A Better Virtual – USA Virtual Offices

MIAMI—It’s still January. That means if you haven’t already made New Year’s resolutions for your small business it’s not too late. Indeed, it’s never too late to make a change.

Intelligent Office Miami wants to help you with your small business resolutions, and offers five tips to help you enjoy a more successful and profitable 2012. I’ve laid out those five resolutions below and added in some of my own virtual office and small business perspectives.

1. Have an exit strategy: An exit strategy is the ultimate goal for a small business owner and should drive all decisions moving forward. Is your exit strategy retirement? Acquisition? A six-figure salary? Once determined, you can develop the road map to get there.

From my perspective as a small business owner, an exit strategy is vital. At some point, we’ll grow older and want to retire. What will we do with the business? Sell it, hand it off to a family member? Consider the possibilities now.

2. Review your business plan: A business plan is not a write-it-and-forget-it document. It’s a living, breathing blueprint for your company’s success. Fine-tune it based on the realities of the current economy and what you need to accomplish in order to get to your exit strategy.

I’ll admit. I haven’t dusted off my business plan in some time. But it’s important to go back and review the plan. Maybe you’ve strayed from it and need to get back to it. Maybe you’ve strayed from it and need to expand the official vision in light of opportunities.

3. Go virtual: From virtual offices to virtual phone systems to virtual assistants, there are resources out there in the virtual world that can help you work smarter, faster and more efficiently. Your job is to make sure you are leveraging them.

“Outsourcing decreases overhead, streamlines operations and leaves more time to focus on the core competencies of your business,” says Allan Sirotkin, managing director of Intelligent Office Miami, a virtual office and professional support staff company.

“Virtual offices provide a professional address and on-demand office space, but Intelligent Office expands that concept by adding Intelligent Assistants—a highly trained support team providing concierge-style business services. Virtual assistants enhance productivity without expensive employee-related overhead.”

4. Get into the cloud: No, not your head in the clouds. Rather, tap into the power of cloud technology for your small business. Cloud computing has a lot to offer small businesses on the go. By transferring company documents to a cloud, they can be accessed from virtually anywhere and by anyone who is granted access. It’s important to understand the different types of clouds, so do your homework, Sirotkin says. Many cloud providers, including services provided by Intelligent Office, feature software applications as part of their cloud computing service.

5. Network: Networking is more than passing out business cards. It’s about building relationships, Sirotkin says. Chambers of Commerce and professional organizations offer resources for meeting new customers or vendors.

When I first started my small business, I had to sow plenty of seed and wait for a harvest of new business. Now, I get referrals based on relationships and networking. Never underestimate the power of networking, whether in person or virtual. Make networking work for you.

Junk South. The company does just what it sounds like it does—removes junk from hotels, resorts, student housing, and offices. Junk South has made a name for itself providing removal solutions for large scale renovations, brand conversions, relocations and demolitions.

But when it came to communications, the company wasn’t willing to use a junk phone system. The Athens, Ga.-based division of Athena Enterprises needed a virtual PBX solution that would live up to its reputation for sustainable business. Junk South needed a reliable communications solution that would make it easy for customers to call in their needs 24/7.

Junk South turned to VoiceNation’s virtual PBX service to make sure its high volume of calls is handled professionally. With VoiceNation, Junk South was able to set specific preferences for the virtual PBX solution and have calls routed to appropriate departments. That equaled more responsive call times and greater customer satisfaction.

“With VoiceNation, employees working in the field are reached without any delay, messages are easily retrieved, and faxes are sent from our smart phones and tablets with ease,” says Chris Caswall, president and CEO of Athena Enterprises LLC. “This service is truly an asset to our company and will continue to help us manage our call volume and support our customer base.”

Caswall says VoiceNation gives Junk South “great flexibility and peace of mind” that all incoming calls are managed appropriately. Junk South uses an online dashboard to customize call preferences, listen to messages, send virtual faxes and update contact lists; providing a quick and easy solution for everyday business.

“VoiceNation offers everything we look for in a calling service; affordability, ease of use, customizable interface, reliable customer service, and professional quality,” Caswall says.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—The virtual office industry is seeing apps roll out right and left. There’s apps to search for virtual offices, apps to make phone calls, apps to send faxes. Now, Davinci Virtual Office Solutions is getting into the mix with an app for all that—and more.

