in your company, taking a message and forwarding your messages to you via email or text message.

With your professional call answering service, you will benefit from unlimited calls and an 'Out of hours' voicemail to email service so that not a single call is missed, even if they are made outside of your business hours.

Choose a 0207 or 0203 Telephone Number

When you sign up with our service you can choose to keep your existing business telephone number or you can choose a more professional London-based 0207 or 0203 telephone number for your business. You can use your own London-based service number on all of your communications and having a central-London business number will give your business a more professional image.

Impressive London Address

As part of our Complete Virtual Office Service you also get to use a very prestigious central-London address to use for your business. Based in the heart of London's bustling business district, your business address can be used on all of your company paperwork and will help to build a strong business image and more professionalism around your business name.

If you are running your business from home or from a small base that doesn't have any suitable meeting facilities for you to conduct important business meetings with your clients, then you can also benefit from Free EC1 Meeting Room Use in our London city offices.

We have modern, well equipped, unbranded meeting rooms that you can use to impress your clients or have a convenient place to hold a meeting in London with good transportation hubs. You may run your business from anywhere in the country, but it may be difficult for your business clients or B2B partners to reach you easily. London is pretty accessible from anywhere, so our professional meeting rooms are an ideal venue for your important business meetings.

Forward / Scan / Collect your mail

By using our Complete Virtual Office Services you will benefit from having all of your incoming business mail directed to our offices in London. Our highly experienced team of mail sorters will take care of all your incoming business mail and you can decide how you would like your mail handled, including:

• Collected together and forwarded to an address of your choosing (including an overseas address) on a regular schedule
• Open, scan and email you a copy
• Save your mail to be collected by yourself in person from our London offices
• Packets and parcels signed for

The great thing about our mail handling service is that you get unlimited letters included in one low price of our combined package. You will save money by using our Complete Virtual Office Service rather than buying these services separately.

Under 60 Second Sign up

The great thing about our complete package is that it takes seconds to sign up for and your service can go live immediately, or at a time of your choosing. You can easily book with a secure online payment and start to benefit straight away.

So, if you want to streamline your business, take the stress out of having to cope with your daily administration tasks, never miss a business call again, give your company a professional business makeover and free up your precious time to dedicate more productively, then sign up today!

Regardless of how large or small your business, your business address can be a help or a hindrance to your business.

Your professional image counts for a lot, especially when you are trying to attract new customers or coax a new B2B partner into trading with you. Having a solid business image can inspire your customers and potential new trading partners to have confidence in your business and your ability to deliver a trustworthy and professional service.

Pretty much 99% of potential new customers or B2B companies will check your business out on the internet before they make contact with you. This means looking at your business website for more information about your company, your products or services, your history, your track record and more.

Should your business website not include a physical business address or the address you use looks a little suspect, such as using a PO Box address or using a residential address (because you are running your business from your home office or spare bedroom) the first impression you make will not be a positive one.

Chances are that anyone checking out your business and seeing that you don't have a solid business address will raise doubts in their mind about your business integrity. This can mean them swiftly moving their search on to one of your competitors with a better profile and more credibility to deal with.

Why do I need a physical Business Address?

No matter whether you are running a business as a sole trader or as a limited company, you will need to supply a business address to HMRC when registering as a sole trader (and Companies House for a limited company). You need to give an address where your statutory mail can be delivered and also be recorded on the Public Register of Companies at Companies House (for a limited company).

Many solo entrepreneurs that are running a single person business operation from home may not actually need to go to the trouble of renting official office space, especially if they don't plan to take on any staff, or if they plan to outsource a lot of their daily tasks to remote freelancers.

It is worth considering what office set-up would suit your business, especially if you work from home or from a workshop or warehouse where there isn't a physical office present.

While running your business from home can really help to keep down your business overheads and help you to keep your business running on a lean infrastructure, there still remains a strong stigma associated with using your own home address for your business.

If you are providing services to other registered limited companies or larger corporations, many of these organisations will not even consider dealing with you based on the fact that you are operating from a residential address. Most will not even agree to a contract with anyone that isn't registered as a limited company. This isn't good news for sole traders, even if they are highly skilled individuals that would be perfectly capable of doing the job on their own without breaking a sweat.

