Category: Virtual Office

How To Select A Flexible Office Space?

For private offices, coworking, meeting rooms, and virtual offices

How to select a flexible office space | CloudVO

In short, CloudVO has sorted the wheat from the weeds and carefully vetted the close to 1,000 locations in our network. That’s a good start. But there are simple things you still need to do.  

There are approximately 35,000 flexible office and coworking spaces around the world and over 10,000 in the US and Canada alone. The operators come in different shapes, designs, concepts, and operational strengths, with some being mostly focused on small private offices, others with a large inventory of team rooms, and some with more of an open coworking bend. 

A majority of booking nowadays takes place online without even touring the space. How do you know what to expect? How do you differentiate between well-managed operators and those you may want to stay away from? How do you know the Quality of Service you can expect?

CloudVO has done some of the filtering for you:


  1. By only selecting partners in the network that satisfy the highest criteria of amenities and customer satisfaction – poor performers are not invited or are requested to leave.
  1. By requiring our partners to maintain amenities that guarantees a professional experience, including plenty of bandwidth, wifi, furnished rooms, on-site staff, fully equipped meeting rooms, and more. 
  1. By being transparent on who our local partners are. Beware of networks that hide the name or brand of their local partners! Can you imagine booking a room on Hotels.com or Expedia and not knowing if you are booking a Hyatt or a Motel 6?
  1. By inviting our partners to display their Health & Safety protocol on our website because we believe safety is important today and will remain important in the post-COVID-19 era. We display a safety shield for locations that have uploaded their safety protocol which you can review with ease.
  1. By being transparent on pricing and terms. The prices are the same if you booked directly with our partners, but in addition, we provide a layer of control of quality standards and monitoring of customer’s experience that benefits our clients and some centralized services, like phone answering, that are extremely efficient. We value full transparency. A prominent live phone answering competitor was recently brought to court for opaque pricing and abuses. Most virtual receptionist services charge by the minute spent by their phone attendant. How do you know? How can you monitor that? See our straightforward pricing approach for phone answering and how it compares to that one competitor who ran into these legal issues. 
  1. By making customer reviews visible and comparing them with our 2 largest competitors, as shown in the graphs below.

Now you may have noticed that the two largest companies in the flexible space industry, Regus and Wework, are not part of the CloudVO network. Well, by looking at their customer reviews and how their customer ratings compare with CloudVO partners, you’ll start to understand why! Our standards are high!

CloudVO Partners Customer Ratings Compared to Regus & WeWork


We started this process with 7 regions, but plan to publish regional reviews for our 15 biggest markets in early 2021.

CloudVO Yelp Customer Ratings
CloudVO Google Customer Ratings
The data was collected in Q3 2020 and will be updated and published with more regions in Q1 2021. The customer rating is an average of all CloudVO individual location ratings in each region, as published by Yelp & Google, and of the customer ratings at Regus and WeWork locations in the same region. A region was defined by a 50-mile radius to the center of each city per Google maps.
CloudVO Google and Yelp Comparisons of Regus and WeWork
CloudVO Regus WeWork Number of Locations Comparisons

CloudVO has done some of the vetting on your behalf already, but you still need to figure out what location works best for your needs. We recommend going one layer deeper by checking Google and Yelp customer ratings and reviews for the location selected. It’s easy to do and becomes meaningful when the location has at least 10 customer reviews. With fewer reviews, one outlier may give the wrong impression. Here is an example of Pacific Workplaces, a partner and sister company of CloudVO with 17 locations in Northern California, displaying those reviews for each of its locations in full transparency. In the future, we plan to encourage all our partners to do something similar.

About CloudVO

CloudVO is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp., headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the CloudTouchdown network that grants preferential access to day offices and meeting rooms at nearly 1,000 locations worldwide.

Small Businesses: Get A Virtual Office You Can Be Proud Of

Not all virtual offices are created equal: know what you are buying and what is a reasonable price.

Amidst the growing popularity of virtual offices, many service providers are using the term ‘virtual office’ in ways that were not intended by its creators. This article will help you sort through important considerations when purchasing a virtual office.

Virtual Office Space Minneapolis | Novel Coworking | CloudVO


What is a Virtual Office?

To put it simply, a virtual office is a service that gives you access to a physical office infrastructure on a part-time basis. Typically the user’s main office is remote, whether in another city or at home. A virtual office plan can include products such as mail services, digital mail, live telephone answering, or access to day offices and meeting rooms at the selected location under a subscription model or some other form of discounted pricing.

What differentiates a virtual office user from a full-time office user is that the former does not have a permanent office at the location, but uses some elements of the services offered by the shared office infrastructure of the selected location.

It’s not just about mail – but mail services are important

The business address you  select for your virtual office is one of the most important choices you will make. You will use that address on your marketing collateral, business cards, or website, and the flexible office operator hosting your plan will need to receive mail on your behalf, hold it for you to pick up, forward the mail to you, or scan and email it according to your directions. That’s what a complete mail service with digital mail makes possible. Make sure the operator has that kind of capability–a staffless, traditional office facility won’t be able to do that for you.

