Business Centers Make a Perfect First Office

In a recent post entitled “The Home-Based Business: Basics to Consider” the author states that over 52% of all businesses in the USA are home-based. When I read that I wondered to myself: “How many of those are locked into low growth, lost customers and major time lost, because of changes to the address and finding enough workspace to accommodate fast growth?”

I agree with the author that doing due diligence on zoning and other restrictions may make your home an impossible choice. So it is important to do the research to be sure your home is a “suitable location” for your business. This article also makes it clear that making the decision on location of home or other office location is necessary because many of the first steps you take in establishing the business will require you to have a “business address.”

Business Centers Provide the Best First “Location”

Business centers provide a variety of “location” services, from mail forwarding/virtual addresses and phone answering, to office space and conference rooms. A business center provides services that enable your home-based business or start-up to grow from 0 customers to 1,000’s, without ever having to change your address or business location!

A business center provides all the different kinds of “location services” that a start-up or home-based business requiring office space can choose from. The advantages of using a business center for an address over a home address or P.O. Box include:

1. Low cost alternative to traditional office space
2. Address flexibility
3. Instills more trust and integrity than a home or P.O. Box address
4. Office space flexibility
5. Perceived as more professional
6. Business can be conducted at the “business address”

The advantages of using a business center over traditional office space for an office space include:

1. Much lower rental, maintenance and building costs
2. No decorating expenses
3. No office furniture to buy
4. No phone or business equipment to buy
5. Flexible terms on duration of rental and space
6. No office furniture or support-area furniture required
7. No reception area or furniture and equipment, or waiting room
8. Professional receptionist

A home-based business that has a virtual “business address” in a business center can grow without ever updating its business information with governments and other business services. This is essential for customers and clients to find you and continue the business relationship you have with them.

Remember that changes in phone books or online directories and other publications can take as much as a year to update. Long consideration must be put into the “location” decision because address changes can disrupt your business and cause customers to go elsewhere – either because they can’t find your new location or they determine your business is not stable enough to rely on to provide desired products or services.

Business Centers Manage Growth & Deliveries

Many home-based businesses don’t take into consideration that if their business expands, it will quickly outgrow the space they thought they would need. This eventually means a move out of the home. Then the business owner must guess how much space he or she will need in the future. If the business is going into a traditional space, the “guesstimate” must be accurate for the space they’ll need going forward. Why? Because they could end up paying for space they don’t need, or be unable to grow because not enough space is available. A business center’s flexible terms means that you can decide more easily because you can add or remove space as you require.

The biggest advantage a business center “location” address has, is that it instills trust and credibility. If a customer or even a courier shows up at the reception area of the business center, staffers would help them contact you or accept the delivery. A post office box does not accept deliveries and no one is available to help locate you.

Conclusions

The flexibility in terms and types of “location” services a business center provides makes it the perfect location or business address for a new start-up or home-based business to grow with little stress about the costs involved. This “location” instills trust and credibility for the business and conveys a much better perception of the professionalism of the business.

Author: Terry Van Horne has been developing and marketing websites since the early 90’s—as internet marketing manager for one of Canada’s largest real estate developers; SEO for an award winning real estate search engine; and marketing manager for ecommerce stores in the apparel and musical instrument industries. In 2007 Terry developed a YouTube Marketing Strategy for WorldMusicSupply and to date those 300+ videos have received over 30,000,000+ downloads.

In 2010 Terry and David Harry founded the award winning SEO Training Dojo which in its initial year was voted by TopRank users as the Top Private SEO Community. More recently Terry is the Community and Online Marketing Manager for Telsec Business Centres. He is enjoying sharing small home based business information in the community and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter: @terryvanhorne.