Product Information

New startups pop up almost on a daily basis nowadays and it’s not hard to see why. More and more people have a disruptive, innovative idea of how to solve issues. But an idea is just an idea until you can prove that your idea works and then get funding for the big leagues! But what is it that you need to impress your potential investors to pour money into your idea? Why, a prototype, of course.

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Today we will discuss how to make a product prototype for venture funding.

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Table of Contents

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• Prototype Concept and Benefits

• Why You Should Start Prototyping

• What are the Fundamental Principles to Build a Prototype for Funding?

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Prototype Concept and Benefits

What is a prototype? A prototype is a physical example of a planned product for mass production and sale that has the approximation of all the functions and features of the matter in question that would be developed in the future. To put it simply, a prototype can include a powerpoint slide presentation that demonstrate the interaction between the user and the product, and a real life example that can be used to demonstrate how it actually works and how people can benefit from it.

The visual presentation of your prototype is meant for the conference rooms, where you explain the mechanics of your soon-to-be developed product in order to make an impression on them. But you will still need to build the bolts & nuts actualized version of it – depending on its size – you may need a warehouse, hangar or an open field to do the actual tests to demonstrate its capabilities to the investors.

As a result, you get a chance to deliver a viable and proper product that fits your target market.

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Why You Should Start Prototyping

Before we dive into the details about the principles of prototyping, let us first learn about the critical benefits that it brings for both startupers and investors.

The first reason is that it enhances your business idea and design validation. You still have time to change and improve your business offering while your prototype is still in the factory being built. Plus you’ll also get an additional benefit of giving your design team enough time to run tests and determine the most workable user flows and design as a whole.

The second reason is that it reduces costs and time to market. Having a working prototype will help you unnecessary costs in changing the specs or features of it while in the design and building process, which also advances the release date of the product. The IBM report about programming development is on point and they determined that it cost them 6 times more when they attempted to fix the bugs during product release than fixing them during the design phase.

Reason number 3 is that your team is on the same page. Prototypes serves as reference points for designers, it gives them a clear knowledge on every detail on the product operability. They can provide you the information you need to make presentations about product concepts and you avoid any miscommunicating them to your investors. Fewer meetings means more money saved and more products sold.

Reason number 4 is you will get earlier feedback. Usually, in the design phase your team will bring in random people to test the product and give their feedback. This feedback can help designers tweak the product and improve it before building the final product for launch.

The final reason is it gives you a solid way of investor engagement. The prototype is actually your ticket to success and a way to the pockets of investors. Leverage on the features and benefits of your product and show investors your vision for your company and you’ll get their attention real quick.

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What are the Fundamental Principles to Build a Prototype for Funding?

You must first learn some of the basic principles and best practices of prototyping before going into the design process. Below are some of the important principles in designing and building a prototype.

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1) Define your Target Users and Intent

The first thing to do is to clearly define what the goal of your prototype is, who is it for, and what problems will it solve. Take note of this because these are the things that investors want to know about your prototype. Once you’ve considered all of this, then make the presentation to the investors and get that much needed funding.

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2) Start with Paper for the Very First Iteration

Bringing your ideas to life should be done as cheap and as fast as possible, and using paper or cardboards just to rough out the basic principles on how your prototype will work is the best way to do about it. Paper prototyping also allows you to quickly modify your design and features without all the hassles of something made of denser materials, which can be expensive and takes a longer time to assemble.

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3) Prioritize Product Features and Ditch the Details

Your design team should focus on the product features more than the aesthetics of it (which can be worked on a later time once all the features are incorporated into teh design). Remember, people will only buy your product if it does a significant deal to ease up or improve their lifestyle, anything less than that will not sell at all. Your prototype itself is your business pitch, so eliminate color, typography, and other design elements. Test your ideas through the process of elimination. Keep what works and do away with the rest.

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4) Use the Right Tools

Your prototype is only as good as its designers and your design team are only as good as the tools that they’re working with. So provide them with the best tools available in the market in order for them to build you a kick-ass prototype. You may want to consider the 2019 Design Tools Survey, as they mention some of the best tools for prototyping.

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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.

