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This article is the first one in a series to highlight the benefits of sharing best practices across Workplace-as-a-Service™ providers, and with folks outside our own "cocoon." We welcome any member of our industry to share their own experience in this forum.

Pacific Business Centers’ training approach & the value of external speakers

By Scott Chambers, Pacific Business Centers COO.

Providing professional training for an organization distributed in 15 locations does not go without unique challenges. We found that a formal process was essential to continually educate our staff. Recently, we were reminded -in a stunning fashion- of the benefits of bringing outside industry experts to our own internal conversations.

Whether you’re working from a virtual office or have local office space, you need to be credible in your small business.

As a small business owner, your success hinges on whether you can establish yourself as credible. It's possible to be operating from your home or a San Jose virtual office,  for example, and still convey to a prospect that your company is worth considering. Here are some ways you can increase your reliability factor:
 

In celebration of Earth Day, April 22nd, millions of people around the world will do things a little differently to preserve resources and lighten their footprint on the Earth. Using Catalog Choice to reduce unwanted mail is a great start, but we thought we'd offer 5 more easy ways to get involved:

Business owners who are trying to grow their new business need to keep one eye firmly on the bottom line. Expenses can add up quickly, and it pays to look for ways to keep costs down. One way to accomplish this goal is to work from a virtual office instead of setting up shop in a traditional one. That way, you can project a professional image and make your business look bigger, too.

Here are three ways to make the most of using a virtual office. 

1. Find a virtual office that also provides meeting rooms.

You can accomplish a lot for your business on the road, but there will be times when you need to hold face-to-face meetings If you want to project a professional image, you will want to be able to invite a prospect to an environment that is a bit more formal and private than a local coffee shop. A virtual office provider that offers reception services and meeting rooms can create a professional meeting environment.

If you are a small business owner, you started off being the person who, not only saw what needed to be done, but also made sure the task was completed. As your business starts to grow, you need to move past that mindset, or you won't be able to get past the handholding stage with your employees. You will be doing them and yourself a disservice. While it can be challenging to learn how to let go and delegate, it is a skill that can be learned.

While LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are excellent at connecting you with potential businesses, there’s still nothing better than an old-fashioned phone call. Offering a phone number on your website shows that your company is not only legitimate, but is there to help whenever your potential clients may need to reach you. Although listing a phone number on your website can help your business, there are several ways that answering those phone calls can hurt your organization. If you make the wrong impression, you could end up losing business.

Mobile Working, also referred to as Teleworking or Flexwork, makes it possible to take advantage of the best workers in your industry without needing an office to house them all.  Workers can be productive from anywhere and still provide all the vital skills you need to run a thriving company.  Here’s how to make the most of your mobile team.

1) Professional Touchdown Space

There are times when a touchdown space becomes necessary to bring each mobile worker together. With an on-demand office, you can arrange for conference rooms and a boardroom when you need them to bring the entire company together for meetings.  You can also arrange for hourly access to multiple locations by utilizing a network of meeting spaces.  The best providers even have discount cards available, and bundled plans to provide even more value to heaver users.

Making waves as a startup is vitally important to the success of your company. Without attention from investors, your target market and the industry as a whole, you’re going to have a hard time coming out of the first few years with a thriving company. You’re juggling a lot, and trying to pull all of the pieces together – but it’s essential that one of those pieces is your branding strategy. Establishing and growing a strong brand can make the difference between succeeding in your virtual office based company and becoming another statistic.