Some providers, typically low-cost providers, use the term ‘virtual office’ to describe digital mail services delivered out of inexpensive warehouses or UPS-like mail centers. They do nothing to improve your business image and, in fact, using their service is more likely to hurt rather than help your business. Beware of ‘digital mail’ at $9.99 as we have seen advertised across the web. In our experience, use of a business address for complete mail service including forwarding or digital mail is more likely to be a business image killer than anything of real value to you when priced less than $49/month. The office infrastructure is likely to be nonexistent, unreliable, and nothing to be proud of.

A range of $49-99/month for a mail plan that includes the use of a true professional business address is what you should budget for. More prestigious, Class A buildings in large downtown areas like New York City or San Francisco will lean toward the high end of that range or even beyond. You’ve got to pay the price if you want to establish your business in a trophy property. Nice suburban buildings in less expensive areas may offer effective mail plans on the lower end of that range. But stay away from plans below $49/month as they are just as credible as a “luxury” condo with an ocean view in Hawaii for $49/night!

What kind of business address?

One of the key drivers of the choice of a virtual office is the professional nature and image of the space the virtual office plan is attached to. Two important elements need to be considered: convenience and image. 

If you work from home most of the time but need to access the office on a part-time basis, selecting a location close to home makes sense. If you live out of town but need to conduct business in your location of choice, then proximity to clients or your place of business matters; for example, a Federal Court House if you are an attorney, or the State Capitol if you are a lobbyist.  That speaks to convenience.

Image is important too because you will establish a big part of your business identity at the flexible office space that hosts your virtual office plan via the use of their business address on your marketing collateral. If the building is an old coffee shop converted into a shared office space that does not look very professional, your business image will suffer even if the general location is attractive. A downtown address may look nice on paper, but if the building’s appearance does not match the address’ prestige, it is all for naught.

If the space does not offer meeting rooms with the digital equipment that is expected in today’s business environment, you should not want to use it for business meetings.

Flexible Office Spaces and Health and Safety | CloudVO

Going beyond mail to establish a strong business identity

A good way to establish a stronger business identity is to add a local phone line (that is not your cell phone number) and live phone answering services to your new business address. The combination of a professional business address with a local phone number and a real person answering the phone, will help you project a much stronger business image on your website, or on any directory where you list your business information. People do expect to see a phone number with an area code that matches your business address. Listing your cell phone number on your website can be an image killer. Who expects the president of a company to publish their cell phone on the web?

You may not think you need it at first, but knowing that a phone answering plan could be added later to your virtual office plan is important. CloudVO’s live phone answering services range between $99 and $149/month with unlimited minutes and more free calls than 99.6% of users will ever need.

How about part-time offices and meeting rooms?

Due to the pandemic, hosting a business meeting at Starbucks or in your home is out of the question. That was never a good idea to start with anyway. 

When Zoom meetings from home fall short and you need in-person meetings, having access to day offices or meeting rooms at your flexible office location is important. CloudVO enables you to buy heavily discounted subscription plans starting at $199/month to use day offices and meeting rooms in safe locations that respect local health and safety guidelines and often exceed them. We call these CloudTouchdown Passes. CloudVO displays health & safety protocols on many of its locations on the website via a safety shield icon that works as a badge of honor. Click through it and access the health & safety protocol for that specific location.

San Francisco Virtual Office Plans Health and Safety | CloudVO | Carr Workplaces

How can I trust that I make the right purchase?

There are only two ways to go about it: use a reputable company that has a network of locations that are carefully vetted for their professionalism and suitable business image, like CloudVO, or tour the place in person and talk to virtual office customers at that location. However, more than 75% of virtual office plans are purchased online. If you can’t go there in person, search for reviews on Yelp, Google, Trustpilot, or other reputable platforms. Chances are that you will see CloudVO Partner locations among those with the highest ratings and best reviews. We closely monitor the customer experience at our partnered locations and work with those that may underperform to improve their status. If there is little or no improvement, we will not retain them.

If you are not sure of the level of service you need, CloudVO plans do not require more than a 3-month initial commitment and have the flexibility to downgrade or upgrade your service package with ease.

Wrapping it up

  • Use a trusted provider vetted by our team
  • Check customer ratings and reviews
  • Identify the service(s) you need
  • Compare prices displayes on our site
  • Purchase your virtual plan online
  • Use the CloudVO support team to ensure you receive the service you expect

In the end, CloudVO has built an approach that is designed to help you purchase Virtual Office Plans that you can trust and be proud of!

About CloudVO

CloudVO is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp., headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the CloudTouchdown network that grants preferential access to day offices and meeting rooms at nearly 1,000 locations worldwide.

Why are Virtual Offices and CloudTouchdown Passes So Popular with Corporate Users?