How a professional business address can build trust and confidence

Having a professional physical address for your business can help to build confidence in your customer base. They will see that you have a real-life physical address that you are operating through and that you are not some fly-by-night operation that simply sets up a website to scam as many people out of money as they can before being discovered and then flee with all the money.

Potential new customers need to know that your business has a solid base and will be discouraged from buying from you if you cannot provide a legitimate contact address. No matter whether you operate a service-based business or you operate in the virtual world, being able to legitimise your business with a professional business address where your customers can contact you, will help to instil trust and confidence in your business.

Having a professional business address for your company will help to build trust and credibility, especially if your aim is to deal with other companies on a B2B platform.

Search Engine Optimisation advantages

We all know how competitive the business world is. We have to fight for elbow room in our niche sector and use all the tools we can to climb the SEO ladder to get our business to the top of the search engine rankings.

Should your business website have no business address listed, then you will have no chance of being discovered by any of the major search engines. This is even more relevant if your business operates on a local community level where your main customers are right on your own doorstep.

Let's say that you live in Gloucestershire and offer a local gardening and DIY service for your local region or county. Should anyone wanting help from a locally-based gardener search Google for 'Gardening services, Gloucestershire', the chances are that without a proper business address your gardening services will not appear at the top of the search results, or even appear on the first page.

What is also important to remember is that without a proper business address, your business will not show up on Google Maps. Lots of potential customers like to have a visual representation of where their local business search results are. If you don't have a pin in the map, your business will be invisible in the search results.

Your family privacy and safety

While it may seem like a very convenient option to simply use your home address for your business, especially if you are running it from home anyway, don't forget that taking this option can come loaded with lots of negative consequences.

Listing your home address online via your business website and your social media pages doesn't look very professional for one thing, but you may also be breaking your tenancy agreement if you rent your home and your landlord doesn't allow their tenants to list the property address for business purposes.

Many landlords will have to take out professional landlord insurance and quite often part of the agreement for cover is that the tenant isn't allowed to carry out any business on the property. Doing so regardless can mean any insurance claims the landlord may need to take for accidental damage can be invalidated.

This is one reason why having a separate address for your business can help to separate your business from your home address.

If you live with your family, then you also have to take into consideration the privacy and personal security of your family members as well as your own. Listing your home address as your business address will mean that you are opening up your home to being inundated with cold callers, phone calls and junk mail.

Would your partner appreciate the fact that strangers can turn up at your door at all times of the day, especially if you are home with young children? Not only is the intrusion into their personal life very disrupting, but it could be putting their safety at risk too from disgruntled customers or even rival business owners that resent your presence.

Are these risks worth taking when for just a few pounds per month you can avoid all of these privacy and safety issues by using professional business address service options such as those provided by Capital Offices in London.

What is a Business Address Service Provider?

When you use a professional business address service provider such as Capital Office, London, it means that you can get a very smart London-based business address for your company. Your business address sits at the heart of London's business district so you will be able to get instant credibility for your business by carrying an EC1 address on all of your business documentation and websites.

No matter if you are a single sole trader or have formed your own limited company, you can get a London-based business address no matter where you operate your business from.

What this also means is that you can benefit from having a central-London business address without paying the price tag that accompanies renting such prestigious properties.

Here is what your London business address will look like:

Your business or personal name,

Kemp House,

152 – 160 City Road,

London, EC1V 2NX

How do business address services work?

Once you have set up your business address service with us, depending on the address package you have chosen, you can benefit from our virtual mail forwarding address and have all of your business letters and parcels delivered to our offices in London.

You can then instruct us about how you would like us to handle your business post. You can choose for us to open and scan your mail so that you can read it online, or you can have us collect your mail together and then post it on to you to an address of your choosing at a frequency that suits you. This includes packages and parcels and also global addresses. Our mail handling services are trusted by thousands of business owners.

If you are in London or visit the city on a regular basis, you can even call into our offices in person to collect your business mail. We offer a flexible service that suits your needs. Your new business address can be activated instantly, which means that you can start to use it right away on your business documents and you can add it to your business website so that you can get your website ranked on all of the major search engines.

What about meeting my clients in person?

