Virtual Offices - Everything You Need to Know

Are you thinking about starting a new business? You will no doubt have come across the term ‘virtual office’ or ‘virtual office address’ when researching the different office solutions available to you. But what exactly is a virtual office? And what benefits does it offer?

In this post, we explain the concept of the virtual office, including the benefits of purchasing this type of service for you and your business.

Let’s start at the obvious place…

What is a virtual office?

A virtual office is a service that provides a business with the benefits of an office, without the business actually being based at the address. So, whilst the business may not operate from the address, it can:

Receive mail there – this can then be forwarded on or sometimes held for collection
Have telephone calls answered at the address
Gain access to meeting room and conference facilities
Show the address on its website, business cards, and other marketing materials
Use the address as a registered office and directors’ service address (if the business is trading as a limited company)

Who uses a virtual office?

Typically, the core demographic of virtual office users is people who are running a business from home, either full-time or as a side hustle.

With remote and hybrid working being the norm, they now also appeal to other startups and SMEs who want to establish a professional presence, without the overheads associated with leasing a physical office space.

What are the benefits?

Having a virtual location you can call your office gives you a number of benefits:

1. Residential address protection

Businesses are expected to include a contact address on their website. Any business that doesn’t is met with suspicion. However, what do you do if you run your business from home?

Publishing a residential address anywhere opens you up to unwelcome and unexpected visitors, stacks of junk mail, and increases your vulnerability to ID fraud.

With a virtual office service, you can shield your residential address from public view by using an alternative location as your public-facing address.

2. A commercial (and impressive) location

This is because, and there’s no getting away from it, how your business is perceived, matters.

Virtual office providers are generally based in well-known locations, where most people would be proud to base their business. By placing your business in a prestigious town or location – and from a commercial address – you are boosting your chances of success by projecting a professional image to potential customers and other business contacts.

3. A professional phone number that’s always answered

The two previous points have very much leaned into the ‘address’ side of things; however, a key part of the virtual office offering is often the telephone services aspect.

How you communicate with your customers can make all the difference between success and failure.

By having a professional telephone number (not a mobile) that’s always answered, even when you’re not available, you can ensure that you never miss another sales call, save money on a receptionist, and give the impression of being a larger business than you are.

Different providers will offer different things, such as a regional phone number plus answering and forwarding, call divert, or simple message taking. Regardless of what you opt for, an efficient telephone answering service will help ensure you never miss a business opportunity.

This is ideal if you’re a tradesperson who spends most of the day out and about, or you are running your business as a side hustle.

Is a company that uses a virtual office service likely to be fraudulent?

Virtual offices have an unfair reputation for facilitating fraud, as they can enable people to conduct business (to an extent) without having to provide their business contacts, and vitally, customers, with a trading address.

However, virtual office providers are legally obliged to verify the ID and residential address of all of their customers. What’s more, if an issue does arise and a business is being investigated, this ID information is made available to the appropriate authorities.

Do Quality Company Formations provide virtual office services?

Whilst we don’t use the term ‘virtual office’, at Quality Company Formations we offer a number of services that could be categorised as ‘virtual office services’.

See below for the services in question, as well as our pricing.

Business Address Service, £96.00 per year

Use our prestigious Covent Garden (London) address as your business’s general correspondence address. We’ll accept mail for your business and then forward this mail on to you by scan and email on the same day we receive it. Mail forwarding by scan and email is charged at the cost of 50p per item.

Find out more about the Business Address Service

If we receive an item of value, such as a bank card or something you require a physical copy of, we will forward this on to you by First Class Royal Mail post – wherever you are based, UK or overseas. Physical mail forwarding is charged at the cost of Royal Mail postage, plus a 15% handling fee.

Business Telephone Services through our sister company, ‘Bizik’

We offer two phone services through our sister company Bizik, a leading UK provider of Business Telephone Services. Bizik offer a Business Telephone Number Service and a Telephone Answering Service.

With the Business Telephone Number Service, Bizik will provide you with your own 020 London (or another region of your choice) phone number. Calls will then be diverted 24/7 to your own number, at BT standard rates.

Find out more about Bizik’s Telephone Answering Service

With Bizik’s Telephone Answering Service, you get a team of dedicated receptionists to answer your calls in your company name. When calls are answered, the receptionist will transfer and present the call to you. Alternatively, they can take a message and forward this to you via email or SMS, at no extra cost. It’s up to you.

It’s debatable whether the two services mentioned below could be considered ‘Virtual Office Services’; however, for clarity’s sake (they can easily be confused with the Business Address Service), we think it is best to include them.

Registered Office Address Service, £39.00 per year

All UK limited companies require a physical location based in the UK where government agencies, such as Companies House, HMRC, Government Gateway and the Information Commissioner’s Office, can send correspondence.

If you’re operating as a limited company, with this service you can use our address as your limited company’s registered office address.

Find out more about the Registered Office Address Service

This enables you to protect your residential address from the public register (using a residential address as the registered office address is permitted but not recommended) and also, like the Business Address Service, helps give the impression that you’re based in a bustling business location.

Mail from government bodies and Court documents that are received at our address as a result of you using our address as your registered office, will be securely opened, scanned, and then emailed to you on the same day we receive them, at no extra cost.

Service Address, £26.00 per year

As well as having to provide a registered office address, limited companies must also give a service address (also known as a correspondence address) for every director in the company.

By purchasing this service, you can use our address as the service address for a director in your company, therefore protecting their address from the public register and basing the director in a prestigious location.

Find out more about the Service Address

Like the Registered Office Service, mail from government bodies and Court documents that are received at our address as a result of you purchasing the service, will be securely opened, scanned, and then emailed to you on the same day we receive them, at no extra cost.