Virtual Office Plans for Work From Home Professionals | CloudVO

COVID-19 has changed the way people work. An increasingly large number use virtual offices to supplement work-from-home, particularly when they are not able, or unwilling, to go back to the distant and densely populated corporate office.

When the kitchen table doesn’t do it anymore, or when the baby or the dog is in the way of concentrated work, they can check into a nearby flexible office space to isolate themselves in a private office that is as safe or safer than home. In that sense, the virtual office is an extension of work-from-home with a part-time use of the office infrastructure available close to home. CloudVO’s network has close to 1,000 locations widely distributed across geographies, suburban areas, and large cities across the US, Canada, and beyond.

Virtual Offices in Washington D.C. | CloudVO

What are virtual offices? You can think of them as part-time office solutions. They provide corporate users access to a wide range of part-time remote workplace services, provided by or connected with a flexible office location, on a subscription basis. 

There is a fixed monthly cost associated with it, which makes it easy for budgeting purposes. The access to a part-time office (we call them ‘day offices’) is limited to a given number of hours (or credits) to keep the price of the service low. Our local and regional CloudTouchdown passes fall in the $200 to $350/month range, a lot less than the $1,000 to $1,400 total cost of occupancy typical in a corporate campus. Sponsoring companies are sensitive to the cost savings, and users like the convenience of the extra office near home, not to mention access to conference rooms (de-densified in these COVID-19 days!) to meet other local team members, zoom rooms, and other features you would expect in a mature office environment.

CloudTouchdown Passes for Work From Home Employees | CloudVO

Who else uses virtual offices? Companies that want to establish an inexpensive business identity at one of our flexible office spaces. They can use our business address and mail services to establish a low-cost yet functional branch office. These plans typically cost less than $100/month. Digital mail (scanning and forwarding of mail) makes coming to the office unnecessary. Users can add live phone answering services with a local phone line for a stronger local presence, and use meeting rooms when they do have business to perform in the location.

As many companies are deciding to eliminate corporate spaces in densely populated cities, they are searching for inexpensive and nimble solutions to keep a local presence in those cities. This is another reason for the steep increase in inquires for virtual offices in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Houston, or Denver.

Looking to balance working from home with a Virtual Office Plan? Get started here.

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And for fun: Co-wagging: A dog’s Life at a Coworking Space

About CloudVO

CloudVO is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp., headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the CloudTouchdown network that grants preferential access to day offices and meeting rooms at nearly 1,000 locations worldwide.


How We Support Work From Home: A Solution for Distributed Workforces

CloudTouchdown Passes for Remote Workers | CloudVO

In shaking our world, COVID-19 has shown that work from home could be very productive in certain circumstances. CloudVO has come up with a solution that maximizes the benefits of remote work while negating many of its drawbacks. We call that solution the “CloudTouchdown Pass.”

Work From Home (WFH) was a necessity during the COVID-19 confinement period, but all indications suggest that it is here to stay for a large component of the workforce. Prior to COVID-19, most large Enterprises were not keen on pursuing aggressive WFH programs because the perceived negatives (e.g. potential disconnect from strong corporate cultures, a home environment not always conducive or appropriate for work, management control) seemed to outweigh the benefits:

  • Employee control over their work-life hours; 
  • Time saved and carbon footprint reduced with the elimination of long, tedious, and stressful commutes;
  • Reduced occupancy costs;
  • Enhanced employee satisfaction.

A recent internal employee survey at Facebook reported by the New York Times and many other media on May 21, 2020, suggests that 40% of the workforce would like to either work from home permanently or a significant portion of the time. Mark Zuckerberg said in a video to employees that he would expect half of his employees to work remotely within the next five years and that Facebook “will be the most forward-leaning company on remote work.” Forty-five percent of the employees indicated that they would relocate if they had the option to work remotely.

Facebook Employee Remote Work Survey (May 2020)

Facebook Employee Remote Survey May 2020

James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, was quoted in the press in late April 2020, “With 90% of our employees working at home, we have had almost no issues.” He later added that he expects many will continue to work remotely after the crisis is over because “we learned it can be done.” Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey told employees in an email on May 21, 2020 that they would be allowed to work from home indefinitely, even after the COVID-19 shutdown. He’s leaving the decision to either work from home or at the office in the hands of his employees.

Facebook, Twitter, Morgan Stanley, and many more large Enterprises are elaborating new work and recruiting strategies away from their cores which are typically located in expensive areas, as far as office space costs but also in terms of housing costs. These strategies respond to the desire of a majority of their current and prospective workforce, but also will reduce cost, improve retention, and diversify their recruiting opportunities.

To support this COVID-induced tectonic change, CloudVO has developed a CloudTouchdown Pass that gives remote workers access to part-time offices and meeting rooms in a professional workplace, in close proximity to their home. When the kitchen table does not do it anymore, they can check in a private office nearby for concentrated work. When they need to meet locally with other members of their team, they can use the pass to access fully equipped meeting rooms, in any of our 800+ carefully selected locations in our network.