Davinci Virtual, a leading provider of virtual office services, just announced its first-ever smartphone application. Davinci Virtual’s new app works for Apple iPhones, iPads or iPod touch devices and is available in the iTunes store at no charge.

The new mobile app is versatile, allowing Davinci Virtual clients to make VOIP calls from their mobile phone over Wi-Fi, among other things. With the iPhone app, Davinci Virtual customers can view, receive and send faxes from anywhere in the world, as well as search and listen to voicemail messages, and make conference calls from their mobile phone via the Davinci Virtual platform.

“Our new iPhone app allows our clients to interact with the Davinci Virtual platform with ease from their mobile device—anywhere,” says Martin Senn, COO of Davinci Virtual. “An Android version is already in development and slated to be released shortly. Davinci continues to develop applications that power the mobile work environment.”

The app should make it easier for Davinci Virtual clients—of which there are more than 10,000—to find virtual offices on the go. Davinci Virtual offers virtual office space across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Central America, Asia and Australia. Altogether, the company offers more than 850 virtual office locations including major cities like Manhattan, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Houston.

Davinci Virtual clients can also opt for live receptionist services, prime business addresses and flexible meeting spaces—instantly—online. Other services include toll-free telephone and fax numbers, digital voicemail, electronic fax, email, unified messaging, voice and video conferencing, voicemail to email, fax to email, voice to text, professional live receptionist services, virtual assistants, live call answering, find me—follow me, live web chat, outbound calling, customer service, appointment scheduling, and order taking.

SAN FRANCISCO—Need some help scheduling appointments? You may be able to cut the virtual receptionist right out of the mix.

Genbook, an online appointment scheduling solution, just rolled out an analytics feature that allows small businesses to track critical performance data and sales patterns in real-time. Dubbed Genbook Analytics, the feature paves the way for local merchants to better understand their business performance by analyzing the revenue, service and staff data generated by the more than 11 million appointments scheduled on the Genbook platform.

“Online appointment scheduling produces a tremendous amount of very valuable data that can now be organized into useful business intelligence,” says Rody Moore, founder and CEO of Genbook. “This new feature reflects a growing demand from increasingly sophisticated small local businesses who desire timely and useful information on which to base business-critical decisions.”

Accenture SAS Analytics Group, demand for analytics services is expected to increase by as much as 72 percent in 2012 as tech-savvy small business owners seek quantitative insight into how to run their businesses more efficiently and productively. Genbook Analytics helps merchants make key business decisions by identifying sales trends, forecasting future performance and monitoring a series of key data metrics. For example, the data can reveal which services bring in the highest revenue, what time of year is the busiest, and which staff members are generating the most appointments.

By delivering information in real-time, rather than in static reports, Genbook Analytics provides insight and intelligence for small businesses to help optimize their schedules and their staff and service offerings, while increasing their revenues. Appointment data can be sorted through daily, weekly, or monthly views and filtered by revenue or number of appointments, as well as by individual staff members or by services.

“I am now able to see how my business is growing, and from 2010 to 2011, it grew by 254 percent,” says Sirry Berndsen, owner of Spirit Of Light in Brookline, Mass. “I credit Genbook for much of that growth and am so glad I can now see my business’ key figures on one screen.”

SAN JOSE, CA—Virtual PBX is racking up the awards. This time around, the virtual PBX provider is getting attention for its Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere. The virtual PBX product has brought home the 2011 Internet Telephony Product of the Year Award.

Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere is a business phone system with VoIP capabilities. The solution allows customers to use their smart phones and computers as VoIP handsets while full phone system features.

“Our mission is to deliver communications tools that help businesses improve customer service and business productivity,” says Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX. “This recognition from Internet Telephony affirms the value of Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere, which is making a huge difference for our business customers, who are also able to reduce their operational costs.”

Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere is an attractive offering. It’s versatile and boasts business-grade quality calls. Then there’s the affordability factor. Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere is low cost, which makes it especially suitable for small- to mid-size businesses. Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere also allow small business owners the flexibility to mix and match a VoIP network with any SIP-compliant phone.

VoIP Anywhere capabilities can be accessed through the use of any standard softphone, such as those available for Android phones, iPhones and computers. VoIP Anywhere allows such devices to appear as VoIP extensions in the Virtual PBX system, so calls to and from the softphone have full access to all system features, such as business caller ID for outbound calls, call recording, call transfers, presence management and reporting. Virtual PBX has reduced bandwidth requirements for VoIP calls, allowing high-quality calls to be placed over even modest data connections, including 3G, 4G and WiFi.

