A Better Virtual – USA Virtual Offices

Job flexibility and teleworking go hand in hand. Indeed, allowing employees to work outside the traditional confines of corporate office space is driving big benefits for companies of all sizes (read: attracting the best and brightest talent and cutting bottom line overhead, two name two of the many advantages.)

Cloud Virtual Office is helping drive alternative workplace strategies to the fore within the small business and start-up community that’s looking to boost professionalism while slashing costs, spur the distributed workforce trend, increase flexibility, outsource non-core activities, encourage telecommuting and, of course, foster a green workforce.

Cloud Virtual Offices has authored a free report dubbed “The Virtual Business Model: Technology & The Cloud Business Age” that offers companies of all sizes information they need to tap into the benefits of the workforce of the future—and the alternative workplaces of today. The report outlines the many advantages of teleworking from a virtual office.

Here’s one scenario to consider: In some areas of the United States, geography and climate may prevent workers from getting to the office. Think blizzards and hurricanes, to be more specific. When you adopt teleworking, you are keeping workers safe by allowing them to work from home using virtual office technologies. You are also showing consideration for the general population by not forcing employees to weather poor conditions, which could lead to greater public safety hazards. Finally, you are saving many non-productive hours that would be spent trying to navigate blocked roadways in bad weather.

Cloud Virtual is one of many virtual office companies that can come to the rescue in those situations. But virtual offices aren’t just for natural disasters. Companies like Cloud Virtual offer clients conference rooms, telephone communications, client reception, mail service and advanced messaging, and live telephone operators all for a small fee in good times and bad. And the benefits are measurable as study after study prove the cost savings and productivity hikes associated with teleworking.

OK, so it’s not Beverly Hills 90210… but 90212 is pretty darn close.

Opus Virtual Offices just launched a new virtual office project in Beverly Hills, Calif. The zip code: 90212. It’s an address that speaks of success for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and anyone else that wants to impress clients with a high-profile business image.

Indeed, this is a great location for movers and shakers. The 90212 virtual office is surrounded by world-class shopping, hotels, and restaurants. A business with a Beverly Hills presence immediately communicates a first-class image of luxury, competence, quality, and trendiness to its customers.

“Opus is always expanding into new markets so that we can keep offering our business clients the finest corporate presence possible,” says Yori Galel, CEO of Opus Virtual Offices. “But this time these clients have been absolutely thrilled to hear they can have a prime Beverly Hills address that costs only $99 a month.”

To be sure, $99 a month is a good price for a Beverly Hills address. You can easily find providers that charge more than that. But Opus has built a reputation on value with a low-cost program that offers virtual offices in small, second tier cities and large metros alike for an affordable price. At the new Beverly Hill address, you may even see a few celebrities when you go into the brick-and-mortar facility for client meetings.

In case you aren’t familiar with the Opus virtual office system, here’s what you can expect. You’ll tap into a choice of impressive corporate mailing addresses with local phone and fax. You’ll also enjoy state-of-the-art digital technology that provides advanced communications services such as fax and voicemail that convert to e-mail, and premium call forwarding. If you want to boost your image even more, you can opt for a live professional receptionist to answer customer calls and route messages during all business hours. The Beverly Hills project is one of Opus’ more than 400 locations across the country.

Here are a few other providers that also offer virtual office space in Beverly Hills:

• ABC Virtual Offices
• Davinci Virtual
• Virtual Office Centers
• Cloud Virtual Office
• Global Business Centers
• FGS Business Centers
• Regus
• Premier Business Centers
• United Virtual Office

Be sure to compare and contrast addresses, meeting room rates and availability, and the monthly costs and contractual requirements of your virtual office provider before signing on the dotted line.

Looking for a virtual assistant? Why not try going to the Web site where they are all searching for jobs?

VirtualAssistantJobs101.com just went live with a new Web site that aims to help unemployed service-skilled works discover and land hourly or project-based virtual assistant gigs they can do from their very own virtual office.

Brian Scott, the site’s founder, defines “service-skilled people” as those who have backgrounds in customer service, office assistance, doing administrative tasks, and/or servicing employers or clients to increase sales or improve product branding.

Here’s how it works: Every day, VirtualAssistantJobs101.com editors scour the Internet and handpick legitimate job opportunities. If you are looking for a virtual assistant, you can post your needs on the sister site, Freelance Job Openings. That’s one of the places from which the editors gather the job opportunities for virtual assistants.

For virtual assistants, the site offers fairly simple navigation. VAs just click on a specific job discipline to find the best-matched opportunity. Job-hunting virtual assistants can also use the site’s search tool to narrow down specific remote, telecommute and “work at home” freelance jobs by keyword or job type.