We require our locations to have Health & Safety protocols that enforce social distancing, provide extreme sanitation, and follow or exceed CDC guidelines, for suitability with Enterprise clients. They have enterprise-grade internet connection and are fully furnished, with on-premise staff. When COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror, they will also provide an opportunity to commingle with other professionals at business events organized on the premises, and thus provide social and serendipitous opportunities that workers can’t find being home full-time or through their Zoom activities. That’s after a vaccine or strong therapeutics against COVID-19 are available of course. Meanwhile our locations are required to enforce strict social distancing and sanitation guidelines inside of their space, with a goal to make them “as safe or safer than home.”

The CloudTouchdown Passes are for part-time use of the CloudVO network. They provide access to day offices or conference rooms on a subscription basis, which means that their Enterprise sponsor knows exactly how much it will impact their budget.

CloudTouchdown Passes for Work From Home Employees | CloudVO

See more details here https://cloudvo.com/cloud-touchdown.

About CloudVO

CloudVO is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp., headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the CloudTouchdown network that grants preferential access to day offices and meeting rooms at nearly 1,000 locations worldwide for mobile workers and distributed workforces under a subscription model or on a pay-per-use basis.


Maintaining Community While Members are Virtual: Insights from 4 Coworking Operators

Now that your members are working from home, scaling back their time in the space, or working apart from one another, how do you maintain community?

We asked four workspace operators to share a glimpse into their experience, how they’re creating virtual offerings, and what advice they’d give to other coworking owners and managers.

Susan Dorsch is co-founder of Office Nomads in Seattle, WA. Office Nomads has 103 members, zero private offices, and 10-15 events per month. Jamie Orr is co-founder of Cowork Tahoe in South Lake Tahoe, CA. and co-founder of Jellyswitch. Cowork Tahoe has 150 members, 32 offices and 8-12 events per month. Felicity Maxwell is co-founder and COO of Fibercove in Austin, TX. Fibercove has 100 members, 4 offices and 5-10 events per month.  Maya Delano is the community manager at Nextspace Coworking Santa Cruz who runs the space with community coordinator Jennifer Hamilton.  NextSpace Santa Cruz has 241 members, 26 offices, and hosts about 14 internal/public events per month. Here’s what they had to say:

[?] Cat Johnson: How are things in your space and community? What precautions have you taken around COVID-19?

Susan Dorsch: Things in Seattle are definitely tense as our region is one of the centers of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In the space and within our community, I’d say the general feeling is subdued. It’s hard in Seattle right now. But there’s also a solid undercurrent of humor and good-naturedness that is so reassuring. This outbreak and the onslaught of news about it has been hard on everyone, but I hear lots of words of encouragement between our members. While it’s a crappy thing to connect over, our members are connecting well and finding ways to at least cheer each other along in the struggle.

The precautions Office Nomads has taken thus far are:

  • Daily sanitizing of most surfaces in the space (countertops, door handles, coffee pots, our iPad for check-in, etc.)
  • Temporarily switching over to disposable towels in the bathrooms and kitchens (normally we use regular towels because we love the environment).
  • Having hand sanitizer and other cleaning supplies out at the ready for members to use.
  • Temporarily putting a pause on our food-related gatherings in the space (though we joked around about having a snack be individually wrapped cheese sticks placed at 6-foot intervals around the table.)
  • Maintaining a strong channel of communication with our members so they know all the things.

Jamie Orr: This week, we really saw things start to change in response to COVID-19. It’s quiet here. We still have people coming in, but the energy is completely different. On Monday, we established our response protocol as a team:

  • Suspended all drop-in day passes
  • Canceled and suspended any meeting room bookings from outside groups, and any events in the space
  • Placed signs everywhere reminding people of good hygiene protocols. Most of those signs are fun and encourage singing while hand washing
  • Increased our cleaning, disinfecting primary shared surfaces like handles, buttons, etc. multiple times throughout the day
  • Sent and posted notices about CDC guidelines, our procedures, etc. to all members

Felicity Maxwell: Cleaning stations, extra hand soap, spot cleaning of common surfaces. 

NextSpace SC: Things are getting weird, not going to lie! Initially, we started disinfecting every AM and put out hygiene signage with additional “sanitation stations” and even added floral arrangements to the stations to bring a little beauty (and engage members) to use the sanitizers. 

Wash Your Hands Signage NextSpace Coworking Santa Cruz

But now we have closed the space to abide by our county’s shelter in place order.

  • We are only open 2 hours each day for the purpose of managing mail to keep our members’ businesses running smooth
  • Members have started an online “Coffee Time” to hang out virtually each morning. It’s so cute!
  • We plan to have a virtual happy hour

In what ways has COVID-19 affected the day-to-day in your space?

SD: Things are definitely more quiet in the space, and the majority of our conversations are outbreak-related. So that’s different for sure. Literally someone just said, “Nice to social distance with y’all!” as they left the lunch table.