Our human brains are designed to worry and look out for danger – our brains are very good at it too!Leading psychologists have often concluded that humans were not built to be happy, but were built to survive. This strong desire to survive is driven by us looking for potential risks and problems and working out how to overcome them, should they ever occur.It is our cognitive features that have helped us evolve so successfully. From discovering and controlling fire to inventing the wheel, we were driven to develop such things out of fear or to solve a problem.

• Fear of starvation = hunting tools and later agriculture
• Fear of death = medicines and medical treatments
• Fear of threat = organisation of communities and the formation of armies

And the list goes on....Our brains are built to determine the next thing to fix or improve in our lives and this is why sales and marketing techniques aimed at solving human problems and providing solutions to issues are so effective.

Appealing to our restless minds

There are not many people who are in the fortunate position to be able to sit back, relax and be content with their lot. Even those millionaires who appear to have everything at their feet still worry about how they are going to keep their wealth protected and their lifestyles maintained and improved.Instead of our brains being content with our surroundings and how the world is making us feel right now, we will constantly focus on how we can create or fix any problems we have or worrying about what may be on the horizon.Our human brains don't sit comfortably for long wondering, “What can I enjoy today?” But, rather, “What problems can I fix today?”

Making obstacles into business opportunities

Some common human obstacles can become business opportunities if you know how to solve them, or at least provide some temporary relief for a little while.This is exactly how the holiday industry works. You have a stressed out and exhausted worker looking for a solution for their woes. You own a seaside hotel with a pool and spa where people can take a well-earned break away from their busy lives.Your hotel guests get a chance to escape the 9-5 grind and their long and tedious commute to work and back each day. Win-win all round!The skill here is to keep your hotel guest coming back for more. You can do this by keeping in regular contact with them and providing them with exciting news updates and beautiful photographs of your spectacular sea-views, comfortable hotel rooms or tempting new menu.By doing this you are connecting with your customers on an emotional level and you are reminding them that the perfect solution to their problems (overwork and exhaustion) is right here waiting for their return.

Creating a vision for your customers

Everyone is creative – even if you believe otherwise. You are creating new thoughts as you read this. You can help solve your target customer’s problems by creating a positive vision of your solution in their minds.By truly understanding your ideal customer inside out you will know what concerns or issues they will worry about. It is your job to create a vision of their perfect solution and deliver it on a plate directly to them.When you take the time to analyse your target audience and get inside their collective heads you will start to see what things feel good to their senses and things that don't.This way you can avoid switching off your target audience with the wrong message or creating the wrong image of your product or service in their mind.You need to be discerning about their discomfort. The idea and vision you want to create for your product or service is something that is positive and worthwhile. Show them that having what you are providing will enable them to better cope with whatever problems they are experiencing.

Tactile marketing techniques

Despite to huge rise in digital sales over the internet we still have a human need to touch something. This is most common with physical products such as shoes and clothes. We will have a desire to identify the most comfortable texture or the best fit.There is still a huge demand for real books that you can hold and read despite the popularity and convenience of having a digital version to download and read instantly. This is why for self-published authors it can be a good move to offer your book as a digital version on Amazon Kindle, Smashwords and other digital platforms but also offer your book through a print-on-demand service for those who prefer reading physical copies or would like to buy your book to give as a gift.

Emotional marketing with physical materials

As you want to be solving a problem with your product or service you need to connect with your customer on an emotional level. Giving your customer something tactile to connect with can often outstrip digital marketing efforts for gaining sales.A recent study conducted by Millward Brown for Royal Mail found that “this research strongly suggests that greater emotional processing is facilitated by the physical material than the virtual.”Offering your prospective customers a gift or free sample will act to leave a much deeper impression on the brain. This causes your product or service to be better remembered and a positive physical experience will help to build trust in your brand and a stronger desire and motivation to buy from you.

