BusinessWorld / Labor and Management
With no end in sight to the weekly increases in oil prices, many businesses have been forced to look for ways to cut down on operational expenses; some have opted to reduce the number of employees.
Many can benefit from this of set up ----- from an individual working from home seeking a professional image to a multinational company looking for a short-term solution to gain a foothold in a new country.
Virtual Offices are flexible. They can also be cheaper than renting office space or hiring additional secretarial staff. The service is available in many locations worldwide.
In the Philippines, more businesses are considering this option to minimize overhead expenses. One such provider is My Office Business Center and Virtual Office.
Siblings Milette Carlos and Tina Cuerva opened My Office in September 2004 when Ms. Cuerva realized that she could no longer do consulting work at home.
“I was no longer comfortable about for-warding my clients’ calls to an answering machine and giving away my cellphone number, so I brought up the idea of putting up this business to Milette,” she said in a statement.
Ms. Carlos saw a possibility in opening a virtual office for starting businesses that could not afford office space, or those businesses that do not require them to have a permanent office space or a full-time secretary.
“Some people might just need someone to answer their calls when they’re out on business meetings, and we could do that for them,” Ms. Carlos said in the same statement. “Depending on their instructions, we could either forward calls or take a message.”
She added that by outsourcing their admini-strative functions to My Office, businessmen would be allowed to maximize their existing staff so that they can focus more on the other aspects of their businesses like product development, sales and marketing
Another offer of My Office is the fact that it is in the Makati central business district. With only a minimal fee, clients can enjoy the prestige of having not only a Makati address but also the full office services that go with it.
Offices outside of Metro Manila may also be able to expand their base and maintain a presence in Makati at very reasonable prices.
“We have adopted a new tagline that really explains what we are doing for our clients,” Carlos said. “And that tagline is ‘You take care of your business, We’ll take care of your office.”
