You could be a full-fledged business with an office premise of your own and have a virtual assistant to help you after operating hours. Or you could be a business that is starting out from scratch and hence, prefer to operate virtually. Either way, before you set out on building your virtual office, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

• Map out a strategy:  There are a couple of elements required in a virtual office like virtual office phone answering services aka virtual receptionists, virtual assistants, virtual call centers, and virtual business addresses, meeting spaces on rent, etc.  You need to make a right choice among these depending on your business needs.
• Get a virtual business address:  Virtual or not, no business has a truly professional touch until it owns a physical mailing business address. There are a lot of virtual business address providers like NYMail, Regus, etc. to choose from. By opting for a virtual business address, you get notified by e-mail when your mail has arrived and can check the same over a phone call or even have your mail delivered safely to your home or wherever else you like.
• Select a skilled virtual assistant:  A virtual assistant (VA) is someone who works remotely while taking care of your businesses’ administrative needs. Depending on what you need, hire a virtual assistant who will help make your life much easier. There are some VA services in the American market that you could choose from.
• Train your virtual assistant:  While VA’s are highly skilled in administrative and creative services, giving your VA an idea of what your business is all about and how you operate is imperative.
• Get a virtual office phone answering service:  One of the most integral aspects of a business that operates virtually is a virtual office phone answering service. For this, all you need to do is select a business number, record an automated greeting in case you don’t have a virtual receptionist, add the number of departments and employees you wish, and your virtual office phone answering service is good to go.