The concept of the traditional workplace is changing so rapidly that it’s nearly impossible to define what’s considered normal anymore. With enhanced connectivity solutions, many businesses are finding there’s little need for a brick and mortar location anymore. Thus, the virtual office is born. If you’re ready to reconsider the way you do business, a virtual workplace may be the perfect solution.
Where Do Virtual Offices Exist?
You can set up a virtual office anywhere that you have the connectivity required to complete your job. For most people, this means a reliable Internet connection and phone service. However, you can use mobile technology for both, allowing you to work from a virtual office in your home, on a train, at a hotel, or on the beach.
Location Considerations
Most people who work from a virtual office have one location that they use more than others. This is most commonly a home office, though it could be a favorite coffee shop, coworking space, or public library. Wherever your primary work space is, it’s important that you choose a location conducive to your work habits. This typically means a quiet space with minimal interruptions.
When you’re selecting and setting up a virtual office, make sure you choose an environment that mimics the very best parts of an office environment, such as a comfortable chair and spacious desk. Meanwhile, you can work to minimize the less desirable aspects of a traditional work space. If you hate fluorescent lighting or being isolated from sunlight and fresh air, make sure your primary virtual office space has lots of natural light and a window that opens to fresh clean air.
Virtual Office Technology
The virtual office would be impossible without today’s advanced technology solutions. Though your virtual office may be just steps from your bedroom, it’s still important to give a professional impression to your clients. This means setting up a reliable Internet connection that lets you access essential online systems quickly and efficiently.
You will also need a professional phone system that provides callers with the response they expect when reaching out to a small business. You can set up a professional phone number for your business that’s routed to whichever phone you’re nearest to. This will give your office the distinction of its own phone number while providing you with the convenience of call routing to your home office, cell phone, or another convenient number. You can change the routing day by day to accommodate your moving virtual office.
Collaborating with a Virtual Office
While some virtual office workers are self-employed and work alone, others need to collaborate regularly with others in their field to complete projects effectively. Working virtually doesn’t have to mean isolation when you’re smart about how you get things done. Cloud computing makes it easier than ever to collaborate remotely, even allowing multiple contributors to work on a single document at once.
If you’re planning on setting up your own virtual office, cloud storage is an important element. Saving documents to the cloud, you can access them from anywhere. While most mobile workers will have a laptop that travels with them, this also gives you the flexibility to pull up documents with a different device, such as a tablet or smartphone. Virtual offices are nothing if not flexible.
If you’re getting ready to work remotely, your virtual office will exist anywhere you’re settled in and taking care of business. It can exist in the form of phone calls redirected seamlessly to your mobile phone while you’re on the road, or through cloud collaboration from your laptop set up in a plush hotel suite. The options are endless, which is the very point and purpose of choosing this flexible lifestyle. A virtual office is virtually anything that you want it to be.
