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Creative Team

7 Reasons to use a Virtual Mail Address

By | Business, Tips

Over the past couple of years, businesses have become increasingly virtual and remote by nature- serving and communicating with customers, coworkers, and partners from around the globe all via the internet. This movement was accelerated by the events of 2020 and has ignited a work-from-home revolution where millions of small businesses are conducting their work from a home office. While these changes have presented many challenges, they have also brought about innovative new solutions for entrepreneurs looking to expand their reach and build their brand nationwide all from the comfort of their home. Virtual Mail Addresses and Virtual Offices are one the best resources available to you and will unlock a new level of potential for you and your small business.

  1. Privacy
    • Don’t list your private home.
    • Phone numbers available.
    • Keep work and personal life separate. No walk-ups!
      • Everyone wants to keep their work and personal life separate, but it is no small task for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Working out of your home can pose many challenges but using a Virtual Mail Address can help solve them. Using a Virtual Mail Address to list your business will minimize the number of people googling your home address or even showing up at your door looking for you (yikes!). Enjoy the perks of working at home without having your home be where your business is listed. Most Virtual Offices also offer Phone Numbers, so you do not have to give out your personal number to everyone or post it online or on your business cards. These extra layers of privacy can make a world of difference and help you maintain a proper work/life balance.
  2.  Professionalism
    • Customers see a building, not a house.
    • Use the space for meetings
    • Receptionist, good for walk-ins.
      • Listing your business with a Virtual Mail Address adds a great deal of professionalism to your appearance. When a customer plugs in your address, they see an office building with multiple small businesses as opposed to seeing a house in a subdivision. This simple detail can be the difference between closing a deal or letting a lead slip away. You do not want to give the customer any reason to doubt you, so make sure you are giving off a robust and professional appearance by using a Virtual Mail Address or Virtual Office. Most of these locations will also have a receptionist and meeting spaces available on-site, which is the perfect place for you to go meet with a client if you do not want to meet at your house or the local coffee shop. Plus, the receptionist will be able to properly handle any unexpected walk-in leads who might be seeking you out.
  3. Image/Brand
    • Customers see a beautiful new building- Makes you look legit!
    • Customers do not know if you are one person or 10, home or office.
      • One of the biggest challenges for small businesses and start-ups is establishing a quality brand that customers can trust. Your services might be the best in town, but customers can be deterred if they do not feel you are legitimate and can trust you. Listing with a Virtual Mail Address or Virtual Office helps you dispel these concerns. Customers like seeing a nice office building when they search for you. They won’t know if you are just listing virtually or having an enormous corner suite in the building. Still, the simple fact that you are tied to a quality location will give them added confidence when deciding to do business with you. Taking advantage of the Meeting Rooms provided at most places will also demonstrate to your customers the quality of your brand and that they are essential to you and your company.
  4. Marketing/Google
    • Can give you access to Google My Business, which will greatly increase your reach.
    • Easier for customers to find you (online & in-person).
    • One of the most powerful tools available to any small business is Google My Business. Listing on Google will help you exponentially increase your brand awareness and generate more leads. While listing using your home address is undoubtedly an option, you will get much more traction by listing using a professional business address. With work-from-home becoming much more mainstream in 2020, Google has become stricter on who gets to list their businesses on Google My Business. Many Virtual Mail and Virtual Office locations will have certain requirements that must be met for you to list on Google, but it will be well worth it.
  5. Networking
    • Find other small businesses listing at the same building, connect with them.
    • Attend events at the building.
    • Advertise your services at the building.
    • Virtual Mail and Virtual Office providers often act as a sort of small business hub. Many will even host networking events or let you advertise your company on-site with signage or an online directory. These types of networking and marketing opportunities can be invaluable to entrepreneurs who are looking to find new clients or partners and to establish their brand. Many of the other small business owners will have gone through the same struggles you are going through, so don’t be afraid to use them as a resource.
  6. Cost/Value
    • Minimal start-up cost.
    • Avoid regret renting space.
    • Stop wasting time or hesitating!
    • Probably the most significant selling point for a Virtual Mail Address or Virtual Office is the price. You can find them for as low as $15 or $20 per month. This is a steal when considering the value you will get out of using a Virtual Address. You don’t have to commit to the high overhead of renting an office but can still enjoy the benefits of having a professional business address and listing or registering your LLC somewhere other than your home. If you have been wavering on deciding to move your company out of the house and into an office, this is a no-brainer baby step in that direction. You can avoid any potential regret from moving into space you cannot afford or don’t want to commit to.
  7. Scalability
    • Get started, build momentum.
    • No long term contracts, scale up or down as needed.
    • At some point along the journey, all entrepreneurs reach a point where they feel stuck. They are mentally prepared to start scaling up their business but are wary of the costs of hiring new employees and/or moving into a larger space. Affordable options like Virtual Mail Addresses and Virtual Offices are the perfect solution for you to start taking steps in that direction without overcommitting your capital. You can start building momentum by listing at a business address, improving your footprint with Google My Business, and beginning to expand your marketing efforts and lead generation. This momentum will help you gain the extra support and cash flow to be able to confidently move forward into the next phase of your business plan.