“I am happy to grant Virtual PBX with a Product of the Year Award. The editors of Internet Telephony have verified that Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere displays quality and innovation plus provides real needs in the marketplace,” stays Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC. “I would like to congratulate the entire team at Virtual PBX for their commitment to advancing IP communication technologies.”

BEVERLY HILLS, CA—Allied Offices just opened its virtual doors to a new virtual office space in Beverly Hills. This is an ideal location for any entrepreneur that wants to be in the heart of the luxury retail action.

Allied Offices’ Beverly Hills virtual office is right across the street from the famed Saks Fifth Avenue. Of course, this virtual office also happens to be surrounded by a myriad of additional exclusive retailers and restaurants, giving small business owners a prime office address in a prestigious neighborhood.

Allied Offices is known offering small businesses everything from virtual office phone systems to meeting spaces to live virtual receptionists via professional answering services. What’s more, Allied Offices is known for doing it at a fraction of the cost of traditional office space. Allied Offices’ Beverly Hills virtual office services include:

• a local or toll-free telephone and fax number
• electronic fax
• digital voicemail
• unified messaging
• voice conferencing
• voicemail to email
• fax to email
• screening and
• live telephone answering services
• virtual assistants
• appointment scheduling

The Beverly Hills virtual office also offers something a little more unique: the TelAssistant Remote Receptionist phone answering service. TelAssistant is a professional answering service designed specifically for the needs of small businesses.

The TelAssistant Remote Receptionist screens calls, takes messages, and forward callers in a professional and courteous manner. The remote receptionist will also schedule appointments, process orders, and follow guidelines set by the business owner. Business owners train professional TelAssistant receptionists to handle calls the way they would train in-house employees.

WAYNE, NJ—NBS may not be a household name like some of its competitors (read Phone.com and RingCentral) but the veteran company is winning some attention from the industry’s leading magazine.

TMC, the publisher of Internet Telephony magazine, has named NBS V.o.I.C.E. as a winner of its 2011 Internet Telephony Product of the Year Award. In fact, it’s the third year in a row that NBC has received recognition from Internet Telephony.

“I am happy to grant NBS our 14th Annual Product of the Year Award. The editors of Internet Telephony have verified that the company’s Hosted V.o.I.C.E. service displays quality and innovation, plus it provides a solution for real needs in the marketplace,” says Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC. “I would like to congratulate the entire team at NBS for their commitment to advancing IP communication technologies.”

I have to admit that I wasn’t familiar with NBS V.o.I.C.E. until I just found out they won the virtual PBX award. So I decided to educate myself. NBS V.o.I.C.E. (Voice over Internet Communications Exchange) is a feature-rich hosted IP solution. This virtual PBX is custom designed to address the specific communications needs of small to enterprise-sized businesses.

What do I mean by that? Well, this virtual PBX provider offers custom features and is provisioned as a hosted IP PBX, network-based solution as well as a SIP trunk replacement service. It also offers productivity enhancing functionalities, promises it is easy to maintain and upgrade and offers feature expansion to multiple locations without interruption of service.

Here are some of the features:

• VoIP telephone service for the home or home offices
• Uses any home phone with an NBS provided Analog Telephone Adaptor
• Full range of residential phone features provided through V.o.I.C.E
• Voice Mail Management tools included
• Suite of mobile and follow-me features available
• Includes 911 and directory listing
• Free Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA)
• Easy to use Voice and Web Portals

“With our recent network expansion and interconnection activities we have made this award winning service available to more end users in more cities nationwide,” says NBS President Russell Markman. “As a tool for increasing employee productivity and reducing total telecom spend, it is a vital piece of the communications puzzle for companies in today’s economy.”

NEW YORK—Phone.com is getting kudos from a major industry magazine. The cloud-based communications service provider’s Virtual Office product just won the 2011 Internet Telephony Product of the Year Award from TMC’s Internet Telephony magazine.

“I am happy to grant Phone.com with a Product of the Year Award. The editors of Internet Telephony have verified that the Phone.com Virtual Office suite displays quality and innovation plus provides real needs in the marketplace,” says Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC, publisher of Internet Telephony. “I would like to congratulate the entire team at Phone.com for their commitment to advancing IP communication technologies.”