Scott says many visitors that use VirtualAssistantJobs101.com are full-time and part-time virtual assistants—but a growing segment of the audience includes “fed-up” laid-off white-collar workers who want to use their existing skills to work for themselves.

“Working virtually, part-time, full-time, or on the side can provide many job opportunities to earn extra income,” says Scott. “More companies are outsourcing work to manage their workflow and cut internal costs in order to stay competitive.”

VirtualAssistantJobs101.com lists between 10 and 20 new virtual assistant jobs daily, ranging from quick “one-day” assignments to “week-long” projects, and in some cases, for an indefinite period of time as is such the case with customer service and medical coding jobs.

Regus recently came out with a survey that shows small business owners tend to work while on vacation. Could virtual services like Internet fax help you better enjoy your vacation without hampering productivity and access to must-see documents?

j2 Global Communications, the company that offers a suite of virtual services—including a virtual phone system, hosted e-mail services, e-mail marketing, online back up storage and online faxing—says the answer is a resounding yes. After all, you can’t take your fax machine in your golf cart but you can take your iPhone in your pocket and get faxes.

So whether you are planning a vacation or just looking for ways to be more efficient on the go, here are five ways you can use virtual fax services to be more productive:

1. Archive Faxed Documents Online

Archiving faxed documents gives you online remote access anytime, anywhere to your incoming faxes. With the eFax service, your documents are digitally stored on secure file servers so they can be retrieved on the fly. This can also come in handy if your hard drive crashes on your computer because you know your archives are safe and sound.

2. Slash File Search Time

Rather than wasting daylight hours manually searching through file folders stuffed with contracts, forms and signed papers, you can search the contents of your faxes online by using specific names, topics, or other keywords to find a specific document or group of documents. This can drastically reduce the time it takes to find what you need.

3. Avoid E-mail Bouncebacks

Need to send or receive a file that’s too big to email? Don’t want the hassle or wait of overnight shipping either? eFax lets you upload and share files without email bounce-backs or failed send attempts. Instead of dealing with missed opportunities because your oversized audio, video or high-resolution photo is bigger than mail servers accept, you send it using eFax and not worry about whether the file bounced back because the recipient’s box was too full or they have a file size limit on their account.

4. Save Money. Save Trees.

Printing outside the office can be a headache and expensive. eFax offers the ability to sign or annotate faxes online, without having to put pen to paper. You can drag, drop, and resize your digitized signature onto your document. You can add text or dates, too. eFax can even apply your digitized signature with a transparent background so it doesn’t cover up any contents of the fax itself, layering seamlessly with a signature line or underlying text. That’s pretty cool.

5. There’s an App for That!

Finally, you can download the eFax iPhone app to your iPhone, and voila—you now have a fully-functioning virtual fax machine on the go. You can also snap a picture of anything you need to illustrate with your iPhone and send it. Of course, you can also view, search, share, archive and tag incoming right from your phone.

247VirtualAssistant.com is amping up its service offerings for clients who aren’t comfortable with the thought of outsourcing virtual assistant services overseas.

Perceiving an opportunity, 247VirtualAssistant.com just launched what it is calling Home Shore Virtual Assistant plans. The plans offer virtual assistants who are located within the United States as opposed to the Philippines, India or some other foreign land. With the new service, 247VirtualAssistant.com claims to be the only virtual assistant company in the world to offer both offshore and U.S.-based options to clients. A Better Virtual cannot confirm this claim, but it is indeed more common for companies to offer either U.S.-based or offshore virtual assistants.

“The Home Shore Virtual Assistant program is one of a kind—we’ve been able to combine the cost saving benefit of an offshore virtual assistant with the efficiency of a U.S.-based virtual assistant,” says Thomas Shajan, CEO of 247VirtualAssistant.com. “We love the fact that now the client can choose a offshore VA or a U.S.-based VA, without having to switch companies and start all over again.”

247VirtualAssistant.com says it has been developing its Home Shore plans since early 2010. The costs start as low as $299 per month and go up to $2,499 per month for a full time virtual assistant. The latter sounds cost sounds prohibitive. You could hire a full-time employee for about $300 a week. But if you need specialized virtual assistant services, it might be worthwhile. For example, the plans are designed to include web development and design as well as SEO services.

“We are delighted that 247VirtualAssistant.com has decided to launch this service,” says Douglas Gordon, editor in Chief of Ocean Style Magazine. “We have used 247VirtualAssistant.com for over three years now and 247 has been a key instrument in enhancing our customers’ experience. This product has the potential to have true global appeal!”

What’s next for 247VirtualAssistant.com? The company is hinting that it is planning virtual assistant software aimed to help standardize the virtual assistant industry.

Its’ not too late to get in on RingCentral’s latest contest. All you have to do is create a clever video and submit it by July 22 and you could be the big winner.

