Archive for October, 2014

Renting an Executive Suite Can Help Entrepreneurs Succeed

Executive suites are an ideal solution for entrepreneurs/solo practitioners/branch office personnel to conduct their business in a professional environment. They save time and money and often include the following amenities:

  • 24/7 access to the office
  • Professionally staffed Reception area and furnished lobby
  • Wired or wireless Internet
  • Parking on-site
  • Common areas and break room
  • Shared equipment such as a fax/copier/scanner
  • Meeting rooms for conferences
  • Video conference service
  • Enhanced telecommunications solutions

Networking

Renting an executive suite has networking benefits as well. Typically accountants, realtors, insurance and legal professionals are the types who seek out an executive suite. By having so many professional workers in one space, you’ll be able to network, work together, or even exchange services and help each other out. It’s always nice to add to your business contacts, and sharing a professional suite can help you do just that.

Saving Time

Executive office suites save you time; all the maintenance, cleaning, and administration work is taken care of, and included in your fees. If there is a problem with any part of the infrastructure, telephone, electricity, Internet, etc., it’s up to the management of the executive suites complex to fix it, not yours.

Saving Money

All of the tenants in an executive suite share costs for the amenities, and that lessens the burden of a small business owner. There’s no start-up cost for furniture, equipment, utilities, copiers, fax machines and other business expenses. No utility deposits to concern yourself with. It’s easy to manage  because you know exactly how much you need to budget per month. If you need to upsize during a busy period, that’s easy to do with the flexibility of an executive suite. Then during your slower months, you can downsize your office so you’re not paying for space that you don’t need. The options are endless with this type of business arrangement.

The vast majority of executive suites are conveniently located to Interstates, busy arterial roadways, courthouses, airports, hotels, restaurants, banking institutions and the like so they can easily facilitate your business needs.

Richard Branson’s Keys To Success

This is the last in a multi-part series of success tips from Sir Richard Branson. These tips are from his book, “Like A Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School.”

Cut ties without burning bridges.

Business ventures with another person, be it a friend or a partner, don’t always work out. If this is the case, successful entrepreneurs know when to part ways.

But just because you decide to go in another direction doesn’t mean things have to end badly, especially with a friend, says Branson. Handle any problems quickly and head-on, and end the relationship as amicably as possible.

Pick up the phone.

It is great to be tech-savvy, but don’t text or email when you should be calling. “The quality of business communications has become poorer in recent years as people avoid phone calls and face-to-face meetings, I can only assume, in some misguided quest for efficiency,” Branson says.

Problems are more difficult to solve by text or email, and “there is nothing efficient about allowing a small problem to escalate,” says Branson, when it could have been easily addressed with a phone call.

Change shouldn’t be feared, but it should be managed.

“Companies aren’t future-proof,” says Branson, and nothing lasts forever. An entrepreneur should be prepared to adapt, and avoid being nostalgic about the company itself.

“Sometimes you have to take your company in a new direction because circumstances and opportunities have changed.” If this is the case, Branson advises that you should “find ways to inspire all employees to think like entrepreneurs … so the more responsibility you give people the better they will perform.”

When it comes to making mistakes, bounce back, don’t fall down.

Your decision will not always be the best decision. Everyone makes mistakes, but the best thing you can do in the face of a mistake is own up to it.

Honesty isn’t just the best policy, it’s the only policy, notes Branson. When a mistake is made, don’t let it consume you. Uncover the problem and get to work fixing it.

Be a leader, not a boss.

Branson sees the classic image of “the boss” as an anachronism. Being bossy is not a desirable trait in a manager, he says. A boss orders while a leader organizes.

“Perhaps, therefore, it is odd that if there is any one phrase that is guaranteed to set me off it’s when someone says to me, ‘Okay, fine. You’re the boss!'” says Branson. “What irks me is that in 90 percent of such instances what that person is really saying is ‘Okay, then, I don’t agree with you but I’ll roll over and do it because you’re telling me to. But if it doesn’t work out I’ll be the first to remind everyone that it wasn’t my idea.'”

A good corporate leader is someone who doesn’t just execute his or her own ideas, but also inspires others to come forth with their own.

Base Your Business at Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch

No, he didn’t really say this but he should have.