Tactile marketing can be along the lines of these examples:

• Offering free samples of your cookies if you own a bakery shop or market stall
• A free 5-minute hand massage if you are promoting your beauty salon at a local community event
• Hosting a free cheese and wine taster evening if you own a deli or restaurant
• A free sauna or workout session at your gym

Solving problems of your own

While the main focus of your business activities should be towards finding solutions to your customer’s problems, don't forget that there are also great solutions to help you solve your own business problems and issues too!One of the biggest issues a sole trader, solo entrepreneur or small business owner faces is the lack of available time to dedicate to developing their business and making it run more efficiently.As a business owner, you will have problems of your own to solve. So why not consider freeing up more of your time and giving yourself a break by using any of the following tips:

1: Cut down on your time reading and responding to email

Did you know that nearly one-third of an average working day involves dealing with your inbox? Set yourself a rule to only read and respond to emails twice per day. You can set yourself a time limit of half an hour in the morning and the same in the afternoon, for example at 10 am and 3.30 pm.Don't look at your email at other times and only respond to those that you need to. Email can eat up a huge chunk of your day and sending more emails out will only act to increase what comes in.

2: Use productivity apps

There are many free business apps that have been created to help you to better organise your day. Google Calendar, for example, can help to remind you of appointments and important events.Look at using a free Pomodoro timer to help with your concentration and to give you regular short breaks throughout the day to refresh and re-energise your mind.

3: Build an email list

Capture the contact details of your website visitors and build an email list for a low-cost solution to engage with your customers and interested prospect. MailChimp is great for organising your mailing lists and handy for running split-marketing campaigns.

4: Manage your Social Media

We have all fallen into that trap of opening Facebook and then boom! Half the day has gone. Try to curb the time you spend on social media by using a management tool such as HootSuite or outsourcing its management to an outside expert.

5: Outsource your admin tasks

As mentioned above with handing over the management of your social media to an outside expert, you should also look at freeing up your time from other business admin tasks that are just as time-consuming.While essential tasks for the success of your business, admin task are a big time-drain and they are unproductive in the sense that they don't generate any money for your business. Yes, they are necessary, but your time would be better spent focused on other aspects of your business, such as your customer research and marketing plans.Look at freeing up your precious time with services such as those offered by Capital Office London:

• Call Answering: Impress clients with a London telephone number and a team of professional PAs who will personally greet your client and handle your business calls.

• Virtual Office: Our complete virtual office combines our prestigious London virtual address with our leading professional call answering service. Our virtual office is designed to help you convey a professional image whilst ensuring you maximise your productivity.

6: Organise your to-do list

Obey the 2-minute rule where if you have a task will take less than two minutes to complete, do it right away. Getting these little tasks done and crossed off your list will make your to-do list look far less intimidating and you will be encouraged to power through the rest of your tasks with greater energy.

Conclusion

In summary, look at the many ways your product or service can help to solve a particular customer problem. Identify your target audience and work out their likes and dislikes and find where they hang out so you can better reach them with your solution.Don't forget to solve your own problems along the way by making good use of the tools and services that are available to you, from free apps to outsourcing time-draining tasks.With all this extra time you can save yourself, you can better focus your efforts to define your business goals and also give yourself a well-deserved break once in a while.

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!

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.

Many London-based businesses find that using a professional telephone answering service, such as the one provided by Capital Office in London, to be very beneficial in many ways. Like most things in the capital city, the costs associated with starting up and sustaining a business in London can often far exceed the costs paid in other less expensive areas of the UK.

One way to keep your business running costs down is by taking advantage of the services offered by a professional business call answering service. Luckily, London is home to one of the best call answering services in the country and offers businesses of all sizes the help they need to significantly reduce their overheads while at the same time maintaining a very high level of customer service and customer satisfaction.

How can your business call answering service save me money?

Well to put it in plain English, your business gets to benefit from a full-time receptionist answering every single incoming business call you receive without you actually having to employ any staff or provide an office or reception area for them to work from.

Using virtual office services such as these can save you thousands of pounds because your business will no be paying out to cover the wages of any reception or office staff. You will also be saving a lot of money on office rent, utility bills, IT infrastructure and equipment costs.

When you think that the average salary for a London-based receptionist on a full-time employment contract is in the region of £25,000 per annum, by choosing to use a professional call answering service for your business instead will be making you an instant saving of thousands of pounds. This is an obvious saving, but when you add on all the extra savings from not having to include office rental, IT and telephony-related equipment, power, heating and water bills etc. it makes so much sense to go with a virtual service provider that can deliver you the professional services you need at a remarkably low price.