JO: Everyone is on edge, especially as this past week has progressed. The typical water cooler talk is all about the pandemic, what is going to happen, what people are doing to prepare. Many members are preparing by taking home monitors in anticipation of school closures.

At the same time, everyone is being incredibly supportive of one another and trying to stay in good spirits. The community is strong. Our team has been working really hard on overcommunicating with members: asking how they are doing, what they need, talking with them about what we are doing, what our thought process is, how we intend on supporting everyone. That has gone really far.

FM: Totally Normal / Totally Not! We have plenty of community members that are attempting to work as usual, but also have a number who have been impacted.  Specifically:

  • SXSW cancelled: One of the startups here has their entire remote team flying in, they were scheduled to be featured at SXSW Innovation Showcase. All of that was cancelled. No team meeting, no SXSW parties, no chance to win or gain the exposure and connections offered by SXSW
  • Projects cancelled: Several members have already mentioned work projects being cancelled. One works with the airline industry and they had an entire RFP revoked. Likewise, another member who supports large tech conferences had six months worth of work put on hold. Their contacts are now asking them to create a system for virtual conferences, since it is unclear when these types of gatherings will be coming back.
  • Meetings cancelled or low attendance: We have had several bookings cancel due to attendee travel concerns about COVID. One client has zero attendees at a sales meeting that normally has 10-15. 
  • We’ve made the decision to go to a members only/limited staffing model for the next few weeks. That should allow our members who need space to use it, but encourage everyone else to stay home and safe.  

NextSpace SC: Our space started to fill with children and friends for a bit (we are thinking it had to do with school closures before the shelter-in-place order).  Although NextSpace is closed to the public, we still allow access to members that absolutely need the space to conduct business. 

  • We offer mailbox services and are staffed for two hours a day so members can access their mail via pick-up, but we have encouraged scanning or forwarding to their home address.
  • We have also directed members to ship packages (Amazon, UPS, etc.) to their home.
  • Staff are mostly working from home and trying to keep our community informed and find ways to keep everyone connected. We’re going as virtual as possible and testing the waters of online events and messaging platforms.

[?] Do you have ways for your community to connect virtually? If so, what is working well?

SD: We sure do! We have a member mailing list as well as an active Slack. Both of those channels are proving to be really valuable for our members to touch base with each other. We just launched our first-ever virtual membership (which is free in March) to encourage those who might be newly experiencing the challenges of remote work to have another touch point.  

Already there’s been an increase in the use of Slack. We’re planning virtual work sprints, have a “daily debate” channel, and are checking in on weekly goals. It’s lovely.

JO: Next week, we’ll be rolling out scheduled times to virtually cowork with each other. I’m looking at a few options: 

  1. Work sprints with video on
  2. Happy hour or “after kids are asleep” hour
  3. Water cooler check-ins in the morning and towards mid-afternoon when members would typically be taking coffee breaks

FM: We primarily use Slack for member communication and have seen an uptick in engagement. We’re planning to use Zoom for virtual coworking this week. 

NextSpace SC: We are lucky to have amazing members who started a Facebook group to host virtual morning coffee sessions each day. Our company will be using Zoom and Facebook Live to host virtual happy hours on Friday’s at 3:58pm and daily coworking sessions with our members. We’re also using our mailing list to communicate with members.  Our internal team will be logging in together each day to connect, support and share experiences and challenges.

Virtual Happy Hour NextSpace Coworking Santa Cruz

[?] How would you advise other space operators working to find ways to support, maintain and strengthen their community through the outbreak?

SD: Don’t be silent. Reach out, be proactive, and find ways that you can be helpful. It’s not as hard or scary as you might think.

JO: Now more than ever it’s imperative to model good communication, and over-communication. Even I have taken for granted the ease at which we connect with one another when in the same physical space. There is extra effort required to get used to doing that virtually. As coworking space operators, we can help our members do that by showing them how.

FM: Give your community ways to connect that are not related to physical space. Encourage everyone to stay connected via Zoom, Slack etc., and remind them that this is temporary.

NextSpace SC: There are so many resources! Check out Women Who Cowork who have dedicated an entire training session and created an online manual to support us during these crazy times. Joining virtual discussions such as Coworking Convos is also a great way to stay connected with other space operators that are in the same boat! 

Cat Johnson Coworking Convos Virtual Community

Lastly, even if your space is not closed yet, start putting strategies in place and communicate to members what your processes will be “in case of a closure.”  Get your mail, communications and resources in order. If you do this ahead of time, you will have more time to be present and available to your members when you do have to transition to virtual coworking. 

Cat Johnson is a writer and storyteller for the coworking movement. Cat is founder of Coworking Convos – a virtual monthly group discussion with other space operators on topics relevant to the coworking industry. Sign-up for the next free Coworking Convo and join the discussion!