Here’s what’s at stake: a trip for two to Las Vegas, including airfare, 4-star hotel accommodations, and a $500 Vegas.com gift card. Here’s what you have to do to get it:  create a short video that describes their worst piece of hardware. With most smartphones offering video capabilities—even video editing capabilities—these days, it’s easy enough for just about any one to enter.

Let’s drill down deeper into the contest details. After all, a Las Vegas getaway is at hand.

So here’s what you do. Describe a piece of hardware that you own that drives you absolutely nuts. Maybe it’s an old fax machine that never prints clearly. Maybe it’s a smartphone that drops calls too often. Or maybe it’s a phone system that’s clunky. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to create a video of one to two minutes describing showing and telling why it drives you nuts.

“With our cloud-based phone system, we offer individuals the opportunity to minimize the number of pieces of hardware required to successfully manage a small business,” says Vlad Shmunis, CEO of RingCentral. “Our simplified, streamlined solution can reduce many of the hassles associated with setting up and maintaining hardware. This contest captures the spirit and benefits of cloud-based technology and allows consumers to express their hardware hassles in a creative and viral format.”

Once you’ve created the video, you have to complete an online entry form and then upload it on YouTube with the tag “RingCentral No Hardware.” Then, you can let RingCentral know that you’ve submitted the video by posting it on the virtual phone provider’s Facebook page or by tweeting @RingCentral using the hashtag #NoHardware.

All video submissions must be received by 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on July 22, 2011. Contestants are encouraged to share their videos on their blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter, and YouTube channels to increase their number of video views. RingCentral will announce the grand prize winner and runners up on July 27th on their Facebook page. RingCentral will select the grand prize winner and two runners up from the top 10 most viewed videos based on the number of views on each YouTube page.

Pacific Business Centers recently worked to get the attention of home-based business owners who are tired of the stigma associated with working from home. Opus Virtual Offices is taking a different approach, noting that home-based businesses are among the leading virtual office users.

With that in mind, Opus Virtual Offices is offering its top five reasons why home-based businesses should rent a virtual office space from its company rather than an executive office suite from another firm. Opus drew from its own client experiences to come up with the list, which is worth exploring. Maybe you’ll identify with some of your fellow small business owners’ reasoning.

Without further ado, here is the top five list (with my commentary included):

1. Does this sound familiar?: “There’s no way I want my family’s home address on my Web site or business cards, and a P.O. box doesn’t give customers a sense of trust. My virtual office is the perfect solution.”

I know I don’t expose my home address to the public. I do use a P.O. Box or some purposes, but a virtual office address is definitely a much more professional way to maintain your privacy while enhancing your business image.

2. “I want my business to reflect my credibility, presenting the image that it’s sizable and established in order to compete with larger companies.”

A virtual office offers a choice of impressive corporate addresses, and valuable services that help convey a strong market presence even when working from an office at home. Essentially, if you need a professional place to meet with clients, you can get that from your virtual office provider on-demand for a small fee. You can also tap into high-tech conference rooms. Some virtual office providers even let you put your name on the building directory.

3. “My job is to take care of my customers, not answer phones and take messages. I can’t afford to miss an opportunity if a message were lost.”

Businesspeople who use virtual offices can count on always being reachable and missing no important communications due to sophisticated call transferring, as well as faxes and voicemail that convert to e-mail. This may be an add-on to your traditional virtual office service, dubbed the virtual receptionist, remote receptionist or live receptionist. If your business gets a lot of phone calls, these types of services can be a true asset.

4. “Someday I plan to expand, but I don’t want to assume the cost and hassle of opening physical offices.”

The cost of operating a virtual office is so nominal, $99 a month for an Opus Virtual Office system, that opening additional offices is always a low cost option. You can get even lower rates in some locations from the likes of Alliance Virtual Offices, where options start at $50. Either way, it’s a low-cost, high value alternative.

5. “I love having trained, courteous receptionists personally answering calls during business hours. I may be working at home, but my business presents a polished, professional image.”

Of Opus clients surveyed, every single one mentioned this service as one of the most attractive reasons they chose an inclusive virtual office program. I can relate. I don’t have this service, but I probably should. I’m terrible about checking my messages.

There are many other reasons why you might opt for a virtual office space, but those should get you thinking: Is there a better way to present my home-based business?

Prime global locations. Market-leading communications infrastructure. Virtual services. You get all that and more when sign on with Alliance Virtual Offices—and now you get 35 new locations to choose from.

Alliance Virtual Offices has added 35 new global locations this year. That puts the company over the 600 virtual offices mark—and this is just the beginning. And that’s especially rapid growth seeing as the company just officially launched earlier this year.

