In the age of work-from-home culture, many businesses have shifted to running their operations via virtual offices. If your business is an online-based one or has the opportunity to be digitized, then it may be helpful to run your business operations from a virtual office.
If you want to set up your very own virtual office but don’t know much about them, then here’s everything you need to know about running a business from your home.
Table of Contents
What is a Virtual Office?
To put it simply, a virtual office is a digital workspace, usually hosted by SAAS project management software and communication apps. This software has many functions and features that allow employees or team members to finish their tasks, upload/submit them, and notify without any additional communications and formalities.
Read: 5 Festive Holiday Ideas for Your Virtual Team
As a result, your business can function with a physical workspace without additional hassle as long as all team members have the required devices to run this software and apps. Virtual offices simplify communications and project overview in many instances, making them popular with startups that may not have the capital to run a physical office.
What are the Benefits?
Converting to a virtual office can offer you a lot of benefits thanks to the ease of use and availability of technology. Many of these advantages can be specific to a particular industry, but most benefit businesses of any size or type. The three major benefits of running your business via a virtual office are:
- Cut Cost Down
Due to the decentralized nature of virtual offices, it’s often much easier and cheaper to run virtual offices. Costs associated with physical offices such as furniture, devices, and amenities are not required since employees can work from home. Even if you can’t run all aspects of your business from your virtual office, you can have a mixture of both, which works well with many business models.
- Team Members Can Work From Anywhere
Running your business through a virtual office gives you access to international talent as most of the associated software can be run from any part of the globe. This not only gives your employees/team members a lot of flexibility but also gives you access to better quality talent within your budget.
- More Productivity
Since your employees can work from the comfort of their own home, they won’t have to deal with the daily commute, which can greatly improve their productivity. They’ll have more time to do things in a relaxed environment, which will benefit your business in the long run. Also, employees are more likely to stay with your business in the long run if they feel their job conditions are flexible.
What are the Disadvantages?
While the benefits of running your business via a virtual office are obvious, there are some disadvantages as well. Three of the major disadvantages of running your business via a virtual office are:
- Distractions and Problems
If your hiring process is not strong, then letting your employees work from home can lead to less productivity. Employees who have families tend to have a lot of distractions like noise, chores, sudden errands, etc., which can prevent them from doing their work. There’s also the matter of problems that can arise suddenly, making it hard to supervise or help them remotely.
- Not a Good Fit For Blue-Collar Businesses
Many blue-collar businesses, especially in the service industry, are not well suited for virtual offices as they cannot serve their clients from a computer. Partial integration doesn’t help much as employees/team members need to interact with the clients directly.
- Tech Breakdowns/Malfunctions
Lack of accessibility of tech repair services can also be a big problem for many employees if their devices suddenly break down or malfunction. Fortunately, you can search ‘computer repair shop near me’ to find a repair technician easily these days.
Make it Work for Your Team
The best thing about virtual workspaces is the fact that it works surprisingly well for most people in the tech and digital industry. They can be organized in any manner, thanks to the variations offered by the major SAAS and communications technology players in the market. As a result, you can easily make it work for your team even if they’re from across the globe.
Leap Into the Future
If there’s one good thing that came out of the pandemic, it’s the fact that many businesses realized that they’re not as restricted as they thought when it comes to running their business operations. Virtual offices are the way to go if you’re a new business owner or one who’s finding it increasingly difficult to afford a physical office.