About CloudVO

CloudVO is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp., headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the CloudTouchdown network that grants preferential access to day offices and meeting rooms at nearly 1,000 locations worldwide for mobile workers and distributed workforces under a subscription model or on a pay-per-use basis.


Integrating Virtual Office Services into a Coworking Space: 6 Ways to Take Advantage of the VO Trend

Virtual offices are an increasingly hot topic in the shared workspace industry—and for good reason. Virtual offices provide mobile employees, remote workers, freelancers, independent professionals and small teams access to office space, conference rooms, a business address, mail service, phone answering, business amenities, open coworking space and more.

Virtual offices have been part of the office rental industry for decades. Now coworking space operators are embracing the virtual office trend to expand their offerings, create additional income streams and differentiate in an increasingly crowded workspace industry. Here are six reasons to integrate a virtual office into a coworking space.

1. Virtual Offices Expand Offerings for Existing Coworking Members
Coworking spaces are full of freelancers, independent professionals, remote workers and small teams. As existing members grow their businesses, they may need more than access to a single location. Adding a virtual office to your coworking space enables you to expand offerings to include mail forwarding, live phone answering services, day office rental and more.

2. Live Phone Answering Services in a Virtual Office
Access to live phone answering services is part of the above expanded offerings for members, but it deserves its own section because it can be transformative for a new business. Whether a virtual office members is on the road, busy building a product or working from an open coworking area, they can still have a professional receptionist answer calls, forward calls to a mobile number and take messages. This can be a powerful tool in establishing a new business.

cloudvo live phone answering

3. A Virtual Office Can Attract New Markets
Independent professionals and small teams don’t all need set office hours or coworking days—but they may still need mail, phone, a business address, access to a meeting room, and the occasional day office. A virtual office lets you go beyond offering a simple day pass to a coworking space which offers additional valuable services and potentially reach new markets.

4. Activate the Meeting Room in a Coworking Space
Shared workspaces generally have meeting rooms and conference rooms—and they may be underutilized, sitting empty much of the time. By adding virtual office offerings to a coworking space, operators make these spaces available to a broader market of professionals and businesses in need of meeting rooms, conference rooms and day offices.

CloudVO Blog 6 Tips on Integrating Virtual Offices into Coworking Spaces Meeting Rooms

5. Virtual Offices Open Additional Revenue Streams for Coworking Spaces
A virtual office can be a nice additional revenue stream for a coworking space. By including a range of virtual office offerings, from a business address and mail collection to live phone answering service, meeting room rental and a day office, space operators create additional revenue streams from a variety of markets and professionals.

6. Differentiate Your Coworking Space with a Virtual Office
As the shared workspace industry continues to grow at a remarkable rate, it is increasingly important for coworking space operators to differentiate themselves beyond providing a desk and wifi. One way to do this is through community-building and event programming. Another way to differentiate is through robust virtual office offerings and flexible VO packages to meet a variety of professional needs and preferences.

A growing number of coworking spaces are incorporating virtual offices into their workspace offerings.  Check out CloudVO’s   Resource Center  for more insights on how you can expand your workspace offering.

Not a partner yet?  We would love to add you to our growing network of 650 locations around the globe.  Visit us at:  www.CloudVO.com  to list your location for free.

By Cat Johnson, content strategist and coworking member of NextSpace in Santa Cruz, CA.

About CloudVO

CloudVO    is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp, headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the   CloudMeetingRooms.com     and   CloudVirtualOffice.com    e-commerce sites and grants preferential access to day offices, coworking space, and professional meeting rooms in 700 locations worldwide for distributed workers on a subscription or a pay-per-use basis.

Don’t Leave Your Clients Out In The Cold

Don’t leave your clients out in the cold. That’s what Virtual Offices are for!

Keith’s short video is not just hilarious; it gives a true sense for at least a couple of the key value drivers that plead in favor of virtual offices:

1) Convenience – Your home office may not be out in the snow like Keith’s, but chances are it’s not a convenient place to have a business meeting. Alternatives like meeting at Starbucks have limits, WRT privacy, amenities, or lack therefore. CloudVO features over 600 Virtual Office locations worldwide with multiple professional meeting rooms, part-time offices, and touchdown spaces in each center.

2) Brand & Image – Not all business transactions can be done online. People often want to know who they are dealing with. Meeting in a professional space will often inspire more confidence. At the minimum, it is more likely to support a productive meeting (for example with reliable Internet connection and projection tools). The concept of image here is not about “pretending” you have a big shot office in a nice building, this is about being efficient and effective. A productive meeting that you host will reflect positively on your brand, personal or corporate, which is related to, but goes way deeper than a superficial view of “image”. A virtual office provides this opportunity at a fraction of the cost of a full-time office in the same building.

3) Better Customer Service – If your virtual office plan includes the use of live phone answering service, you will ensure that your customer calls will always been promptly answered and that you will be less likely to miss an important prospect call if you are not able to answer the call directly. While a call is patched to you, you also have time to mentally prepare yourself, collect your thoughts, and make the caller feel he or she is your most important customer.

