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August 24, 2015

Your Office, Is It Better To Lease Or To Own?

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As with any decision in life there are two sides to every situation. If you are currently considering whether you should lease your office space or buy it you may wish to include the following in your deliberations:

 

  • Would you be a better landlord than your current lessor? When you’re your own landlord, you don’t have to worry about whether your rent payment is inflated because it is a profit center for the landlord. You have the ability to control some of your expenses.
  • Are you changing office locations frequently because of rental rate or common area maintenance increases?Moving takes time and money, which could both be better invested in buying a space. Not to mention it would be nice to know what your debt service will look like in the future as opposed to experiencing market fluctuations every once in a while.
  • Would you rather your monthly rent payment be an investment?No one likes spending a lot of money every month on rent. Buying won’t rid you of those monthly payments, but instead of giving that money to someone else, you are investing in an asset.

However, buying versus leasing doesn’t mean it’s the right decision for you.

  • Is relocation/significant expansion/downsizing slightly possible in the next few years?Buying is a long-term commitment. Unless you’re purchasing office property solely as an investment, your company’s growth or downsizing expectations will play a role in your decision.
  • Is location important?Some businesses may need to be in a specific part of town. Unfortunately this may eliminate the advantage of locating in up-and-coming areas where the market may be more conducive to your business.
  • Is your current lease structured as a full service lease? If you’re currently leasing, the building manager most likely has a cleaning and maintenance crew that empties the trash, replaces light bulbs, maintains the bathroom, etc. Oftentimes potential buyers take janitorial and maintenance services, utilities and services such as Internet and phone service for granted and forget to factor it in their buying considerations. You must be willing to take on or hire out these responsibilities if and when you buy.
  • Would your equity be better placed in your business?If you only have capital for one investment, your business may be a better choice than buying a building. Similarly, your time may be better spent working on your business rather than maintaining a building.

 

Leasing an office or set of offices from Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch gives you flexibility in terms and payments and you will be located in the ever growing and trendy Lakewood Ranch area.  We also provide all of the external services you need which means you won’t be taking out the trash each night.

 

Check our website,  ESLR Offices, check our specials and check out our offices and prices. Your decision to lease versus buying may become a very easy one for you to make.

September 10, 2014

Why Videoconferencing Is For You

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In many different situations a live video conference is much more effective than a phone call or web conference. For example, you may need to visually demo a new product with a sales team that is spread out over many states or even countries. Or maybe you need to troubleshoot an issue with a client which requires sharing information visually. Literally seeing what you are discussing is far more effective and meaningful than other methods short of actually being there. Listed below are the some of the top benefits of video conferencing.

Reduced Travel Costs

The ability to be in several places at once without leaving an office is a proven driver of business productivity. Though face-to-face interactions with your customers, partners and colleagues are always important the huge leaps in quality, availability, and ease-of-use make videoconferencing the next best thing. When you calculate the number of trips taken annually and determine the associated costs (transportation to and from the airport, the cost of plane tickets, meals, time lost in travel, etc.) it is clear why videoconferencing is such an attractive alternative.

Increased Productivity among your Customers and Teams

Today it’s not unusual to have satellite offices across the country, or even the world. Most methods of communication will be limited to phone calls, email, or instant messages. The lack of face-to-face communication can cause misunderstandings within your teams. When video is implemented, participants are more likely to stay alert and focused on what is being discussed. As a result, projects are completed faster, productivity increases, and participants feel more in synch with each other and the message you want to convey.

Improves Communication & Reinforce Relationships

During a videoconference you can see the facial expressions and body language of conference participants, leading to faster and more effective collaboration. You can actually discern how your message is being received. These are both important aspects of communication that are lost with a basic telephone call.

Competitive Advantage

There is no benefit for being second in bringing new products or ideas to market, and video communication creates and maintains competitive advantage for your business. Teams that communicate through video, will share knowledge faster and will be more informed, which reduces the time required to bring a new product or service to market. Support departments using videoconferencing can establish more personal relationships with their customers, which encourages a much deeper loyalty than just speaking on a phone. You can accomplish in less than an hour, what it takes your competition to do in a week via shipping the product for review.

Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch is your preeminent provider of videoconference service in the Sarasota/Bradenton/Lakewood Ranch area. Be there without the hassles or expense of actually being there. For more information contact us today!

August 6, 2014

Virtual Office: What are the benefits?

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A virtual office offers all the advantages of an office address and office communications and technology without requiring the business owner to set up a physical office. A virtual office can provide phone, email and other amenities needed to run a successful business.

Here are some of the advantages of A Virtual Office:
• Professional business address – Organizations can have addresses at professional buildings without actually having to rent office space there. The service provider forwards all mail sent to this address to the client or handles it per the client’s instructions. Compared to simply having a PO Box address, the business address at prestigious buildings allows the company to maintain a professional image at relatively low prices
• Reception services – A reception service greets any visitors to the business and then manages that contact per the client’s instructions. Additionally they can receive and sign for any parcels or overnights received on behalf of the client.
• Communication services – The virtual office service can provide live phone receptionists, fax services, answering services, voice mail and other communications options.
• Meeting rooms – A virtual office service providers offer rental meeting rooms and conference rooms to clients that are available on-demand. This meeting space is available at the same building as their professional business address.
• Office space – The virtual office service can offer temporary office or work space to clients.
• Amenities – The virtual office service may also offer amenities like video conferencing, lounges, kitchens, break rooms, broadband Internet connectivity, wireless Internet connectivity and parking facilities.
• Low start-up costs – The virtual office space offers savings as compared to starting up an actual office since customers share costs for most of the services and infrastructure.
• Immediacy – Most (if not all) virtual office services can be set up on the same day that they are needed.

