Archive for December, 2014

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.