Virtual Office

To begin, you’ve been warned. Now you can’t say we didn’t warn you. There is a debate raging, a debate that threatens to tear families apart, split marriages, run the risk of serious divisions that just might be irreparable. See how serious this just got? You’re likely very curious right now. Either that or a Seinfeld re-run is on and you’ve shifted your attention. Come back, as the debate we’re referring to, this nasty back and forth that has been occurring for some time now, centers around the virtual office. Crazy right, just the mere mention of the term can turn stomachs. And taking virtual offices a step further – who first coined the term?

This is where the bad blood flows, ladies and gentlemen. Who first coined the term, virtual office? Some feel it was accredited to Ralph Gregory from Boulder, Colorado when he established the “The Virtual Office Inc.” Mr. Gregory’s impetus was to spend more time with his newborn daughter and reasoned he could work just as efficiently from home as did physically on the job. So that’s one side of the story. But the other side is an article published in 1982 in Infoworlds where John Markoff mentioned the term “virtual office.” Markoff went on to describe an office built around a portable computer, a local area network (currently the Internet) that would enable people to work collaboratively without the need for constant face-to-face interaction.

Before you pick a side, do know that the Ralph Gregory declaration was in 1989 while the latter was in 1982. But to further muddy the waters, there are tons of other publications, sound bites, etc throughout the 1980s! OK, who cares, we know, as the big takeaway here is virtual offices were being spoken of in the 1980s and by the time the 2000s rolled around, they were everywhere. The main advantage of a virtual office is cost. If you are not renting a space but rather working virtually somewhere, the only cost associated is the Internet. This is true if the person works from home. The costs increase a bit if one rents a co-work space, a space where multiple, virtual workers inhabit and work out of. Second are services. The more established co-work spots provide access to a receptionist, spam email screening, mail forwarding and even meeting rooms depending on the package. And finally, working from home! Doesn’t get any better than this!

But with every positive comes a negative, and the first is travel. Having a physical address means you can receive people (potential clients, etc) at your place of business. If you are working virtually, that is no longer a possibility. Granted, taking meetings in a Starbucks is done, but not ideal. So most of the time you will need to go to the client, which equates to an awful lot of travel. Second is business inconsistency. Customers like stability. They prefer stability, and communicating your business operates out of your bedroom or a shared space with 50 other guys and gals in the same boat don’t convey stability. Granted, you all might be doing great, but it still appears very nascent to a customer and this can generate inconsistencies in how you are viewed as a legitimate business in your community. And third is working from home. That wasn’t a typo, working from home is great, but it can also be a massive distraction. You know you better than we do, so if you get distracted easily, working from home is a bad idea.

Virtual offices are commonplace, but do give them some thought before leaping in headfirst. The positives are obvious, but the negatives can creep up and ruin a good thing over the long-term.