Take your Business to the next level with Business E Suites. We have Virtual Mail, and Virtual Office packages starting as low as $15 per month. All our services are offered on a month-to-month basis, minimizing the risk and maximizing flexibility. We have a community of over 40 small businesses and regular networking and educational seminars offered for free to all our members. This is the perfect place to grow your small business and find all the resources you need to succeed and start your journey to new heights!

 

El antídoto para adaptarse en el nuevo mercado

By | Business, Industry, Tips

Si bien la tecnología de la comunicación nos permite trabajar desde casa, existen dificultades que podrás experimentar al trabajar en casa y analizamos los beneficios que te brinda el mantener una correcta división entre tu trabajo y tu casa. Existen alternativas para poder trabajar de una manera eficiente, adecuada y por bajos costos como las oficinas compartidas, existe el alquiler de cubículos u oficinas y con ellos los beneficios de mantener tu empresa conectada con otras, permitiendo así la expansión en el mercado, mejorando tu carta de presentación ante tus clientes y mantener absoluto control sobre tus resultados, algo que están haciendo los empresarios profesionales con estrategias eficientes y dirigidas a la productividad, rentando espacios económicos que ayudan en la imagen de tu negocio, controlar tu agenda y múltiples beneficios extras.

  1. La balanza productiva.

Te habrás dado cuenta que trabajando desde casa, existe mayor comodidad y se reflejará en tus resultados. A esto se le conoce como la balanza productiva, cuando la distracción aumenta, el rendimiento disminuye y viceversa. Supongamos que te llaman a una junta urgente y sigues en pijama, o debes cerrar un trato con un cliente potencial y a tu alrededor se escucha mucho ruido o imagina presentar el reporte de fin de mes al dueño de la empresa, mientras tus hijos corren por la casa.

Es aquí donde separar tu hogar de la oficina cobra sentido, respetar los espacios es clave para el correcto desarrollo de tu organización, recordemos que el propósito de todo negocio es avanzar al siguiente nivel. No importa a que industria perteneces, todas las empresas buscan aumentar su cartera de clientes, expandir su mercado, incrementar su capacidad de producción y con ello formar equipos de trabajo competentes, numerosos y estables. Siguiendo con esta visión, tu valor en el mercado también se beneficiará, creando una red de contactos más sólida y por ende las recomendaciones profesionales.

  1. En la unión está la fuerza.

Si eres del tipo de persona a la que le gusta trabajar solo y con métodos específicos, amarás el trabajar aislado desde casa, pero debemos recordar el proverbio africano que dice “Si quieres ir rápido camina solo, si quieres llegar lejos ve acompañado”, mismo que siguen las empresas reconocidas a nivel internacional. Sabemos que en el mercado actual es más fuerte la competencia, por tal motivo es importante transmitir confianza al cliente, tu corporativo debe proyectar experiencia, seguridad y profesionalismo.