You may be worried about meeting with your customers, clients or potential business partners for important meetings or updates. Instead of having to invite them to meet at your home or in a noisy coffee shop somewhere, you can instead get free use of one of our professional unbranded meeting rooms at our central-London offices with our annual mail forwarding address package option.

We offer our executive meeting rooms for hire to our customers should you need to meet clients on a regular basis, but with our premium 12-month mail forwarding address service, you can benefit from 4 hours of free use of our professional meeting room throughout your contract.

By inviting your business clients to your 'place of work' in central-London with a professional atmosphere, you will be able to add even more credibility to your business.

London Office Address & Mail Forwarding Overview

Here is a brief overview of our business address and mail forwarding service. For more information and benefits see our service breakdown page.

• Forward, scan or collect post
• Free Meeting Room Use
• Global mail forwarding service
• Instant Account Activation
• Packets & Parcels signed for
• Prestigious EC1 Address
• Secure & Confidential
• Secure Payments
• Under 60 Second Sign up
• Unlimited Letters Included

So you can see that by using the professional business address and mail forwarding services provided by Capital Office, London, you will be boosting your company image and credibility so that your potential new clients, customers and B2B business partners will take your business seriously.

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

An important part of any business set up is their office base, even a solo-entrepreneur needs some sort of office set up to work, from even if you are starting your business from home using a spare bedroom or maybe even your kitchen table!

Sorting out your office can be a daunting task, especially if this is your very first business set up and you have no idea where to start. You need to figure out how much space you will need if you are going to employ staff, will they need their own desk space or would they be better off with a flexible shared workspace? Do you actually need an office at all? If you are starting small, is there any reason why you cannot outsource your office tasks to save yourself some money on office rent, wages and utilities?

There are so many questions to ask yourself before you can even get your business up and running efficiently, but you need to find answers because your business will not work properly without having a good office structure in place.

What sort of office space is your company going to need?

One of the questions you may not have asked yourself is what type of working space your company is going to need. If your business involves the manufacture of a product or the assembly, repair or rebuilding of a physical item then you will obviously be going to need some sort of workshop space with plenty of room for your necessary tools, machinery, spare part storage etc.

However, just because you need plenty of productive workshop area doesn't necessarily mean that you will also need to rent huge office space to go with it. There are many small businesses, such as motor mechanics, car repair operations, florists, small bakeries etc. that simply don't need to have a large on-site office.

If you are starting a business that needs more workshop space rather than office space, don't be conned into renting out unsuitable premises that have a 50/50 split floorspace between office and workshop areas. Many garages and workshops have large ground-floor spaces that are ideal for this type of business, but will often come with built-in offices on the floor above that are exactly the same size as the floor below. You may well end up paying through the nose to rent a property and be spending out your hard-earned cash on renting empty and unwanted office space when it is really only the workshop space you need.

The changing face of office leasing

If your business is actually office-based, then obviously you will need to look at renting office space to accommodate your staff. These days new business owners are looking for more flexibility with their office needs. Fortunately, the days of strict and inflexible long-term office leases are long gone.

In the past many office leasing companies would inflict harsh financial penalties on their clients should they want to end their contracts early. This could happen if the office space being rented no longer met the needs of the company and they wished to move to larger premises, or even downscale to smaller facilities. It didn't really matter what the reason was for breaking the contract, the office leasing companies would almost always put a clause in the leasing terms and conditions to include a harsh penalty for not seeing out the contract.

This often left the client in a frustrating situation being stuck in unsuitable office facilities for the duration of the lease or paying to get out of the lease. Either way, the old system was expensive no matter which way the business chose to go.

These days modern companies don't just look for one type of office space, instead, they recognise the need for more flexibility to allow their staff to share workspaces and resources. They need areas where they can collaborate and converse with their teammates on joint projects and to share information easily.

The way we work is changing, and so the type of workspace we need will also need to change to meet our needs. Let's take a look at some popular office set-ups and why they could be a good fit for your business needs.

Virtual offices

The popularity of virtual office services has boomed in recent years. This is mostly down to the rapid rise in the numbers of self-employed people in the UK. Most new solo-entrepreneurs are happy to work from home to help keep costs down to an absolute minimum, but still need to portray a very professional business face to build trust in their clients and their company.