In conclusion a virtual office creates an opportunity for clients to conduct business in a professional manner with their clients and prospects and develop a great impression while networking.

Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch offers a complete line of virtual office services. Our standard service products can be tailored to meet your unique preferences and needs. Contact us today to learn more and be in business tomorrow!

July 17, 2014

The Exciting Benefits of VOIP Technology

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Today many small businesses and organizations are making the switch from their current analog phone service to VoIP business phone systems. There are numerous advantages to using such a service, including standard services such as voicemail (really enhanced via VOIP technology), call waiting, toll free numbers, call forwarding, and remote operation, and there are a host of other features that really makes this technology shine and really increases the productivity of the user.

More than two persons

On a standard phone line, only two persons can speak at a time. With VoIP, you can setup a conference with a whole team communicating in real time.

Abundant, Interesting and Useful Features

Using VoIP also means benefitting from its abundant feature sets which can make your VoIP experience very rich and sophisticated. One can, for example, make calls anywhere in the world to any destination in the world with a VoIP account. Domestic long distance calls are free and International calls are made at greatly reduced rates. Other features include Caller ID, Contact Lists, Voicemail, extra-virtual numbers etc. Here are some enhanced features of this technology:

Find me/follow me call routing

Mobile workers appreciate this feature. Find me/follow me call routing allows you to create a list of numbers where you can be found before the call gets pushed to voicemail. So, for example, you might have your office phone ring twice, but on the third ring, your cell phone starts to ring, and then on the fifth, your home phone. If the list is exhausted, the caller gets sent to voicemail.

Voicemail to email carbon and transcription

Voicemail to email carbon means that an email is sent to you with a wav file attachment containing the voicemail message. Voicemail to email transcription transcribes your voicemail messages to text and sends them to your email address. Read them in your email at your leisure. This also allows you to file, organize, delete, and search all your voicemails in a way that would otherwise be impossible.

Music and/or video on hold

If your company often has to put callers on hold, this feature is a necessity. You can customize your music or on-hold message.

Call screening

Call screening is a handy feature of this technology. It allows you to look at a number on the caller ID and choose how to treat it. For example, if your spouse is calling, you can choose to pick it up whereas if it’s an annoying sales person you wish to avoid you can disregard the call.

Auto attendant

An auto attendant is one of the hidden gems of premium VoIP services. This feature allows callers to interact with a menu to choose an appropriate extension or phone, even after-hours. It’s like having an electronic receptionist!

Do not disturb
This feature does exactly what its name implies: leaves you undisturbed. You can turn it on to temporarily stop incoming calls to your phone. This becomes especially useful during conferences, lunches, and meetings. Best of all, you can program it so that it does not just ignore callers, but directs them toward voicemail or another destination of your choice.

All of these services, and more, are available with the VOIP technology phone service offered by Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch. We even include live answer before transfer, call logs if you want them and more! Contact us at 941-373-1400 to learn more about how this exciting technology can enhance your business and operations.

July 11, 2014

Conference Rooms Fully Equipped for Success

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The fastest growing trend in workplaces today is the rush to go mobile. Even the Federal Government is incentivizing its workforce to work in places other than a traditional bricks and mortar office. But even though more and more workers are doing their job in places other than a traditional office the necessity to get together and share information or collaborate on a project will not diminish. While the need for office space may go away the need for a productive place to gather together will not.

So does that mean that a table in the corner of a local Starbucks™ is sufficient? In a word, no.

In order for a conference room to be fully equipped for success, and by extension for your meeting to be a success, it must provide the following (in addition to plenty of comfortable seating of course):

Wireless Internet access. In today’s workplace environment it’s an essential. As one recent meeting attendee put it, “…it’s as necessary as air”.

LCD Screens or projectors. What good are ideas if no one can see them? Whiteboards are OK but very limited. Computer based idea sharing is the norm and the ability for everyone to clearly see what is on the presenter’s computer is key.

Audio and/or videoconferencing. You need to have a way to incorporate far-flung associates into the meeting. Either of these services allows you to easily accomplish that.

Lobby greeter. If you meeting at a location that is not part of your normal office inventory, (i.e., a rented conference room space) then it’s very important to have someone to greet all attendees, to provide directions to the conference room(s) and rest rooms, provide advice and assistance on amenities and anything else that might come up. Besides, it’s professional and it’s expected.

Full business services. We’re talking print, copy, fax. Available and easy to use and ideally serviced by the lobby greeter. I don’t think these are services Baristas are trained to provide.

Catering service. Even Napoleon was aware of the necessity of feeding the troops. So the well-equipped conference room either has a kitchen associated with it or has a handy catering service menu or two. Give your order to the lobby greeter and let him or her take it from there. I’m sure they even know where the nearest Starbucks™ is.

Extras. Maybe not absolutely necessary, but these sure make the overall meeting experience that much better and provide extra peace of mind and allow everyone to focus on the task at hand:
• Break out areas for quick, private conversation.
• Nearby restaurants. Not everyone likes the lingering odor of lunch in the room they are meeting in.
• Plenty of parking, ideally free. And in case the meeting goes long, well-lit.
• Easy access. It’s not productive to have someone arrive late because they were lost.
• After hours capability.
• Easy scheduling, preferably online, 24/7.

Fortunately for you all of this, and more, is available in any one of the three conference rooms located at Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch. The next time you need to meet in Sarasota, Bradenton or Lakewood Ranch, meet at Executive Suites at Lakewood Ranch.

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