Written by Liam Murphy | 27 July 2011

Remember the last time you were stuck inside an elevator, waiting in line for a coffee or on the subway, and had to make idle small talk with a stranger? Instead of talking about the weather, it might have been the perfect opportunity to bring in some business. It's time to perfect your 60 second pitch and the following tips will help you do that;

The Right Audience

Pitch to the right audience. You don't have much time, so you'll have to use your judgement by observing how the person is dressed and their body language. You might need to use different pitches to different types of people.

Short & Sweet

Ensure that your speech stays short and sweet. Make sure you cut out all the unnecessary details and get to the point. It is essential that you make your message sound as smooth as possible so describe your business in one or two sentences and then explain its unique selling proposition in one or two sentences.

Offer a Solution

People want to invest in something that will make life easier for them. Explain how your product, service or business does this and give a quick example to make it easier to understand.

Written by Liam Murphy | 17 January 2011

For those that do not know, LinkedIn is the fastest growing social network aimed mainly at working professionals. Today, there are more than 14 million professionals that make use of the website as a means of furthering their growth in the professional world. In short, what Facebook is to the normal user, LinkedIn is to a business professional.

If you own a small business, you know just how very important it is to be able to generate leads. In fact, a recent survey conducted showed that growing one’s business and finding the right vendors is the toughest task associated with any small business. The following are some ways in which you can make use of LinkedIn as a means of further attracting business and venture deals.

Grow your business by ensuring that your LinkedIn profile is 100% complete

The best way to ensure the continued growth of your business is through satisfied customers. Although it is possible to increase awareness through word of mouth, this has very limited outreach. To really garner the benefits of satisfied customers, ensure that you have such customers linked to your LinkedIn profile. Such published recommendations would be broadcasted to everyone on the LinkedIn network.

Remember to care for those who care about your business

Although there are many social networking websites present on the internet, they are usually flooded with status updates. As such, your business would not be foremost in the minds of customers. However, this is not the case with LinkedIn as since its main forecast is business, there are much fewer status updates and as such you can be sure that your business would remain on top of one’s mind. If you have a Twitter account, you can harness the benefit of both by syncing your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

Written by Liam Murphy | 10 December 2010

Meet Sarah. A few months back, she thought of initiating a business and was overjoyed at the thought of establishing her own company. She had a great business idea, a well laid out plan and the passion and skill to execute it. After getting the initial idea up and running, she realized that working out of her home didn’t give the right impression to her customers but with limited resources, she couldn’t afford her own office space. She knew that this would be a huge setback for her business.

Luckily, she discovered the concept of virtual offices. They were perfect for her business with a premier address in the CBD, a dedicated phone number with a professional receptionist to answer her calls, and access to meeting rooms for her all important client meetings.

Going online, she was able to search for and find the virtual office that was easily accessible from her location, at the right price for her limited budget and had the professional standard of service that she expected. She signed up and was operational within an hour and was amazed that clients calling in would be greeted by her professional receptionist using her own company name! She was also thankful of the options that her virtual office offered for dealing with her mail. When she dropped into the location, the décor was elegant and definitely gave the impression that she wanted for her business. Her clients were also very impressed and that alone was priceless.

All of Sarah’s expectations had been exceeded with her virtual office. Now she could focus on what was important; running the business and making sales.

Does Sarah’s experience resonate with you? Our virtual office directory at Virtual Office Sales is one of the largest on the web, giving you the best selection and making it easy to find the right virtual office for your business.

Written by Liam Murphy | 28 October 2010

Congratulations! Now that you have a great business idea and you are ready to start your business, you obviously would like to spend only where necessary and cut down on your expenses where possible. Every new business needs bootstrapping techniques.

One necessary expense that can eat into your budget is renting your own office. You could compromise and decide not to go for that elite office address or not to hire that impressive trained receptionist. You might think that it’s your business idea that is most important, but you need to project the right impression to your investors, clients and partners. This can only be carried forward with the right office address and a professional receptionist to answer your calls with a good phone manner. The good news is that you can do this without having to spend all that you have. A virtual office is the smartest way get to get a prime address, professional receptionist and access to meeting rooms (possibly in a number of global locations).

Before you make a rushed decision about which virtual office you’re going to sign up for, it’s best to keep a few concepts in your mind. When selecting a virtual office, the description of the service they provide and the features that they offer, can easily lure you in and can also make the experience an overwhelming one.