This is where the virtual office stands head and shoulders above simply renting office space in your local town or city for your business. With a virtual office service, such as Capital Office's Complete Virtual Office service, comes with a very prestigious business address that is centred in the heart of London's business district.

Choosing to have your business admin handled by a professional virtual office service provider such as us will also mean that your business gets to use a London telephone number and a high-quality call answering service with experienced virtual receptionists using your personalised business greeting.

You will never have to worry about missing a vital and important business phone call ever again, which can be especially reassuring when you are busy concentrating on a project or in a business meeting with a client. You will also be able to keep your professional work number separate from your private home number, meaning you will not be inundated at home with sales calls and scam artists trying to get your financial details.

Because you get a professional central-London office address for your business with your complete virtual office package, you also get a reliable and efficient mail sorting service where all of your business post will be sorted and forwarded on to you.

You can choose to have your business mail collected and forwarded to an address of your choice at regular intervals that suits your timetable, or you can drop by our offices to collect your mail in person. You can also have a scan and email service where we open your business post on your behalf, scan your mail and email the scanned documents directly to you. This can ensure that you never miss any important statutory mail coming from Companies House or HMRC that you cannot afford to ignore or mislay.

Complete virtual office services are ideal for solo-entrepreneurs and SME's that want to keep their costs down, yet still, ensure they run an efficient office while building a prestigious business profile for their company.

Co-working spaces

There are a number of co-working hugs springing up around the country in response to solo-entrepreneurs looking for more flexibility. These sort of spaces can be very handy, especially if you are running your businesses on a part-time basis, and don't want to have the expense of renting a full-time permanent office that will sit empty for the majority of the week.

With co-working, you can choose to use the space as and when suits you. In most cities, you can find co-working facilities that operate 24 hours a day, so if you were planning on starting a business on the side of your full-time job, you can get access to a co-working area during your free time in the evenings and at weekends.

The greatest benefit of using a co-working space is that you will be mixing with like-minded people who can help to give you a sense of community. This means you don't need to feel so isolated or alone if you are a solo-entrepreneur working from home. You can mix and mingle with others in a co-working environment as much or as little as you please.

You never know, there may even be some very useful contacts that you can make within your co-working community that can come in handy to help you with your work or a particular project that you are working on.

Mostly, co-working is great for anyone just starting out and not wanting to blow a huge chunk of their budget on setting up a physical office.

Fully Serviced offices

Probably the most expensive of these alternative office solutions to invest in fully serviced offices are just that – a complete turn-key walk-in and operate solution for a business owner that is itching to jump in and get started.

Everything you need from a working physical office space will be included in one monthly bill. So for example, your office rent, power, internet service, heating, maintenance, cleaning and IT equipment are all in place and ready to use. You will also benefit from a permanent on-site front of house receptionist that can receive your visitors and deliver them to your offices.

You may be offered optional extra services such as in-house mail sorting and telephone call handling, but you will need to check the small print carefully to see what is and what is not included in your service charge.

Leased offices

A more traditional approach that may be suitable for already established businesses that have outgrown their current available workspace or have grown too large to operate from a co-working space. Leased offices offer you the opportunity to truly put your own stamp on your office space. You can choose exactly how you want to plan and layout your office instead of having to adapt to an existing setup, such as what is offered by a fully serviced office solution.

The costs of this type of office set-up will need to be carefully considered. Unlike fully serviced offices that charge one regular monthly fee, you will be paying a monthly rent for your office, but you will also need to add on the costs of kitting out your office yourself, plus utility costs, business rates, IT infrastructure and maintenance costs etc.

Choose the most flexible option

No matter which of these office set-ups appeal to you, it would be wise to take some time to carefully think about your decision before going ahead. Think about how rapidly you expect your business to grow and whether your choice of office set-up will still be suitable for your needs in two, three or five years time.

Choose the option that suits you right now, but make sure you have the ability to scale up or scale down your office needs easily to match the ebb and flow of your business.

If you would like to find out more about our Complete Virtual Office solutions, do not hesitate to chat to one of our live agents from our website or give our friendly team a call.

Call us: 0207 566 3939

EMAIL: OFFICE@CAPITAL-OFFICE.CO.UK

Call in to meet us at Capital Office, Kemp House, 152 - 160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. We look forward to meeting you!

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

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