“With the addition of these 35 new locations, we are better able to service our current clientele and attract more new clients based on convenient locations and impressive addresses,” says Frank Cottle, Chairman of Alliance Virtual Offices. Cottle and his team are working to offer the highest quality services and amenities at competitive prices to mobile professionals looking for convenience and cost-savings.

Alliance combines three central components necessary to service mobile and work-from-home professionals: People, Place and Technology. In the people category, Alliance Virtual Offices offers Live Receptionists. For Place, the company offers prestigious addresses and meeting rooms. And on the Technology front, the firm has high-tech communications systems that help you save money on office costs while maintaining a professional image.

“We also believe that the relevance of the virtual office in today’s economically and environmentally conscientious society is undeniable,” Cottle continues. “As the modern, mobile workforce continues to seek out more efficient, technological solutions to its business needs, the significance of the virtual office only continues to expand, and Alliance is a leader in providing solutions to both members and clients.”

Alliance Virtual Offices paves the way to quick afternoon meetings with clients or extended space for business travelers. The greater mission: to offer the most complete, reliable and feature-rich set of virtual office services to our global market of mobile professionals and work-from-home entrepreneurs. So far, so good.

Want to reserve a virtual office in Singapore online? Rikvin now let you do it with a few clicks.

The online reservation system streamlines virtual office rentals for entrepreneurs in other countries who need to rapidly establish a local corporate address in the Asian nation.

If you want to know exactly how much your custom virtual office package is going to cost you, you can use the online system to request a free quote. Rikvin promises to get back to you with an exact price in less than a day.

“We find that with today’s very high office rental costs and a prevailing trend for companies to operate more remotely, many businesses are opting to adopt a virtual office environment, especially during the early stages,” says a Rikvin spokesperson. “By using our virtual office service, they can get off the ground quickly and efficiently.”

In case you aren’t familiar with Rikvin’s Singapore virtual offices, you’ll get a prestigious office address in the Central Business District. The virtual office packages also give you options such as mail notification service, mail forwarding, a dedicated phone line and dedicated fax-to-email service. You can also choose an option that gives you full access to office support and facilities if you are visiting Singapore.

“By offering a range of different options, we’re providing the level of flexibility that overseas businesses are looking for,” Rivkin says. “Some just want an address for their business mail, others need a full suite of solutions, a fully operational office.”

Let’s take a quick look at each option:

The “Mail Only” option gives you a registered address, as well as Mail Notification. That means every time you get a new piece of mail, Rivkin will notify you via e-mail. The e-mail outlines details such as date, sender and type of mail.

The “Standard” package includes registered address, Mail Notification, Mail Forwarding—a service where mail and courier items are physically forwarded to an overseas address—Dedicated Phone Line with an automated greeting and a Dedicated Fax-to-Email.

Lastly, the “Premium” package has all the options of the Standard package but also a remote receptionist who answers all calls to a dedicated phone number, takes a message or transfers the call directly to the client.

“We make sure our clients can respond quickly to enquiries and requests from their clients,” Rikvin says. “We even offer an add-on Mail Scanning option so that correspondence can be sent electronically and received, no matter where they are in the world.”

If you are going to run a virtual office, an Internet-based fax service is a must-have.

Why have a dedicated phone line to receive faxes if you rarely receive any? And why scramble to plug your telephone line into your fax machine to receive a fax because you don’t want to have a dedicated line? And why waste all that paper receiving faxes that you could just as easily read online? Why waste the ink? Get the picture?

There are plenty of Internet-based fax services on the market today. But one stands out as award-winning. PC magazine awarded eFax with its highest editorial honor last week: the Editor’s Choice Award. According to PC magazine, eFax has “a number of business-friendly features (digital signature, unlimited fax storage) that make it a must have.”

Here’s how eFax works: When you sign up for eFax, you’ll choose the location for a local or toll-free fax number. When someone faxes you, you receive the fax in your email inbox as a file attachment. Just double click the file to read it. You’ll be able to check your faxes anywhere you can access your email. You also have the option to route your incoming faxes to up to five different e-mail addresses.

In its review, PC magazine also says, “all-in-all, eFax is an excellent, well-rounded service for business customers who want to save on paper and ink.” Editors also noted that eFax’s standout feature is the ability to provide a digital signature which can be added to a document using either the Web interface or the free-to-download eFax Messenger.

“Our mission with eFax begins with making it easy to send and receive faxes by e-mail, but it goes far beyond that,” says Mike Pugh, vice president, marketing of j2 Global Communications, parent company of eFax. “With a focus on business-critical needs for more efficiency, mobility, and security, eFax has added advanced features like online signatures, searchable fax archives, large file sharing, and mobile apps for faxing in the field.”

j2 Global communications is also the parent company of eVoice, a virtual phone number service. eVoice answers and routes your calls, transcribes your voicemail to text and other features. eVoice works with your existing phone number, so you don’t have to change it.