In case you aren’t familiar with Phone.com Virtual Office, the product gives your business a professional image using virtual PBX phone system. Phone.com Virtual Office is powered by advanced VoIP and SAAS technologies—and it’s affordable. You can tap into this virtual office product for as little as $9.88 a month.

Here are some of the stated benefits:

• Professional: Present a professional image
• Unified: One phone number to reach all locations & staff
• Efficient: Automate incoming call handling & forwarding
• Convenient: Check voicemail by web, email or phone
• Cost-Effective: No hardware to purchase or maintain
• Easy: Sign up online and begin using in minutes

“For well over a decade TMCNET has been the leader in promoting and covering the VoIP industry,” says Ari Rabban, CEO at Phone.com. “We are very pleased to once again be recognized by them for our innovative Virtual Office product suite.”

SAN FRANCISCO—Intelligent Office is betting on San Francisco virtual office users in early 2012. The virtual office company just announced plans to open a San Francisco site in March.

Here’s the company’s thinking: San Francisco is one of the most expensive places in North America to rent office space. That’s not a subjective opinion. Commercial real estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle did the research.

Intelligent Office figures adding new virtual office space in San Francisco’s sought-after downtown Pine Street location will be a big hit. The company is specifically targeting Bay Area entrepreneurs, professionals, and businesses access. And it’s not just the flexibility of an affordable mobile office Intelligent Office is providing either. Intelligent Office also offers trained staff.

“The opening of the San Francisco office not only expands our presence in California, but also provides a great location for the multitude of entrepreneurs and start ups in the Bay Area,” says Ralph Gregory, founder and CEO of Intelligent Office. “This location will allow us to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and professionals by offering them services that help them focus on starting or growing their business without extra staffing or service costs.”

From Intelligent Office’s perspective, small businesses are seeing growth and need to work smarter than ever to thrive in a competitive business environment. Virtual offices offer several benefits, including reducing overhead costs. Virtual office users can tap into shared conference rooms, remote receptionists, and virtual assistants.

“We look forward to opening and are thrilled to be bringing industry-leader Intelligent Office to this vibrant entrepreneurial community,” says Wilson Tandiono, president and CEO of Intelligent Office San Francisco. “The Bay Area is a hub of innovation and cutting-edge business, and the focus is on value creation. Our easily accessible downtown San Francisco location will enable us to reach this community and help it grow. By delivering customized services and innovative workspace solutions, we aim to add value for our clients—allowing them to work smarter and better.”

The 100 Pine St facility is scheduled to launch operations in March 2012, and to host a grand opening in April. Intelligent Offices is headquartered in Boulder, Colo. And has 50 franchises across the U.S. and Canada.

VoiceNation helped plenty of companies get through the holiday rush, now live answering and virtual receptionist service is helping businesses realize their New Year’s resolution to increase company revenue by maximizing any and all sales opportunities.

VoiceNation’s live answering service helps small business owners capture all incoming calls and qualify each prospective lead. These virtual receptionists hare professionally trained in a variety of industries, including legal, service, real estate, media, and hospitality.

“You know your biggest competitor offers a similar product at an equal price, therefore, you need to be the first to receive the consumer’s call. A missed call means your competitor gets the sale,” says Jay Reeder, president of VoiceNation. “Identifying each incoming call ensures you do not miss an opportunity to cultivate a sale.”

Indeed, today’s business world offers cutting-edge competition. Small businesses can’t afford to miss incoming calls. Think about it for a minute. If you are launching a marketing campaign to generate leads and referrals, you can’t cash in on that campaign if no one answers the phone. Even if you rely solely on cold calling to drum up new business, you could miss the sale if you don’t answer the line when the potential customer calls back.

According to Richard Seppala, “The ROI Guy,” many small business owners fail to understand that marketing and advertising is just the first step in the sales process. If the company doesn’t have an effective system for the leads generated, marketing can be a vain exercise. VoiceNation offers live answering solutions for lead capture, after hours on call, disaster recovery solutions, and much more.

VoiceNation serves more than 40,000 customers including FEMA, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Dell, AIG and the U.S. Coast Guard. They leverage the very latest in proprietary technology solutions in order to deliver quality call answering services at the lowest cost to their customers.