4) Low Cost – A virtual office is the most cost-efficient way to establish a strong local business identity at a fraction of the cost of a full-time office – even in a shared office space. Anywhere between 5-20% of the cost of a dedicated office, in our experience, depending upon the level of service you need.

The Cloud Office plans by CloudVO are designed to establish a strong local business identity, with a local phone number, live answering services, and 16 hours/month of free access to day offices and meeting rooms at many of its 600 locations. Their cost is typically in the $250 to $350 per month range, but Virtual Office plans can start as low as $50 with basic use of a building address and mail services; although most mail services would be in the $69 to $99 range.

About CloudVO ™

CloudVO is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp, headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the CloudMeetingRooms.com and CloudVirtualOffice.com e-commerce sites and grants preferential access to day offices, coworking space, and professional meeting rooms at close to 600 locations worldwide for distributed workers on a subscription or a pay-per-use basis.

Switching to Virtual Office Space in Orlando

As a small business owner in the Orlando area, you may be struggling to make the transition from working at home to running your business out of a professional office space. After all, there are cost benefits associated with working out of your house, but you may want to have a more professional space to present to your customers and clients. If you are like most small business owners, entrepreneurs, or solo-attorneys, you may be debating between a home office and renting or buying a full-time office space. Neither one may seem like the perfect match for your needs. The good news is that there is a third option that you may have not yet considered, the option to rent a virtual office space.

Get Virtual Office Space in a Business Center in Orlando

What Is a Virtual Office?

A virtual office space provides the best benefits of both working from home and renting a full-time office space. This is a space that may provide you with a small, dedicated or shared work area as well as shared common areas, such as a conference center, a reception area, a business lounge and more. Generally, these are located in desirable areas of the city with a high-end address. You may continue to work from home on some days of the week, but you always have the option of coming into the office when needed. For example, you can reserve the conference room if you are scheduling a meeting with clients in the near future, and this means that you can create the impression of having a full-time office space when you have meetings.

What Are the Benefits?

If you have not yet considered the option to lease a virtual office space, you may not be aware of what all of the benefits are. For one, this rental option is often available to you at a fraction of the cost of a full-time office rental. It provides you with on-site staff to support you, such as  catering or beverage service, document services, and/or video conferencing setup. You also have the option to add live telephone answering, which includes professional receptionists answering calls to your dedicated office line with a customized greeting. In addition to these benefits, you will have complete access to all of the office services and amenities you need. You will not need to worry about paying to outfit a traditional office space to enjoy access to common office equipment, furnishings and more. This provides you with an exceptional solution to your dilemma.

How Do You Find a Virtual Office in Orlando?

After you have learned more about the virtual office option in the Orlando area, you may be ready to take a closer look at the options. There are several virtual office environments you can consider in the local community, but CloudVO may be your best option. This is an established virtual office reseller that has plans available for you to lease today. CloudVO provides you with access to a professional support team, a reputable address, a dedicated business phone number, and all of the amenities and features you need to create a fully functional work environment.

Although you may feel torn between working out of the house and renting a professional office space, you can relax knowing there are many options available. Virtual offices are becoming increasingly popular and are especially beneficial for small business owner in the local area. Before you make a final decision about where to office, take time to reach out to CloudVO for more information about virtual offices solutions. With this information in hand, making a decision that is best for your business can be easy.

The Perks of Running your Business from Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California. Perhaps no other city in the world captures the imagination the way L.A. does, a city synonymous with fame, wealth, and success. The L.A. metropolitan area is home to nearly 20 million people, enjoys some of the best weather in America, and is also the business hub of the West coast.  As an entrepreneur, L.A. is a great city to make it big with a small business or startup. Unfortunately for a determined and thrifty entrepreneur, L.A. is also home to astronomically high prices for office space. Virtual office space is a contemporary and savvy solution to this problem, allowing your company to have a business address in some of the most sought after locations in the City of Angeles without paying the excessive fee other companies pay to be located there.

Give your startup a running start with CloudVO's Office Space in Los Angeles

How a Virtual Office Works

        CloudVO’s virtual office service allows a small business to have an official office presence in Los Angeles at a fraction of the cost of actually renting office space. Rather not test L.A.’s notorious traffic? With a virtual office you can work from home without ever leaving your suburb, but still have a business address in some of the hottest areas in town. Do you need a place for business meetings that isn’t a coffee shop? Would an L.A. business address or phone number give your company important legitimacy? Do you need someone to answer the phone, but don’t want the hassle of employing your own receptionist? CloudVO allows you to package services that will meet your needs, without having to pay for extras.