Written by Liam Murphy | 20 September 2010

Going to most Virtual Office provider web sites can be daunting. I have noticed a lot of Jargon and or feeling overwhelmed with the different types of technology and software that is advertised. It can sound pretty impressive but what will it actually do for you?

When considering a Virtual Office I suggest you make a list of the top 5 reasons why you want one and what you want it to do for you ( forward post, answer calls etc)

Always make sure you have this to hand before you make a virtual office enquiry. This will prevent you from being sold something you don’t want or understand.

Most companies will do a demo for you. I certainly wouldn’t sign up for a service with a provider who won’t do a demo for you, if you have asked for one. If you know you aren’t the most tech savvy person then maybe pop into their office and get them to do a demo in person. Then go home and TEST TEST TEST before your clients do. Make sure it’s working how you want it before you advertise the office details.

Don’t let your new Virtual Office ruin your Business’s first impression.

Written by Liam Murphy | 11 July 2010

Having worked in the serviced office and virtual office environment for many years I thought I’d let you know a few of my top tips for getting the most out of your Virtual Office.

Get personal

If you can, try and pop into your virtual office location every now and then. For your Virtual team, putting a face to a name goes a long way. You’ll definitely receive a much more personalized and courteous service.

Networking

Enquire about any networking events they run. It’s a great way to promote your business and meet potential clients or useful contacts

Negotiate the rates

When it comes to using services such as secretarial ask about high usage discounts. Maybe you can negotiate a rate for secretarial hours at a set amount each month and/or check their purchasing rates for any items you may need. Also, some Virtual Office companies have great corporate rates with suppliers and service providers and can pass on this discount to you…even after their mark up, it can still be cheaper than the street rate. It’s worth asking.

Explain your company

My final tip is to put together an A4 sheet of Bullet points detailing what your company does. Ask that the team members read this. They will appreciate the effort and it makes much more sense to have the people answering/forwarding your calls to have knowledge of what your company is about.

Written by Liam Murphy | 28 April 2010

I remember the days when I actually got to fly to other countries for meetings, but now with budget cutbacks and new enabling technologies, many of them are largely unnecessary. There's no doubt that technology has changed the way that we work.

So now, most of the meetings I go to (or should I say "attend") are in front of my computer. In these meetings, I'm usually looking at someone else's desktop and trying not to cut someone off mid-sentence when I want to say something. Although I've found the technology that allows you to have virtual meetings with people all over the world invaluable, I sometimes find it equally frustrating.

I've also found that people make the same mistakes when holding these meetings; mistakes that can be easily avoided.

Mistake 1: Anyone heard of mute?

I've lost count of the number of times that I've been in a virtual meeting when I either hear a participant talking to someone else that isn't in the meeting, or keys tapping as an attendee is secretly answering emails, or sometimes just annoying feedback (especially if there are multiple participants sitting next to each other with their phones on speaker). Please, make sure you've muted your phone if you don't need to speak.

Written by Liam Murphy | 23 March 2010

Once you're armed with a virtual office, you will have a prime business address, a local phone number with a sultry toned receptionist to answer your calls and meeting rooms that look sharp with every piece of technology you need. To your prospects, clients and partners, you will look like a business that's going places, and a company that's in control. However, before you pat yourself on the back too quickly, there may be something that you've overlooked. Your website!

For a large number of businesses, their clients will come across their website at some point in time. For a large proportion of them, it may even be their first contact with that company. Think about that. The first impression of your business by your clients could be formed through your website. That makes your website very important.

Depending on what business you're in, your website could also become a channel that you can get enquiries from or even make sales. By having a well optimized, usable and professional looking website, it can work like another member of your sales team, or even the top performing member of your sales team.

If you're starting a new business, you might not even have a website yet; or you may have a website that's just not quite right. Not to worry, here are some tips for creating a website that reflects the same professionalism of your business that your virtual office does.

Written by Liam Murphy | 09 March 2010

It's tempting to go down the path of a makeshift virtual office that you create yourself out of a number of disparate online systems and services to save on cost. For example, you can get a PO box for your address, a Skype phone number attached to a voicemail box and have your meetings at your client's offices (or Starbucks). If this sounds like your virtual office, you could be damaging your business and ultimately, selling yourself short.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't be on a budget when looking for a virtual office, especially when you're starting a new business. However, there are a few things you can look at to save on your virtual office, but overall, you might be surprised at how inexpensive a professional virtual office can be.

