Virtual Office
A Third Age Small Business feature
by our Business & Employment Editor

A Virtual Office is what used to be termed an Accommodation Address. It is an office address facility provided by a specialist company whereby for a fixed monthly fee they will allow you to use their address and to receive mail on your behalf which they redirect to you under sealed cover. It enables you, especially if you operate your business from home, to give your customers and potential customers a formal business address which keeps your homelife separate from your business.

One of the biggest benefits of a Virtual Office is that many of the service companies who operate in this field can provide you with a business address you could never expect to own with some of the most prestigious addresses in the world. From a back street in Scunthorpe or a basement flat in Southend you could give the appearance of operating from a highrise office block in Madison Avenue, New York, owning an office in London’s Oxford Street or being based on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

In addition to a straightforward mail forwarding service to protect your home address, the specialist companies who operate in this field can also provide such services as 24hr telephone answering, fax forwarding, meeting rooms and serviced offices.

So for a nominal monthly outlay you could have your telephone answered by a professional receptionist who would answer the phone in your company name, receive faxes without owning a fax machine, and be able to greet your clients or potential clients in your own fully-equipped meeting room as opposed to meeting them in an hotel or inviting them to your home.

For most people though, just having the ability to keep their home address separate from their business address is sufficiently comforting, particularly those of us in our Third Age.