Services Provided In Los Angeles

CloudVO offers three main services to small businesses looking for 21st Century solutions. First, CloudVO offers business addresses and mail forwarding. This service allows your business to have an address in some of Los Angeles’s premier office spaces (more on this later). Mail sent to your virtual office address is forwarded to wherever you choose. Second, CloudVO provides live answering services for your business. Need an L.A. number but live across the country? CloudVO can provide your business with a local or toll free number. Depending on the options you choose, the calls that come through on your business line can either be directly forwarded to your cell phone or a businesses voicemail. Through CloudVO’s live answering services, do your work in a chill beachside SoCal café while one one of CloudVO’s receptionists takes your calls (answering with the name of your company, of course). If you occasionally need to meet with clients and investors, and prefer not to do it in that beachfront café where you do your work, CloudVO has a solution for that too. Office space and meeting rooms are available to work and meet in on a subscription or rental basis at your business address. With impressive spaces and professional office staff on location to greet your guests, those you meet with won’t suspect you haven’t already made it big.

Los Angeles Locations

Location is everything, and that is what CloudVO specializes in. An exhaustive list of available virtual offices in L.A. can be found here, however, here a few highlights. Ever heard of the Sunset Strip? You clients certainly have. One option for your virtual office is on this iconic street, next to world-class hotels like the Chateau Marmont. Another option is in the award winning MGM Tower in Century City, where your address can be nestled in with established film studios and media companies. Wherever you decide to make your virtual office, CloudVO allows you the freedom to pick the services you need on your path to making it big in Los Angeles.

About CloudVO ™

CloudVO is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp, headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the CloudMeetingRooms.com and CloudVirtualOffice.com e-commerce sites and grants preferential access to day offices, coworking space, and professional meeting rooms at close to 500 locations worldwide for distributed workers on a subscription or a pay-per-use basis.

Virtual Offices in Silicon Valley: Modern Business Solutions in the World’s Tech Hub

Silicon Valley: the home of Facebook, Apple, Google, and dozens of other technology companies known for their unqualified success and the way their products have changed they way we live. A Silicon Valley startup company is synonymous with innovation and the potential for unbelievable prosperity. Unfortunately, for those scrappy entrepreneurs aspiring to be the next Zuckerbergs, Silicon Valley is not only known for a hub of innovation and commerce, it is also home to some of the most expensive office (and residential) space in America. Fortunately for those who have yet to make their billions, CloudVO offers a 21st century solution to small business owners who are not quite ready to build a corporate campus rivaling Google’s.

Virtual Office Space: How it Works

Work in a coffee shop and have a real business address with CloudVO's Virtual Office Space Solutions!CloudVO’s virtual office solutions allows a small business owner to have an official office presence in Silicon Valley at a fraction of the cost of actually renting office space. Do you work from home, but still need to meet clients or investors occasionally, and would rather not do it in a coffee shop? Would a Silicon Valley business address or phone number give your startup important legitimacy? Do you need someone to occasionally answer the phone, but don’t want to hassle with an actual employee? CloudVO allows you to package services that will meet these needs and more, allowing you to pay for only what you need.

Services Provided

CloudVO offers three main categories of virtual office services. First, CloudVO offers business addresses and mail forwarding. This service allows your business to have an actual address in some of Silicon Valley’s premier office spaces (more on this later). Mail sent to your virtual office is forwarded to whatever address you choose. Second, CloudVO can provide live telephone answering services for your business. This allows you to have a local or toll free number, without you personally having to deal with phone calls. Depending on your needs, those who call your business line can either be directly forwarded to a phone number of your choice, or your businesses voicemail. Through CloudVO’s live phone answering service, one of CloudVO’s professional and friendly receptionists will answer your business line with the name of your company, and then take a message or forward the call to you. Lastly, CloudVO offers private and shared workspaces and meeting rooms to use, on a subscription or hourly rental basis. This service allows you to meet with your clients or investors at your business address in an impressive conference room or  day office, with a professional administrative staff on location to greet your guests.

Locations in the Silicon Valley

CloudVO offers virtual offices in some of the best locations in the Silicon Valley area. How about an office in Cupertino, blocks away from Apple’s corporate campus and within two miles of other giants in the technology business? Maybe an office in Palo Alto, within minutes of Stanford University and with easy access to the East Bay would suit your needs better? Check out these and other great locations CloudVO offers in the Silicon Valley area.

Virtual Office Solutions

The personal computer, smartphones, and social media have all changed the way we live. Now virtual office space is changing the way we do business. The rise of technology has made working from home possible in a way unimaginable thirty years ago, but small businesses owners and entrepreneurs still find themselves needing the services and legitimacy that only a physical office can provide. CloudVO is the answer. With a virtual office space, get what you need and don’t pay for the extra.

About CloudVO ™

CloudVO is the umbrella brand of Cloud Officing Corp, headquartered in San Francisco, California. CloudVO’s mission is to provide comprehensive virtual office, coworking and meeting room solutions to professionals under a Workplace-as-a-Service™ model. CloudVO operates the CloudMeetingRooms.com and CloudVirtualOffice.com e-commerce sites and grants preferential access to day offices, coworking space, and professional meeting rooms at close to 500 locations worldwide for distributed workers on a subscription or a pay-per-use basis.