Why choose Capital Office Call Answering Services?

With our professional business call answering services, you get to benefit from our services immediately. Think of the time you will be saving not having the hassle of finding your own receptionist – from paying for a job advertisement, sorting through job applications, short-listing candidates, going through the interview process and finally appointing the best candidate.

In most cases, you may also have to wait while your new employee serves out their notice at their previous employment before they can even start working for you. Then you need to provide your receptionist with an office to work from and the equipment needed to answer your calls. You also need to work out an employment contract, work out National Insurance contributions, pension payments and holiday entitlements etc.

Instead of all this hassle, why not simply save yourself a lot of time by booking our professional call answering services. There are no setup fees involved and instead of waiting around for weeks, you get to benefit from our services from day one. You can directly benefit from the services of a fully qualified and experienced telephone receptionist at the fraction of the cost of employing your own.

How does your call answering service work?

Our friendly staff at Capital Office can quickly and smoothly set up your fully personalised call answering service the same day. We will need to know your preferred greeting so that your virtual receptionist can answer your calls exactly as you like.

You will get your own unique London based telephone number that you can use as your own, or if you want to keep your existing business number, you can choose to have your calls diverted to your personally issued new number.

Our professional call answering team will recognise your telephone number and will be able to answer your incoming business calls swiftly, politely and efficiently. Your callers will get to hear a professionally trained receptionist answer their call and they will never know they are speaking to anyone other than an in-house staff member.

Your callers will also interact directly with a real human being, so this means they will not be put off by being greeted with an automated answering service or a robotic recorded message. In reality, our London-based call answering staff are a friendly team of real-world receptionist with many years of collective experience!

You can tell us exactly how to handle your incoming business calls and what you want us to do with them. For example, you may want us to log every incoming call and take messages that can be passed on to you later in the day. Or you may prefer us to filter your calls and only put through genuine calls directly to you from existing customers or B2B clients.

Your business callers will never know

Because our team of dedicated virtual receptionists are all professionally trained and have plenty of experience, your existing and prospective customers will be delivered with a very high level of customer service. Their call will be answered quickly with your preferred greeting and dealt with accordingly. This can include being directed to one of your staff members as appropriate, a message taken and relayed either immediately or at a convenient time as dictated by yourself via either text message or email so you can call them back at a time that is more convenient.

Having a real-life human answering your phone calls creates a much better first impression of your business than being greeted by an answering machine. You may consider using an answering machine to take your calls and messages while you are otherwise engaged, but research has shown that a high percentage of first-time business callers are put off by encountering an answering machine. Most callers either put the phone down without leaving a message and never bother to call back, or they will leave a message and then worry that they will never be called back.

The reassurance of speaking to an actual person on the end of the line can make all the difference. Callers are much more happy to leave messages with a real receptionist and are more confident that their message will get through to the right person and be called back accordingly.

This is a much better plan of action to take for the success of your business than sitting and listening to the playback on your answering machine only to hear many callers immediately hang up on hearing the message. Research shows that as many as seven out of ten business callers do just this when met with an answering machine. To you that can mean you are missing out on up to 70% of potential new customers coming to you via your business phone. Can you really afford to lose so many potential new customers to the coldness and detachment of an answering machine?

Sounds too good to be true!

You may be wondering if there is any catch to our call answering services. The truth is that there are none! It is so much simpler, quicker, cheaper and less hassle to use a good call answering service such as ours for the following reasons as well as the ones already mentioned above:

• No more cold callers: As your calls are screened by our service, you will never be disturbed by cold callers wanting to sell you something.
• Privacy and protection: Your home telephone number will be kept private, this is especially important for those small business owners that work from home.
• No interruptions: You don't need to break your concentration or interrupt a business meeting with a client to constantly answer your incoming business calls.
• Higher productivity: When you need to get your head down and get a work project completed in peace or to meet a tight deadline, you can get great peace of mind knowing that your calls are being answered.

Capital Office London can deliver you with a professional unlimited call answering service at an incredibly cost-effective price, especially when you compare prices against hiring your own in-house staff.

