Virtual Offices
Virtual Offices Generate Media Buzz
Published January 6th, 2009 by Jennifer LeClaire
Yesterday, I wrote about a real estate broker in Lakeland, Fla. who was venturing into the virtual office business to diversity his revenue stream in a down commercial real estate market.
Wouldn’t you know it? Today I heard about Denver business owners looking to virtual offices to cut costs. Call it a bona fide nationwide trend.
ABC’s Channel 7 News in Denver tells the story of companies battening down the hatches on expenses – and sometimes that begins with office space. The star of the show is Intelligent Office. It’s founder, Ralph Gregory, explained how when revenue drops companies begin looking at expenses and ways to cut them.
Saving Dollars Makes Good Sense
The option Gregory would love for more Denver businesses to consider is telecommuting employees tapping into the technologies his virtual office company provides.
(We’ll look at Intelligent Office a little more closely in another post. Right now, let’s stay focused on our Denver TV news piece.)
Denver companies like HML Training Systems decided the virtual office concept was perfect. Its founder, Hugh Liddle, only needs to be in bricks-and-mortar office space a few times a month for seminars.
Liddle pointed to the value of virtual office space, noting that it would cost him twice as much to rent a hotel or conference center for those meetings as it does to tap Intelligent Office’s service all month long.
The Virtual Office Media Opportunity
I know how the media is – I’m part of it. We’re going to see more and more virtual office stories featured in newspapers, magazines and television stations across the nation.
This is a real opportunity for companies in this space, as well as the serviced office space, to do some publicity around their products and services. They could even pitch the story to the local market. Listen up virtual office space providers. Don’t miss this opportunity.
As for the business owner side of the equation, serviced office space and virtual office space is a good deal in any economy. No matter whether you are in New York, Los Angeles, Miami or some small town on the backside of nowhere, it’s going to cost you less than 15 percent of the traditional office rental fee to tap into virtual office services.
Can you see why the news media is picking up on this? It’s a good story for everybody in any economy. But this is the virtual office provider’s opportunity to shine.
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Marcus Hester January 7th, 2009 at 5:49 am
I’m not surprised to see Intelligent Office smack dab in the middle of a story about virtual offices. This is a solid company — and it has a strong presence in Denver.
Jennifer is right. The ABC exposure is publicity you can’t even pay for — and it’s good for the whole industry. This is the time to educate the market on the benefits of the executive office suite model in a major way and the media is the perfect vehicle.
Maggie Correta January 7th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Virtual offices certainly have their place. Notice, it’s always small businesses and entrepreneurs using these services. Execs who work for corporate America have these services on the inside. And that’s exactly the point.
Virtual offices can help to level the playing field — at least on the communications front — for mobile professionals. The bootstrapping entrepreneur traveling from city to city to meet with investors, make megadeals or otherwise conduct business can tap into the same level of communications services as his big wig counterparts.
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Elizabeth Sanchez January 8th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Getting local TV coverage is huge. Congratulations, first of all, to Intelligent Office for scoring that.
Virtual offices are going to become the buzzword of commercial real estate in 2009. It’s what some folks would call an overnight success — but it’s hardly that. Virtual offices have been around for a long time but this spotlight is on now.
I imagine it’s the same with serviced offices, but virtual offices have that ultimate flexibility and cost advantage that other office space doesn’t.
Rob Zeus January 8th, 2009 at 6:38 am
The current market is a perfect storm, in a positive sense, for virtual offices.
You’ve got entrepreneurs trying to launch new businesses based on opportunities they see in a down economy. You’ve got a credit crunch that’s stymieing start-ups. You’ve got a low tolerance for risk.
Virtual offices solve all those problems. It’s fascinating to watch the industry get so much attention. I hope it continues when the economy recovers.
Melanie Jones January 9th, 2009 at 6:26 am
I don’t know much about Lakeland or its commercial office space. But I know its’ a relatively small town.
However, I looked on its economic development web site and the city claims 8.6 million people within a 100 mile radius.
Wow. That’s significant. That means mobile professionals could be working this central Florida region from home office, but tap into virtual office services and use the meeting rooms when needed. I bet Baron will be successful here.