The importance of your business address depends on your business type and you can find a wide range of addresses in our directory, which vary in price. If you don't necessarily need a prime CBD location, you might want to opt for a less expensive address in the outskirts of a city. Just remember that the address you're at contributes to the image that your business projects.

Written by Liam Murphy | 16 February 2010

A virtual office can be the support and infrastructure that you need for your business but choosing the wrong one can end up being a hindrance rather than a blessing. Your needs for a virtual office can differ dramatically from the next persons, especially with the broad range of services that are now available under the term 'virtual office.

The first step in choosing the right virtual office for you is to understand and identify your need. What are the services that would support your business? You should ask questions like;

Is making a good first impression critical for your business?

Do you need to have client meetings at the virtual office location?

Do you need to work at the virtual office location?

What do you need from your receptionist?

Once you have an idea of what kind of services that you're looking for, when searching for your virtual office, here are some points that you should think about.

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Written by Liam Murphy | 11 February 2010

Virtual Offices is a relatively new concept which is enabled through modern technology allowing companies to keep costs down without affecting public perception of their business and their brand. Virtual Offices have also allowed small start-ups to appear as though they are a big business, which gives the small business owner a helping hand in starting their company and making it successful.

1. Low Cost

One of the greatest benefits of using a virtual office is the low-cost nature of the service. In a time when real estate costs are soaring, a virtual office gives an alternative allowing a company to have a prime address in the CBD without any of the overheads and costs.

2. Prestigious Address

The ability to have a prestigious address leads onto a second benefit, which is the perception that your company isn't just a one horse show and has the funds to be located at a great address. Client's will perceive that your company is a highly successful business and will be more likely to want to do business with you.

Written by Liam Murphy | 07 February 2010

It can be challenging to work together while being physically in different continents, but it has become more and more popular to use virtual teams, where everyone is in their own virtual office, no matter what type of organization you’re either running or work for. It isn’t necessary any more for colleagues to all sit in the same place.

To be successful cultivating your virtual team, you and every person in the team needs to understand that they are there to fulfill a requirement, meet a target and reach a goal. They all should have a purpose. At the same time, like in a normal office, team members need to build relationships with one another. Even if they’re not together physically you still should have meetings. Just have them over the phone or with web conferencing tools. Share your desktop so that everyone is looking at the same notes, documents or presentation. Give everyone the opportunity to participate.

With virtual teams, its easy for individual team members to feel isolated since they may be on their own anyway, working from home. To minimize this, you should make sure that the team is interacting with one another on a regular basis. Give them shared goals and targets that they need to work as a team to achieve. Make sure that you give them deadlines as well. It’s easy not to feel pressure when you’re working on your own at home, but with some tight deadlines you can give a healthy amount of pressure for them to achieve.

Written by Liam Murphy | 01 February 2010

Starting a new business without any resources or employees doesn’t mean that you need to do everything yourself. There are lots of people out there that you can utilize for any type of project and you can get them at great rates. In fact, there are a lot of benefits to using freelancers to complete your projects as you get a level of flexibility that you wouldn’t get if you were to hire full-time resources. This means that you can get the right skills for particular projects or tasks without the overhead.

You may be thinking that it’s going to be a hassle finding these freelancers but you’d be surprised how easy it is. The Internet has made it easy and it’s become even easier with the introduction of new sites that give you the tools to advertise your project or job, interview, engage and track freelancers.

Originally, when looking for this type of resource on the web, I would scour relevant forums, which would usually have a section for people offering their services. An example of this is Digital Point Forums, where you can find people to help you with your website marketing. You would then contact them through the forum using a private message and pay them using Paypal. However, there is no protection for the employer or employee.

Written by Liam Murphy | 20 January 2010

So you're starting a new business. You have a business plan (or maybe just an idea) , the motivation and maybe even some capital. You don't really want to spend lots of money renting office space and you don't think you need it just yet, but at the same time you still want to look professional to your potential clients.

A virtual office can mean different things to different people depending on what requirements they may have. With a virtual office, technically, the actual office is wherever you are and with the ever evolving new technology that is available now, you can run your business from just about anywhere. So your office can be your house, car, in an airport, by the swimming pool or at the beach.

Usually, your office would be based at home and so to make this work you need to have a great environment set up. This could be a quiet study or room where you aren't distracted. I used to work at home on a regular basis and I would tell people that the decisions I made ended up being whether to watch television or play Playstation. Needless to say, I didn't have a good environment that was conducive to work.