Our professional call answering service can help your business to grow in so many ways and free up your cash flow to reinvest back into your business instead of spending it on expensive overheads.

To get a clear idea of how our call answering services can help you, watch our quick video or contact our friendly team at Capital Office to discuss your business needs and how our flexible service can help you.

There has been an increasing rise in popularity of using virtual receptionists and professional call answering services amongst solo-entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses across the UK in recent years. The reasons for the rise in popularity of these services is quite obvious once you take a look at the many benefits that using these virtual services can bring to your business and how they can help you to improve your productivity levels and bottom line.

Let's take a closer look at ten ways that using a professional call answering service or hiring a virtual receptionist can help your business to improve.

1: No need to hire and train new staff

One of the most obvious benefits for your business, especially if you are a sole trader or solo-entrepreneur that employs no other staff, is the fact that you will have a fully trained professional virtual receptionist ready to take your business calls from day one.

Professional call answering services, such as our own team at Capital Offices in London, are all fully-trained individuals with years of experience of working as a virtual receptionist. This means that as soon as you book our services, you will get immediate telephone coverage with polite and professional receptionists answering your calls using the greeting of your choice.

You will be saving yourself a heck of a lot of time and money hiring a virtual receptionist rather than employing one for your business by yourself. Employing your own receptionist will mean paying for a job advert, sorting through tons of job applications, shortlisting the best candidates, scheduling interviews, conducting interviews and then having to complete all the legal paperwork, registration with HMRC and drawing up of a contract of employment.

All this hassle and expense even before you can start to benefit from having the help of a receptionist! Then there is the settling in period and the training needed, especially if you have chosen someone with little receptionist experience.

It is so much simpler, quicker, cheaper and less hassle to use a good call answering service instead!

2: No more cold callers!

We all know that you cannot afford to ignore your ringing phone, especially if you are running a business where you are encouraging prospective new customers to call you for more information about your products or services.

Advertising your business number and making it visible to the general public will not only enable you to receive calls and enquiries from prospective new customers, as well as existing customers, but you are also opening yourself up to calls from sales reps and cold callers from all sorts of different industries. It can be incredibly frustrating to answer your business phone to find that maybe three out of five incoming calls are from sales reps or survey companies.

With a professional call answering service, you will never need to take the call in the first place. Your own virtual receptionist will be able to screen all of your calls for you, which means that you will only get genuine business calls coming through to you that actually want to get.

3: Put your productivity into overdrive

By using our high-quality call answering services you can truly maximise your productivity levels and take them to new heights! We all know that constantly being disturbed by your phone ringing can break your concentration and take your focus away from your important work tasks.

Having your own virtual receptionist will enable you to safely ignore your phone and allow you to continue to focus on your work projects without disruption. You don't need to worry about missed sales opportunities or missing important messages from your clients or customers because your virtual receptionist will intercept your calls on your behalf and leave you in peace to get on with your work. Your business caller will still feel very valued in your absence because their call has been answered swiftly, politely and professionally.

4: Travel between meetings safely

If your business involves you being on the road a lot travelling between customers or clients, then you will have a problem with answering your phone safely. It may be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming to constantly need to pull your car over to the side of the road to simply answer your phone each time it rings.

We all know that it is against the law to drive while on a mobile phone, so ignoring this can seriously put your safety at risk while driving. If you are spotted driving while on your phone by a police officer or a surveillance camera, you can face a hefty fine and points on your driving licence.

You can travel more safely between your appointments with more concentration and with fewer interruptions when you put your business calls into the hands of a professional virtual receptionist.

5: Phone cover while in meetings

There can be nothing more frustrating for your clients or customers than you constantly interrupting your business meeting by taking incoming calls on your phone. Your call answering service can take down important messages for you while you are busy in your meeting and quickly deliver them to you once you are free and able to respond to your messages.

6: Prioritise your callers

When you are busy working or in a meeting, you need to focus on what you are doing at the time. This can often mean having to miss a call or query from an important existing customer or B2B partner. Your virtual receptionist will be able to take messages from your general callers, but will also be briefed about any very important callers that need to be prioritised. This can often mean putting these calls directly through to you regardless of where you are or what you are doing.