Si apenas estás comenzando, te recomiendo buscar una oficina compartida, te incluye diversos servicios como internet, servicio postal, recepcionista, cafetería, entre otros más por el mismo precio. Además de esta gran ventaja, el alquilar un espacio de coworking te permite estar en contacto con otros profesionales, encontrar inspiración, perspectivas, hacer relaciones laborales y obtener recomendaciones. Es muy común que un cliente nuevo o antiguo de la persona que se aloja en el cubículo de enseguida necesita del servicio que provees y de manera directa llegan a ti, sin necesidad de buscarlos.

  1. El ahorro intangible

Por supuesto, no podemos dejar a un lado la economía, quizá piensas en el ahorro que representa trabajar desde casa como en transporte, la comida rápida o incluso en vestimenta. Pero seamos realistas, no hablamos de un gasto masivo y se puede comparar con la energía eléctrica que antes no usabas en tus horas fuera, notarás que el garrafón del agua se termina más rápido que antes, gastarás en café, etc. Es cierto que el gasto no es algo grande, pero tenlo en cuenta: para trabajar en casa necesitarás más que una computadora, una mesa y un sofá

Cuando trabajas mucho tiempo sentado, es importante tener un mueble diseñado para trabajar en una posición cómoda, misma que un espacio de trabajo te brinda. Además, según sea el ramo en el que te desarrolles, es posible que necesites impresora, escáner o muebles para archivar información importante. Por otro lado, si tienes una vivienda pequeña, ten en cuenta que tener una oficina en casa afectará el espacio de todos, lo que afectará no solo tu comodidad, sino también la de ellos.

 

 

 

Making the most out of your coworking space

By | Business, Industry

Having a co-working space can increase overall productivity; you get to work with like minded individuals that have the same
goals or outlooks that you do. Not to mention having a co-working space can decrease your costs of maintaining a big
office space, we provide all the office essentials needed to get your start-up/small business going. This is an
important factor that many business owners tend to overlook and overtime rack up office expenses that they were not
expecting to have. There is also the plus of working in a positive environment where business owners like yourself are
looking to get ahead while having the same goals or challenges that you currently face and it is a great way to keep
motivated when you work in a professional workspace where everyone pushes each other in a positive way.

There is also an upside of getting to network with many other business owners that could end up being potential
clients or you could come across people that can give you great references. Sometimes when you try to grow your business
you can hit plateaus, but when you are able to network with other business owners, you are able to come out of that
challenge even stronger. With co-working spaces we take care of everything, all you need to do is focus on your business
while we provide you with everything you need at an affordable rate.

How we want our business to thrive

By | Business, Tips

When we look at how we want our business to thrive, we tend to forget about the basics in our workflow; that’s where we come in. Some businesses overlook the importance of having a co-working space and how it affects productivity. Having a professional co-working space will increase productivity and allow you to have those meaningful business
connections that help you stand out; if you work from home, you will lack these critical factors for your growing business. Let’s not forget how having a co-working space can also be extremely valuable because you can network with other hard-working professionals to help give you the extra push you need.

Thriving in the middle of a pandemic

By | Business, Industry, Tips

How to Stand Out
During a Pandemic.

The business community has changed as we know it – due to COVID-19.  This change has been chaotic for some businesses but beneficial for some others.  How to thrive in the middle of a pandemic is what we’ll be talking about here today.  The pandemic has created a simple recipe to run a business, it is now running from home, it is now via video calls, it is now standardized to get work done virtually from anywhere.  As business owners, we came to realize a lot of the processes and a lot of the structure of the business was unnecessary and the endless expenses were not even needed.

Now, we came to realize that your business can be run from anywhere but we still need to keep a business professional, we still need to focus and we still need to be productive to thrive in the industry.  There are several marketing readjustments a business has to do in the middle of the pandemic, there are things that a business owner must re-route their strategy to but overall, there needs to be an affordable professional environment where it can be flexible and suitable for your business.

Business E Suites offers private, shared and co-working spaces to help your business thrive in a professional environment starting for FREE and moving forward with pricing as low as $199/month.  The ideal place to help your business thrive starts where you run it and that matters the most because once you have your mind in the right place, the productivity in its ideal stage, everything else will fall in place.  The big advantage of a working environment like Business E Suites is that you are joining a community that will benefit your business from a networking standpoint to a marketing strategy and so on.  Let’s get productive, let’s restart your business.

