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Be There Without Being There

With air travel and hotel costs on the rise, not to mention all of the time wasted standing in line to pass security, savvy businesses are taking advantage of video conferencing. Many times the benefits in travel savings outweigh the benefits of traditional in-person meetings. And organizations become more efficient and productive by replacing conference calls with video conferences.

Video conferencing connects individuals in real time through audio and video communication over broadband networks.

Here’s some areas where video conferencing excels:

  1. Significant Travel Savings

The constant climb of air travel prices barely seems like news anymore, and smart organizations are finding alternatives.  Not only is video conferencing a direct replacement for many in-person business trips, but because there is virtually no cost to add additional key employees to a virtual meeting, you can easily bring the right team together.

  1. Improved Communication

Video conferencing restores many visual cues necessary in long distance communication. Social psychologists demonstrated several years ago that non-verbal communication constitutes about two-thirds of the communication between people. That’s one reason in-person meetings are so effective. For example, eye contact enables us to ‘get’ a message from a speaker that voice communication alone may not successfully convey. Video conferencing lets each party see those non-verbal cues and body language.

  1. Increased Productivity

If you have been in business long enough you have experienced the classic, never ending “conference call from hell,” and video conferencing all but eliminates those problems, even from large group calls.  Important meetings are shorter and more effective.  Many video conferencing users report saving a minimum of two hours a week with the technology.

In summation, Video conferencing saves travel time and money. Participants can see and hear all other participants and communicate both verbally and visually, creating a face-to-face experience. People downtime is reduced and productivity gains are achieved by removing the logistics of flight preparations, airport delays, hotel stays, and all the other inconveniences of business travel. In distance education or training, video conferencing provides quality access to students who could not travel to or could afford to relocate to a traditional campus. Video conferences are also used in legal depositions and employee recruitment.

People use video conferencing when:

A live conversation is needed;

Visual information is an important component of the conversation;

The parties of the conversation can’t physically come to the same location;

The expense or time of travel is a consideration.

Video conferencing lets you be there without being there. You can meet with someone from Tokyo in the morning, someone else from London later in the day and someone else in Dallas before the end of the day and still be home on time for dinner with your family.

Experience the ease, savings and increase in your personal productivity by using the professional video conferencing services of Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch.

Benefits of an Executive Office Suite

Everyone needs to watch their cost of doing business and this is especially true if you are just starting out on your own or expanding into new markets. If you decide that you will be needing a physical office space then the next step is determining how much that office is going to cost you. If you look at the costs of owning or renting a traditional office then you must factor in expenses for:

Property acquisition, (either purchase or lease)

Property, Casualty, Liability insurance

Real Estate taxes

Furniture

Equipment acquisition – copier, phone system, fax, scanner, postage meter and subsequent maintenance

Utilities – electric, water/sewer, trash pickup, Internet and deposits for same

Services – housekeeping, pest control, infrastructure repair

Kitchen/break room appliances, furnishing and subsequent maintenance

Personnel – lobby and reception.

And, whenever anything breaks or needs attention it’s all on you to make things right. Do you have the time or resources for that? Maintenance situations like air conditioning system repair is never inexpensive. However, all of these concerns and expenses go away when you rent an executive office suite. The executive office suite provider, such as Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch, takes care of all of this for you.

Other benefits of an executive office suite include:

 

  • Flexibility — Most providers do not require long-term agreements and it is usually easy to scale your operations up or down. Rental agreements for executive office suites average from one to 12 months.
    • Services – Many plans offer shared services for all tenants in the establishment. For example, there may be a front desk receptionist for the entire building or floor. A daily postal and parcel service is commonly available.
    • Networking opportunities – The shared executive office suite environment offers opportunities for networking with other tenants in the same building or floor. Some business centers specifically focus on inter-office networking and trading by offering related events and resources.
    • Professional image – The executive office suite setup allows businesses to rent attractive professional office space at cost-effective rates. To set up similar office infrastructure independently might be too expensive for many small businesses.
    • Time savings – Because the rental company takes care of all the maintenance tasks that concern the office building including cleaning, building repair, IT connections and administration, the tenant companies and organizations can concentrate their time and efforts more fully on their central focus and mission.
    • Amenities – Among the amenities generally included or available at these executive office suites are parking space (possibly including covered parking), conference room facilities, break rooms, training rooms, video conference equipment, kitchen, restrooms, fax/scan/copy machines, lounge areas, waiting areas, postage metering, office assistant services, and on-site security services.

 

An executive office suite provides clients with the opportunity to conduct business in a professional manner and project the right image while saving money. For many smaller businesses, especially start-up companies, these setups offer a way of maintaining professional offices that would be too difficult to sustain independently while providing flexibility for up-sizing and downsizing.

 

Contact us at Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch and discover how an executive office suite can best work for you.

 

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. 

Success Tips From Richard Branson – Part 2

The customer is always right, most of the time.

The customer is always right… unless they’re wrong. After all, they’re only human too. Your customers’ opinions are important, but “you should not build your customer service system on the premise that your organisation will never question the whims of your clients,” says Branson.

Branson warns that many entrepreneurs think if they provide ‘the-customer-is-always-right’ service that it will improve their businesses. This is only sometimes true. Beware not to damage relationships with customers or staff with your customer service policies.

Define your brand.

When it comes to defining your brand, Branson advises entrepreneurs to do the opposite of what he did with Virgin, which is spreading out all over the place. And while it’s true that Virgin branches into many different industries, Branson says the company is actually quite focused on one thing: “finding new ways to help people have a good time.”

Stick to what you know. Under promise and overdeliver. Because if you don’t define your brand, your competitors will.

Explore uncharted territory.

Branson compares exploring new territory in business to exploring new territory in science or geography. “We will find new species and better understand the make-up of the deep-level waters,” he says.

Business translation: There are still many things out there that haven’t been discovered, invented, achieved. Exploring little- or uncharted areas can spark new ideas and innovations.

Beware the “us vs. them” environment.

A workplace should be one in which the boss and his or her employees communicate well and work together toward the same goal. “If employees aren’t associating themselves with their company by using ‘we’, it is a sign that people up and down the chain of command aren’t communicating,” says Branson.
If you think there might be discrepancies or tension between employees and management, Branson advises to check with the middle management first to try to uncover the source of the problem and address it head-on.

Build a corporate comfort zone.

Employees must feel free and encouraged to openly express themselves without rigid confines so they can do better work and make good, impactful decisions.

“This may sound like a truism,” begins Branson, “But it has to be said: It takes an engaged, motivated and committed workforce to deliver a first-class product or service and build a successful, sustainable enterprise.”

Not everyone is suited to be CEO.

A manager needs to be someone who “brings out the best in people,” someone who communicates well with others and helps an employee learn from a mistake instead of criticizing them for it.

Not everyone does this well, and that’s okay. The founder can but doesn’t have to be the CEO; if the fit isn’t right, he or she should know when the role is meant for someone else.

And, just like last week, we think one more success tip that Mr. Branson should have added is that to boost the chances of success for your business base it at Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch.