What is a Virtual Office?
A Virtual Office is the use of a local or foreign business address and important business services to establish a virtual but strategic base for your businesses locally or globally. A virtual office enables your company to extend your business presence strategically and without the initial requirement of high capital and operational expenditure. There is no additional expenditure in human resource management since there is no need to invest in human resource at your strategic base of business. Business services in example of mail forwarding and telephony services, shall be provided to support and automate management of the business and corporate identity. This greatly enables the top-level management of your company to focus management perspective into running the business profitably and efficiently.

Advanced Telephony services are critical to the operation of a virtual office. They form part of an essential backend service to facilitate 24-hour communication between your clients and your company. And a virtual office provider has to present these services in quality and variety in order to meet different business requirements.

What is the criteria for selecting your Virtual Office?

4 simple selection criteria:

a. Geographic Location

Selection of the country in which to purchase a Virtual Office service greatly depends on your business nature and requirement. For companies that are interested in Asia, there are several prominent economies for consideration in example of Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

Hong Kong is a hotbed for trade and investment coming from China, and it has low tax rates. China is a fast developing giant economy and it has a huge presence in Asia and the world.

Singapore, on the other hand, is in South East Asia, and it is strongly performing as the gateway to Asia and especially the surrounding region because of the freedom of the ecomony, low tax rates and a healthy network of international FTA cooperations. Singapore's population is made up of different races and cultures and they are generally bilingual. The ability to speak English, Mandarin, Malay and various dialects gives Singaporeans an edge to communicate with the people in Asia, thereby it also provides a good business advantage for better understanding of business counterparts and an ability to form partnerships that are more stable. The island of Singapore also holds a joint honour with Hong Kong for being one of the most popular Asian destinations for companies to get listed.

In the City, the CBD remains a high value option for a business address.

A Virtual Office Business mailing address has the highest value when it:

- is within the CBD; and

- has a good street name; and

- has a building name with a strong brand and is highly recognised; and

- is situated at an appropriate storey; and

- not highly publicised or advertised; and

- it should also be a Serviced Office

It is worth the effort to conduct due diligence on the Virtual Office locations before making a decision that can return back to you the best value. Some addresses are beautiful but they are not situated in the CBD. To begin with, do some research on the definition of CBD within the city of interest. A good street name should read well and corporate, and it is better to be a main street in the CBD. Your client may probably be more familiar with the name of a main street than a side street. A bad pick for Virtual Office will be a street name in example of "Battery Road" or "Temple Street" because your clientele will largely be baffled by the purpose and architecture of the locality if they have not visited the area before. Choose a good main street address and pick a building with the best brand and exclusivity. Lastly, do remember to avoid selecting the ground storey because that is usually a retail store or a number that presumes bad luck among your clientele. Number 13 remains a bad-luck number in the west while some asians may accept it as good luck.

b. Brand and Exclusivity

Brand and Exclusivity of a Virtual Office is a huge focal point in the selection process for a good business address. A location that is branded and exclusive returns a higher value back to you in terms of business identity. A building may have a good name to it and may only allow certain businesses to operate in them - this creates exclusivity and greatly adds value to you when you purchase an available Virtual Office service from there.

c. Buy from a Serviced Office provider

Next, look out for a Serviced Office provider to purchase Virtual Office services. A company that only offers pure Virtual Office service to you and hundreds of other clients may be detrimental to your business identity. Once the business address becomes synonymous to 'Virtual Office' through marketing and events, there is no more value in the business identity it is supposed to provide to you. And subsequently, your business presence will indeed become Virtual in the impressions of your clients.

On the other hand, a tenant in a Serviced Office pays more for rental / services than renting an independent office. It is more advantageous to possess a business identity likewise to being a tenant in a Serviced Office than an Obvious Virtual Presence. There are many Serviced Offices who can also provide Virtual Office solutions. Check out the solutions that they can provide for you and eventually, you will be able to find something that works for you.

d. Services

The common services of a Virtual Office provider consist of a mailing address and mail forwarding services. Some providers may also offer mail notification service. You may find extra value in providers who can provide meeting room or conference room with projector systems or video conferencing systems. These facilities shall come in useful if there is a need for you to hold meetings at the address of your virtual office. Look out for providers that offer you complimentary meeting room hours in their Virtual Office packages.

To complete a business identity for your Virtual Office, there are 2 last important services that you may require - providing your clients the means of communication with your company at your Virtual Office address. Here are the essential services:

- A dedicated phone/voice line that forwards incoming calls to you automatedly and 24/7

- A dedicated fax line that forward incoming faxes to your email address

Strike a balance between all 4 criteria before making a BUY decision. You may have more criteria in mind but this is just a reference for your information. Do rest assure though, that a Virtual Office package is meant to save you costs and effort in running a physical office while giving you an important business presence. Do not hesitate to make a purchase once a package fits your need, it will be money well-spent.

Thank you for your perusal.

In MILLENNO We ensure our clients that we meet the selection criteria mentioned in here and in previous pages.

We look forward to serving you soon.