Posts Tagged ‘Virtual’

So, 2010 is going to be a big year for you! You’ve decided it’s time to step up and into your own small home based business – but you want to make sure you get it right so you don’t suffer financially, right? It’s common knowledge that many small business start-ups fail quite quickly, and home based businesses are no exception. There are many reasons why home based businesses fail. Here are just two things that can contribute to the failure of a home based business:

Inability to attract clients – particularly corporate ones – due to a perception of the business as a small home based operation; Poor customer service including a failure to respond to prospective clients in a timely and professional manner, leading to a loss of business;

If you’ve done your market research and you’re confident you have sufficient funds to survive the early growth stages of your business you’re well on the way to success. The next step is to ensure that your business appears professional and that you’re able to attract good clients and communicate with them in a professional manner. A New York virtual office can help you with that – and from as little as $25 a month!

With a New York virtual office from VH International Business Solutions you can:

Have a physical New York office address for your business. The address can be used on your business cards and clients can send mail to you at the address. Any walk in clients will be able to leave a message for you at our staffed reception area. Have a New York telephone number. Calls to your New York virtual office number can be forwarded to you or to a message bank. Alternatively, you can arrange to have a live operator answer all your calls during business hours and take messages personally. Arrange meetings or presentations at your New York location – we have meeting rooms and offices available for short term hire at inexpensive rates. That means that when you need to be “at the office” physically, you can be.

You might be years away from being able to afford office rental in New York – and perhaps you don’t aspire to that at all – but a New York virtual office from VH International Business Solutions can give you many of the benefits of a great office address without the expense, or the need to travel to the office!

It’s going to be a big year for you! You’ve decided it’s time to step up and into your own small home based business – but you want to make sure you get it right so you don’t suffer financially, right? It’s common knowledge that many small business start-ups fail quite quickly, and home based businesses are no exception. There are many reasons why home based businesses fail. Here are just two things that can contribute to the failure of a home based business:

Inability to attract clients – particularly corporate ones – due to a perception of the business as a small home based operation;
Poor customer service including a failure to respond to prospective clients in a timely and professional manner, leading to a loss of business;

If you’ve done your market research and you’re confident you have sufficient funds to survive the early growth stages of your business you’re well on the way to success. The next step is to ensure that your business appears professional and that you’re able to attract good clients and communicate with them in a professional manner. A NYC virtual office, from VH International Business Solutions, can help you with that – and from as little as $25 a month!

With a NYC virtual office you can:

Have a physical NYC office address for your business. The address can be used on your business cards and clients can send mail to you at the address. Any walk in clients will be able to leave a message for you at our staffed reception area.
Have a New York telephone number. Calls to your NYC virtual office number can be forwarded to you or to a message bank. Alternatively, you can arrange to have a live operator answer all your calls during business hours and take messages personally.
Arrange meetings or presentations at your New York location – we have meeting rooms and offices available for short term hire at inexpensive rates. That means that when you need to be “at the office” physically, you can be.

You might be years away from being able to afford office rental in New York – and perhaps you don’t aspire to that at all – but a NYC virtual office, from VH International Business Solutions, can give you many of the benefits of a great office address without the expense, or the need to travel to the office!

Contact VH International Solutions today, and start running your NYC Virtual Office tomorrow.

Let’s say the you live in Des Moines and you sell widgets online; you work from home and drop-ship the widgets to customers all throughout the world. All transactions are done online and you fill all your orders in your cut-off sweats and fuzzy slippers.

You’ve been thinking about expanding, looking to attract more widget consumers and markets.

How can you do that instantly? By opening a virtual office! You can go from a Des Moines based home business to having a business presence in a major metropolitan area instantly, for example: New York! Your company now has 2 locations!

Opening a virtual office in another country can also make you an international company instantly and open up the market for you to sell widgets everywhere.

Your clients can send payments, orders and correspondence to your NYC office – we’ll keep your mail safe and secure.

We know you aren’t going to sell defective widgets, but there may be the occasional wonky one, the one the quality inspector misses. Your clients can return those widgets to your virtual office via mail or in person. Your virtual office will ship them directly to you in accordance with your preferences. Our office is an extension of yours.

Need local fax and phone numbers to complete your business presence? No problem! We can get them setup for you in a few hours. You can have a live operator answer your calls, a machine answer your calls (voice mail) or we can even transfer your NYC phone calls to you in Des Moines. You can receive your 212 Manhattan faxes right in your email inbox.

Need to meet with a client or vendor in Manhattan? No problem. You can rent space to meet with clients on an as-needed basis. You can even have your lunch or breakfast meeting catered in the office.

