Last Updated on Mar 11, 2020 by James W
As a freelancer, you will no doubt be working from the comfort of your own home. I remember when I personally decided to make the leap of faith from being a permanent employee working for someone else (and not being particularly happy with my job or my employer, for that matter) to becoming a self-employed freelancer.
If I’m honest, it was a time of mixed emotions for me. On the one hand, I was happy because I could finally leave my job and pursue my dreams of working for myself, but, on the other hand, I was a little nervous and scared.
Another reason was because I had never done such a thing before, and I wasn’t too sure if I had made the right decision or not – especially because of the global economic crisis of the time. Today, I know for sure that I have made the right decision becoming a freelancer!
There are enormous benefits to becoming a freelancer. For example, you have the freedom to do what you want, when you want, you can choose who you want to do work for, and there is also the flexibility of working the hours that suit you.
From a client’s point of view, their costs are considerably lower hiring you as a freelancer than they are had they hired you to work for them directly as an employee, even if this was on a contract basis.
Why a virtual office is great for marketing purposes
So, this is all great and all, but in order to get those clients in the first place and be able to pay your bills and put food on the table each month, you will need to market your services; otherwise, prospective clients won’t know that you exist!
There is obviously a plethora of different ways that you can reach out to your potential client base, but regardless of what you try to do there is one massive stumbling block that you will need to overcome: your address!
Whilst it is true that a lot of business don’t care about who does any work for them as long as it’s done properly, it doesn’t look very professional if you want to target other businesses and you use your home address and contact number on any “official” business correspondence such as business cards, letterheads and so on.
Here are just some of the reasons why using virtual offices to improve your business is a good idea:
- They make your business more appealing – even though you are a sole trader, having a virtual office address makes you look more professional to other businesses;
- They separate home from work life – the last thing you want is random people visiting your house unannounced! Virtual offices are a great idea for ensuring that you keep your personal and work lives separate;
- They can be like real offices – aside from being what is essentially a mailing address for your business, many virtual offices offer all sorts of facilities such as meeting room hire and even short to long-term leasing of physical offices.