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Why Business Professionals Want to Go Back to the Office?

By | Business, Industry

Being in the local business community you get to hear a lot of the current experiences other business owners are going through, what it’s like to work from home and run their business from what once was a comfortable, relaxing, end of your day spot.  I got to speak to a handful of business owners in the local Sugar Land community, one of them particularly is an accountant and I ask her, what it was to work from home and how did she feel about taking her professional life back to the office?  She came up with 2 challenges that I myself and some other business owners, all agreed were the same kind of struggles they were facing.

  1. Working from home is really a nightmare – the main reason to this statement was the amount of anxiety individuals face when working from home, we tend to play two or more roles in our lives and some of these roles can’t mix at all, sure we can be wives and husbands alongside being mothers and fathers but we cannot be a loving mother or father and at the same time a ruthless businessman or woman – although ruthless might be a little out of hand, you get my point.  This feeling of not being able to mix both roles in the same environment creates enormous anxiety among our family and colleagues – if you add as well the beautiful fact that our little angels are actually not little angels and we realize how assertive were the teachers – we were in denial the entire time!!!  Now we get to struggle with the not so little angels and the day-to-day professional challenges all in one place.  Sure we get to perhaps walk around in our pajamas for a little bit longer but is it worth all the other nightmares we are facing while playing mom or dad PLUS director of operations?
  2. The business’ capabilities are forcibly and significantly reduced – the second reason to why professionals can’t wait to get back to the office is to bring their business back to normal, having to take your business to a still-mode and taking your entire operations remotely not only creates a new way to adapt you and your employees but also your customer intake.  Many businesses get their business from actual customers visiting their office, socializing, and networking with these potential customers are the key to growing their business.  Plus, the collaboration between the team is crucial to growing the business as well, and let’s face it so little can be done behind a webcam.

I highly recommend checking out the workspaces at Business E Suites – they aren’t only affordable but accommodating to any business platform and the best part, you take it as you go, so if things go south again with the pandemic, you can always reduce your space intake and go month to month without long term agreements.

 

Manage Your Time Better

By | Business, Tips

Time management is harder than we think and understanding how to manage it is even more complicated.  But when done right, you learn that you accomplish a lot more in very little time.  Working 8-12 hours a day is not the ideal scenario for you and your brain, so what can you do to manage time better and spend more time doing what you love.  Here are a few tips, we hope it helps.

  1. Keep an eye on how you allocate time – make a list of your entire to-do list for this day and really dig into that list and find out how much time you actually need to allocate for each one of your to-do list items.  Keep a record on a piece of paper to see how much time goes on each one of your projects, if you’re not old school like me, then download a time tracking app to help manage this better.  The ideal scenario out of this approach is to really understand where most of your time gets invested and that way you can break it down in different tasks to make sure your work gets completed in time.  You can also find out what project is dragging you the most throughout the day and perhaps find a way to do it better or get help from your team to make it happen in less time than if you did it by yourself.  No matter what it is, there is always a better way to automate and do it better.
  2. Identify what’s more important – we all have so much to do but you have to make a first list which is your priority list and a secondary list which is the next thing to do once you finish with your first list, aka… prioritize your to-do list.  It is proven that if you create a list of priorities, “the must-dos” you have automatically set some time to get things done on your priority list first than anything else and if you worry about the list of items rather than the deadlines, it is proven that you become more productive and goal-oriented.  In addition to identifying your priority list, understand if the items on that list are actually of greater value to your business and what you can’t do or does not need your presence or time, well, pass it on to someone else in your team so you worry about what you consider important for the business.
  3. Go off the grid – as humans, we are programmed to do many things at once, some of them are done without even thinking, it’s part of our habits – we have a cue the moment we come into the office, we automatically implement a routine which we do on daily basis (i.e. check emails, get on a call, conferences, get on Quickbooks, you name it). and we wait for the reward which is getting things done on your list.  But this amazing loop only gets done successfully if we get off the grid, we have constant distractions such as text messages for weekend plans, social media updates from your friends and cute little pictures from your kids, but these distractions only drag you to taking longer to get things done.  Going offline, you can actually get a lot more done and enjoy these distractions towards the end of your day or even during a well-deserved break.