7: Make your business look bigger than it is

Your prospective new customers will call you for more information about your products and services. When they have their call answered by a professional receptionist, they will immediately get an impression of a large and successful business with an organised set-up. This is a much better first impression to create in your customer’s mind than to have their call answered by a very flustered and irritated business owner that is trying to juggle too many tasks at once.

This can help to reassure prospective new customers or B2B clients that may be a little wary about dealing with a small, unknown company.

8: Much better customer service

The success of your business starts and ends with your customers. Without them, you would have no business! Keeping your customers happy and well treated is of vital importance for your business success, so having a very professional virtual receptionist on hand to answer customer calls promptly, politely and with a friendly manner, each and every time they call will add so much power to your ability to convert prospects to paying customers.

A consistent level of high-quality customer service can build a lot of trust and loyalty in your customers that means they are more likely to repeat-buy from you rather than go to one of your competitors.

9: Flexible services

Hiring our call answering services gives you a lot of flexibility that you couldn't get from employing your own staff. You may be working from a very tight budget that means you cannot afford to employ a full-time receptionist for your business. Staff wages and all the added expenses that come with providing your employees with the IT equipment and infrastructure needed for them to do an effective job all costs a lot of money.

The great thing with professional unlimited call answering services such as ours is that you can tailor it to suit your needs. You can save yourself a lot of money by using our virtual solution for just one month, three months, six months or twelve months – as you need us!

10: You get to keep more of your money

Quite simply, it is far more cost-effective for you to use virtual services such as our Professional Unlimited Call Answering Service because it is far more affordable than employing your own staff and kitting out an office or reception area of your own.

In many cases, a sole trader or solo-entrepreneur that is happy working from home can completely avoid the necessity and costs of setting up a physical office for their business if they are happy to continue along as they are and have no plans to expand their business beyond creating a job for themselves alone. Or if they prefer to have a small and flexible workspace where their team can collaborate together without having any designated desk space.

With our professional call answering service, our team of PA's answer your phone calls allowing you to have great peace of mind that you haven't missed any important business calls while you were unavailable on were busy in a meeting. This means that you will be left with more money in your bank account that can be invested in other important areas of your business.

Find out more about our professional call answering services and how cost-effective our services are!

When starting up a new business your mind will automatically start thinking about why type of office set up you will need to get your new enterprise off the ground. This can be a very easy choice for a solo-entrepreneur that plans to start off working from home in a spare bedroom, home office or even from their kitchen table. However, the time will hopefully come where they will need to make plans for some sort of office as their business grows and expands.For those who are planning to jump-start a small business or a partnership where you need to facilitate an office or a workspace to operate from then there is the option of choosing to rent a fully serviced office. This type of office space can save you a lot of time and money because you don't need to actually set up your own physical office space at all – you will simply be able to walk your staff right into a fully set-up and working office space as soon as you sign on the dotted line of your serviced office agreement.

What is a fully serviced office?

Serviced office spaces isn't exactly a new thing to the business world. Rented service office spaces started to pop up in the USA back in the 1960s. The providers most often offered serviced offices as a temporary solution for business owners that were planning to relocate their business to another area or larger premises and who needed an immediate stop-gap solution to keep their business ticking over while their move took place.In most cases back in the early days of serviced offices, the space was only ever used for the short-term so were pretty much overlooked by well-established businesses that had no plans to move premises. It is only in recent years with the rise in the numbers of entrepreneurs and lean business start-ups that the idea of the fully serviced office has really taken off. The idea soon spread to the UK, mostly during the late 90s and in fact, the UK alone has recently seen a 157% increase in serviced office take up.There are many benefits to choosing a fully serviced office set up when compared to setting up your own physical office from scratch. Let's take a look at some of the key advantages:

Greater flexibility

Probably the most beneficial element of working from a fully serviced office space is the flexibility that this can give to your business. Most serviced offices come with short-term contracts that you can choose to renew over again, should you need to. This is in stark contrast to setting up your own physical office space where you may have no other choice but to sign up for a lengthy fixed term contract that could see you tied up with for several years.Leasing your own physical office space is not only costly for your business and can seriously impact of your budget, but it can often leave you tied into a long-term lease that comes with financial penalties should you decide to break the contract early.There are many rapidly growing businesses that need to start off small and can only afford a small office to start with, but may find that within a couple of years they have quickly outgrown their existing space. The need to move to larger premises may be made more difficult if you have signed a five-year lease on your office space that comes with a hefty fee for severing it before it expires. Not many growing businesses can afford to hang around and wait for their lease to expire while working out of very cramped and unsuitable office conditions.The perfect solution here is to hire fully serviced registered office space that you can pick up quickly and operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. This means that you can get the right sized office space that you need when you start up but also have the in-built flexibility to expand your office and take on more office space as and when you need to.

Adapting your office space to suit your needs

Flexibility and adaptability are two very strong features of hiring a fully serviced office space. Say for example that you hire a space that is suitable for your needs, but then you land a large project that means you need to add some extra office space for a few months. This is where using a serviced office space can work to your advantage. You can simply take on the extra office space for the duration of your large project, and then scale back to your original sized space once the project is completed and delivered.For your business, this means that you can have office space that is right for your business at every stage of your journey. Being able to upscale or downsize your flexible office space and renew or extend your lease gives you the freedom operate more efficiently without wasting any precious resources or be left with uncomfortable office space that isn't suitable for your changing needs.

Relocating from a different country

Many businesses are global these days, so this often means a company will simply up-sticks and relocate their operation to any part of the world. A lot of international businesses decide to expand into a new country so under both scenarios a company will look at using serviced office space to help their transition into the new country. Many companies will use fully serviced offices to set up their UK branch and establish their brand here while their permanent business premises is being prepared.Many international businesses are now using serviced office space as a solution for testing out a new location before finally deciding whether or not to branch out and move or open their operations up in that country. This is a very flexible approach to their expansion plans and means they can successfully test the waters before committing to anything in the long term.

Cost-effective solution

When you sit down and actually factor in every expense and overhead that you will need to pay for when setting up your own office space from scratch, you can see that choosing serviced office space rental is a very worthwhile investment.Because absolutely everything is included in your fully-equipped and fully-furnished office space, it completely removes the headache of having to sort everything out by yourself. Everything you need is included in one monthly pay-as-you-go bill, including your IT infrastructure, building maintenance and cleaning, power and water utilities and sanitation facilities.

Alternatives to fully serviced offices

Having said all this, there is also another very flexible alternative to hiring a fully serviced office. This solution is actually ideal for those solo-entrepreneurs, sole traders and small partnerships that are setting up an online business or small creative business and may be happy to work from their home office, or choose to have a workshop or warehouse set up without the need for a physical office.This solution is also ideal for new start-ups who want to run a lean business infrastructure where they operate using the bare minimum of resources to keep costs down and enable them to divert the time consuming everyday tasks of running an office elsewhere to avoid distractions.We are talking here about using a complete virtual office set up that can be even more cost-effective and flexible than taking up a fully serviced office space.There has been an incredible rise in the numbers of people going self-employed in recent years with many thousands of people looking for home business ideas that they can successfully launch from the comfort of their own home, while at the same time outsourcing many essential office tasks to virtual service suppliers.One of the major benefits of using a virtual office service provider such as Capital Office in London is that you can literally start using your office services right away.With minimal set-up times involved, you can get your own virtual office operating quickly and functioning at maximum capacity. This will allow you to focus your attention towards more urgent and important tasks, such as your R&D projects or meeting with clients or prospective new business partners without the fear of interruptions coming from phone calls.There will be no need to worry or fret about the levels of your incoming business mail piling up in the corner of the room. We understand that most small business owners have little time or patience to dedicate to dealing with your business post. This is where our mail sorting services will prove invaluable to you. You will no longer need to think about your mail and there will be zero risks of you losing any important pieces of mail coming from your clients or your statutory mail coming from HMRC and Companies House that you cannot afford to lose or ignore.Why not give one of our friendly Capital Office team members a call on 0207 566 3939or email: office@capital-office.co.uk to discuss your virtual office needs. We are here to help!

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

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