Need a local hotel or restaurant recommendation? We can help you with ideas! Our knowledgeable staff is at your service. Our neighborhood is chock-full of first class hotels, chain hotels, and wonderful boutique hotels. Our neighborhood’s Michelin Stars sparkle amongst restaurants boasting top chefs, television chefs, and world renown chefs.

See how easy it is to open a virtual office… Keep doing what you are doing in Des Moines and we at VH International Business Solutions will handle your New York business presence.

Let’s say the you live in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and design websites. You work from home and serve customers throughout. Your orders are taken via on-line transactions and you design your clients website in your home office’s design studio.

However, you’ve been thinking about expanding into larger markets to attract new clientèle. How can you do that instantly?

Answer: By opening a virtual office!

You can go from a Coeur d’Alene based home business to having a business presence in a major metropolitan area instantly, for example: New York! Your company now has 2 locations! Imagine how snazzy a Manhattan office address would look on your website!

Opening a virtual office in another country can also make you an international company instantly and open up the market for you to sell your products and services beyond the US.

Need local fax and phone numbers to complete your business presence? No problem! VH International Business Solutions can get them setup for you in a few hours. You can also have a live operator answer your calls, a machine answer your calls (voice mail) or, we can even transfer your NYC phone calls to you in Coeur d’Alene. You can also receive your 212 Manhattan faxes right in your email in-box.

Need to meet with a client or vendor in Manhattan? No problem. You can rent a fully equipped, fully furnished private office or conference room to meet with clients on an as-needed basis. You can even have your lunch or breakfast meeting catered in the office.

Need a local hotel or restaurant recommendation? We can help you with ideas! Our knowledgeable staff is at your service. Our neighborhood is chock-full of first-class hotels, chain hotels and wonderful boutique hotels. Our neighborhood’s Michelin Stars sparkle amongst restaurants boasting top chefs, celebrity chefs, and world renown chefs.

See how easy it is to open a virtual office… Keep doing what you are doing in Coeur d’Alene and we at VH International Business Solutions will handle your New York business presence.

It’s going to be a big year for you! You’ve decided it’s time to step up and into your own small home based business – but you want to make sure you get it right so you don’t suffer financially, right? It’s common knowledge that many small business start-ups fail quite quickly, and home based businesses are no exception. There are many reasons why home based businesses fail. Here are just two things that can contribute to the failure of a home based business:

Inability to attract clients – particularly corporate ones – due to a perception of the business as a small home based operation;
Poor customer service including a failure to respond to prospective clients in a timely and professional manner, leading to a loss of business;

If you’ve done your market research and you’re confident you have sufficient funds to survive the early growth stages of your business you’re well on the way to success. The next step is to ensure that your business appears professional and that you’re able to attract good clients and communicate with them in a professional manner. A New York virtual office can help you with that – and from as little as $25 a month!

With a New York virtual office from VH International Business Solutions you can:

Have a physical New York office address for your business. The address can be used on your business cards and clients can send mail to you at the address. Any walk in clients will be able to leave a message for you at our staffed reception area.
Have a New York telephone number. Calls to your New York virtual office number can be forwarded to you or to a message bank. Alternatively, you can arrange to have a live operator answer all your calls during business hours and take messages personally.
Arrange meetings or presentations at your New York location – we have meeting rooms and offices available for short term hire at inexpensive rates. That means that when you need to be “at the office” physically, you can be.

You might be years away from being able to afford office rental in New York – and perhaps you don’t aspire to that at all – but a New York virtual office from VH International Business Solutions can give you many of the benefits of a great office address without the expense, or the need to travel to the office!

We’ll be posting many more case studies within the next few weeks answering the question: How can our New York Virtual Office service help your growing business?

With our virtual office service, you can literally run your business from anywhere in the World and still have a fully operational, fully staffed office in New York. Your business will have a physical office address in an actual Corporate Office Business Center – not an obscure PO Box or made-up suite number in a simple mailbox operation. Hence, if one of your clients happens to show up at our office, they will be greeted by a receptionist in a pleasant and professional workplace in the trendy Flatiron District on Broadway! Yup, Broadway… The Great White Way! Having a physical New York City office address on Broadway can help bolster your business image. Everyone knows Broadway… It’s a World renown NYC thoroughfare!

If you need to physically meet with your clients, we will be ready for you! With meeting space located directly at your virtual office address (keep in mind that you may be using the address virtually, but it’s a full fledged brick and mortar operation!). The meeting space is equipped with a computer workstation with all the latest software and a nice big flat screen monitor; wifi internet connection, so you can connect directly with your laptop, internet phone, or other wireless device; a contemporary conference table with black leather seating for 5; a 4′ x 6′ whiteboard, with a colorful variety of markers and eraser; easel with a pad – you can use the easel for your presentation or use the Post-it brand easel pad with plethora of presentation markers; stereo speakers and an 84″ x 84″ projection screen. Have your presentation on your laptop? Then we have a state of the art projector available for you to project on our 9′ x 9′ screen. All of the artwork in our facilities are by a World renowned artist. You’ve seen his work!