Focusing on what matters at that very moment, is the key to productivity and the key to a successful business.  Looking to find the ideal place to stay focused and productive, visit Business E Suites for workspace options – they’re affordable, professional and with 100s of amazing features.

Coworking Sugar Land Texas - Business E Suites

The Evolution of CoWorking

By | Industry

Co-Working has revolutionized the way professionals work, it is not only a trend but a practical way to get the job done.

As we know, the term was first used back in 99′ by Bernie Dekoven but it was really put to use in 05′ by Brad Neuberg when he first stated the Hat Factory in California as a work and live loft setting.  Others picked up on the trend and by 07′ there was more than 70 co-working spaces around the country.  It became a phenomenon particularly in cities like San Francisco, New York, Austin, Toronto, Seattle.  2008 was really when co-working environments were revolutionized into something we know big corporation have but entrepreneurs like you and me could not take advantage of; and so Cubes & Crayons was born, this co-working setting offered the first ever co-working space that included child care, so the on-the-go-parent, entrepreneur, freelancer, startup, small business type of person could not have their kids right next door without all the fuzz and distractions.  By 2011, the co-working concept had reached its maximum momentum and over 1,000 communities were part of this movement by the end of that year; causing this phenomenon to simply spike up from there to a worldwide level.

Today, the biggest co-working spaces certainly dominate the global market but the small businesses like yours and ours are quickly scaling to cater the small-local business segment with a local-community sense in mind.  Co-working is simply practical, it’s affordable, it’s professional, it’s versatile and flexible.  It is giving every aspiring professional the opportunity to scale their business to a whole other level, to an unimaginable level that would normally take years to situate and get it started because traditional working space is so unconventional, unaffordable and complicated.

The co-working story has been written and it continues to go on, it’s a movement that will not stop.  What’s your story? What’s your movement?

Social proof and reputation matters

By | Business
Business

Social Proof and Reputation Matters

Do you ever guess or wonder what your customers are thinking?  I think that is a question we ask ourselves each day with the purpose of increasing our sales and growing our business.  Marketing specialists know that social proof is a new tactic for conveying a message of trust and confidence to the high-maintenance, worry-like customers.

In the last decade, social proof has become a very vital part of any business and this is simply because everyone has the tools to stay in touch, Google something, view a review and so on and this social proof comes along with the reputation that a business builds overtime, because that reputation is no longer a word-of-mouth strategy but it’s a public voice everyone speaks out in an environment, free to express, free to say anything we want.  I also call this Google.   Profit Industry estimated that over 70% of people in the United States look at the reviews prior to making a purchase and that number clearly shows how having a positive social proof online and a great reputation will make a difference for your business.

As we look for strategies to grow our business, we learn that what you have to say does not really matter, it is what others say about you in the public eye.  For example, Search Engine Journal says that nearly 65% of consumers show signs of purchase from a site after analyzing ratings and reviews in search engines.  So overall, social proof and reputation does matter.

A successful start-up in a co-working environment

By | Industry
1

Affordable + Flexible

Startups love the affordability and flexibility a co-working space offers. Renting a co-working space is much cheaper than renting traditional office space and often includes amazing perks and extras such as internet services, conference room access, coffee, and much more..
2

Professional Space

Small businesses usually begin at home, we have heard many great companies started in a garage but that is clearly not the case for everyone, not everyone can become an Apple or an Amazon but we can certainly become a professional business where clients can feel welcome, and ensure that now, in today's modern world, first impressions always count.
3

No Politics

A shared office space means different companies in one place, with a variety of tasks and projects. With such setting, there is less competition and interpersonal rivalry.
Without the traditional office setting, the office politics are simply not there, the need to impress a boss or fight for a position is not needed. It's a fast environment where everyone is really there to work.
4

Motivating

The perks of a co-working environment come at a low price, and part of that price is having the benefit of motivation. Working with others and see them preserve themselves and survive in this difficult economy is a reason of motivation and a co-working place does just that.