Regardless of your age, you most likely grew up with the idea of office buildings as business hubs. But while physical office space certainly remains a part of how many companies operate, it’s not right for all organizations. Renting space in a building is expensive and for small or mobile-heavy companies spending a sizeable chunk of a tight budget simply doesn’t make sense.
In an effort to cut unnecessary expenses and boost mobile productivity, business owners are increasingly turning to virtual offices. A recent study by online market research firm uSamp revealed that 62 percent of small businesses allow employees to work remotely. Separate research conducted by the office research firm Instant shows that the global flexible workplace market increased by 9.1 percent from July 2012 to July 2013.
One of the most important cogs in any virtual office is a phone system that provides the features of a legacy enterprise system. Completely web-based and maintained in the cloud, a small business virtual phone is designed for mobile and at-home workers. Using an existing mobile number, business managers can obtain a separate, business-specific number, professional greetings, extensions for individual employees and more. System settings are accessible from smartphones, laptops and tablets and because the vendor is responsible for the service installation and upgrade costs are non-existent.
In business, one-size-fits-all is rarely a sound strategy because companies of varying size, budget constraints and goals have varying needs. In time, small or new businesses may find they need office space, but if it’s not a necessity today, spending money on rent and hardware only makes turning a profit more difficult—and no business, small or large, wants that.