While in the office, you will have a knowledgeable administrative assistant assigned to your meeting to assist with administrative support, supplies, technical help, digital projector setup, printing, copying, water service, catering, lunch recommendations, car service, transportation bookings, etc. Just like in any fully functional and staffed office.

VH International Business Solutions has been doing this since 1990, so rest assured, you and your business will be well taken care of.

It’s no secret that small business operators often try to make themselves look bigger. It’s a matter of survival really. Corporate clients are often reluctant to deal with a one person business, particularly one that appears to be run from home or purely online.

Many online and home based business operators have only a post office box at best – and this can raise doubt as to their credibility – no one works out of a box. Prospective clients who find your business online will often first look to see if you have a street address. If you don’t, it raises the concern in their mind that if you don’t do the right thing by them, you can ignore their communications and they have no means of getting hold of you. It’s enough to make them leave your site and search for competitors who do have a street address.

There’s no doubt about it – having a street address gives your business credibility.

Likewise, corporate folk can be reluctant to deal with a one-person business because there’s a perception that if you were successful, surely you’d be bigger!

If you don’t want to work from a professional office address or you simply can’t justify the expense of renting city office space, but you need the credibility of having an office address then a virtual office in a major city can be the perfect answer.

A NYC virtual office from VH International Business Solutions can give you the appearance and credibility of a larger business at a cost of less than $30 a month. And you can still work from home, wherever that may be! Your virtual office will forward mail and telephone messages to you.

If your business is based in the country – or even overseas – and you already have a street address, you can give your business a boost by adding a NYC office address.

When the cost of a virtual office, from VH International Business Solutions, for an entire month is about the same as one good meal, and it could improve your business turnover, it’s difficult to come up with a reason not to give it a go!

How can a Virtual Office help you?

Case Study: Suzanne
Type of Business: International Business Consultant
Location: Dubai, UAE; USA
Services: New York Virtual Office Business Address Rental, Mail Handling, Overseas Mail Forwarding, 212 Manhattan Phone with Email Forwarding of Messages

Suzanne is an international business consultant.  She was contracted over three years ago with an offer she couldn’t refuse by a company in Dubai. The only problem was that she would have to be in Dubai within the end of the month for a few months at first with the understanding that she would eventually have to relocate there for a contractual 3-year term.

Suzanne immediately started to work on her temporary move. She was overwhelmed with the necessary steps to take, knowing that she only had a couple of weeks to get her ducks in a row before her initial 3-month stint in Dubai.

Advised by her business associates, Suzanne turned to VH International Business Solutions for help. She opened a New York Virtual Office and a 212 New York phone number with email forwarding of incoming voice messages. Her initial instructions were to have her mail forwarded sporadically and on demand to Dubai during her temporary stay; then once a month after she made her 3-year relocation.

Having no time to get in touch with everyone on her contact list, Suzanne opted to have all of her mail forwarded to her new New York office address. She also hired a property manager to work on the sub-rental of her residence and moving her belongings into storage.

Within 6 weeks of opening her account, she emailed VH International Business Solutions’ customer service department to request to have her first batch of mail forwarded to her in Dubai. Knowing that there were many important documents having to do with her permanent relocation, she requested to have her first batch of mail forwarded via courier. To Suzanne’s delight, her package arrived safety and within a few days after leaving New York.

Suzanne’s 3-year project in Dubai is coming to an end – and she’s getting ready to move back to the States within a few months. She still gets her pack of mail from VH International Business Solutions once a month.

Suzanne is thrilled with the level of service received and still can’t believe how easy it was to manage her presence in the United States, while still being on the other side of the world.

Sadly, yet understandably, we’ll only have Suzanne as a virtual office client for just few more months after she moves back to the United States. It was a pleasure having her as a client and are equally excited to continually serve the additional 2 clients she has since referred to VH International Business Solutions.

Thank you Suzanne, and good luck.

Previous Case Studies:

Carlos, His Translation Company and a Manhattan Virtual Office
Sela the Graphic Artist and a New York Virtual Office
Ken the CPA and a NYC Virtual Office
Leonard, Kiara, Their Medical Placement Agency and a NYC Virtual Office
Siobhanne, Her Talent Agency and a NYC Virtual Office
James, His Law Firm and a NYC Virtual Office
Donald, His Publishing Company and a NY Virtual Office
Kris, Erica, Their Artist Management Firm and a NY Virtual Office

How can VH International Business Solutions help you?

Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant (outsourced employee) can increaseproductivity, reduce costs and save you and your company time. Virtual Assistants, also known as VA’s, have been around for more than 10 years and in this day and age, utilize the technology era. They are highly qualified, educated and experienced people who basically can perform all of the same skills that traditional in-house staff provides. Many VA’s are College or University educated in business and office administration with work experience in an office setting.

We recommend a simple 3 step formula for determining what duties to assign an outsourced employee. First and foremost should be revenue producing functions. Simply write a list of what they should be. These include: appointment setting, cross-selling your existing customers on additional products and services (very important), telesales to new prospective customers, follow up sales calls on old leads that never closed, email blasting to generate new leads, internet sales, sending out online newsletters to existing clients, search engine optimization, blogging, article writing, handling your social networking (Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, etc), updating your website with fresh content and articles, there are over 50,000 free classified advertising sites on the internet other than Craigslist.org they can post these ads for your business, and much more.

Secondly, are the revenue retaining activities. These include: customer service, technical support (online and on the phone), internet “live chat” on your website, invoicing, billing, taking phone payments, collections, sending out birthday or thank you cards and gifts to clients, fulfilling client information requests and more.

Third and last, are the non-revenue producing functions. These include: book-keeping, accounting, payroll, data entry, document and contract preparation, programming, research, answering your emails and cleaning up your inbox, scheduling and managing your calendar, acting as an answering service, fulfilling information requests from prospective clients, office management, employee scheduling, presentation preparation, making travel arrangements, desktop publishing, computer training, medical/legal transcription and more.

The benefits of outsourcing to a qualified VA are plentiful. VA’s use their own equipment so there is no wear and tear on your office equipment or a need for special equipment. By outsourcing to a VA rather than hiring an in-office assistant, you will never need to pay employment insurance, vacation pay, sick pay, or contribute to retirement plans and worker’s compensation.

There is no cost for training new or existing employees; VA’s are already qualified. There is no need for extra office space; VA’s do everything off location. There’s no need to worry about in-office employees requesting time off; VA’s are available when you need them. Like you, a quality outsourcing firm understands the needs of businesses today, ensuring the success of their clients. A good outsourcing firm values each and every client; it is because of these clients that they ensure your VA’s will aid in the success of your business.

How else can outsourcing to a VA save you money? VA’s are pre-trained and experienced individuals with the ability to catch mistakes made in-office, not only saving your business money but also protecting your business reputation.

And for those in-office employees that you cannot go without, a VA can take a little of the never-ending workload or less-important projects off their shoulders to ensure you, as a successful business, maintain your quality reputation and increase employee productivity.

So the question really should be, “why didn’t I do this years ago?”

We’ll be posting many more case studies within the next few weeks answering the question: How can your New York Virtual Office service help my growing business? Doug and Suzanne are the latest to share their virtual office success stories. They should be this site within a couple of weeks.

As a reflection – if you haven’t opened your virtual office yet – you may be running your business from Chicago, Moscow, Mississippi or Hong Kong. With a virtual office service only you will know you are not located in New York. Your business will have an actual street address in an actual Corporate Office Business Center. Not an obscure PO Box or a fake suite number in a mailbox operation (BEWARE OF THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIRTUAL OFFICES BUT ARE IN FACT MAILBOXES!). If a one of your clients show up at our office, they will be greeted by a receptionist in a pleasant and professional workplace in the trendy Flatiron District. Right on Broadway! Yup – THAT Broadway. THE Broadway! Having a physical New York City office address on Broadway can help bolster your business image. Everyone knows Broadway! It’s an instantly recognizable address!

When you need to meet with your clients, we will be ready for you! With meeting space located directly at your virtual office address. (Please keep in mind that you may be using the address virtually, but it’s a full fledged brick and mortar operation!) The meeting space is equipped with a computer workstation with all the latest software and a nice big flat screen monitor; wifi internet connection, so you can connect directly with your laptop, internet phone, or other wireless device; a maple toned conference table with black leather seating for 5; a 4′ x 6′ whiteboard, with a colorful variety of markers and eraser; easel with a pad – you can use the easel for your presentation or use the Post-it brand easel pad with plethora of presentation markers; stereo speakers and an 84″ x 84″ projection screen. Have your presentation on your laptop? Then we have a state of the art projector available for you to project on our 9′ x 9′ screen. All of the artwork in our facilities are by a world renowned artist. You’ve seen his work!

While you are at the office, you will have a knowledgeable administrative assistant assigned to your meeting to assist with administrative support, supplies, technical help, digital projector setup, printing, copying, water service, catering, lunch recommendations, car service and transportation booking, etc.

You and your business are in good hands – VH International Business Solutions has been doing this since 1990.  Checkout the Case Study category on our blog to see all of our Virtual Office Case Studies.