The world won’t be the same after the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic is already affecting every single industry, including the flexible workspace business.
First, the situation puts many spaces in survival mode. Second, it forces operators to think about reshaping their business model in order to meet the new needs. Some operators are giving discounts but that might not always be the right move.
Another trend that we observe is the surge in demand for serviced offices in some areas. However, that’s not a product every operator can offer at the moment due to space limitations of the ongoing lockdowns.
So, the main question here is ‘How do you provide value and generate revenue when your members are not allowed to go to the office?’.
A service that’s been in the portfolio of executive offices for decades might be the answer and savior for flexible workspaces, and that’s the virtual office.
With the spread of the coronavirus crisis, Virtual offices are becoming an essential necessity. More and more companies will be in need of a business address without physically renting a desk or an office. Moreover, it can drive in steady and growing additional revenue.
What is a Virtual office
A Virtual office is an element of the flexible workspace industry that provides businesses with any combination of services, space and/or technology, without those businesses bearing the capital expenses of owning, leasing, or licensing an actual office space.
The typical virtual office product consists of providing 3 main services:
Business mailbox/address
Mail management
Meeting room time*
*Of course, in the current situation, meeting room time might not be part of the offering if your space is closed.
Implementing the Virtual office in your business model can help you in 3 main areas:
Offering monetizable value to members
Generating new leads that may upgrade into full-time office space later
Generating more business for your meeting rooms
To get a better understanding of what a virtual office service means for you, imagine the following scenario:
A professional or company uses your address as their business address, without physically using your space. They might only use it only as a vanity address because they need to claim a certain location as their own. Or, they might also use it to receive mail. Once mail or packages for them arrive at your space, you sort it. The you hold on to it until it is forwarded or picked up. You can also scan/forward/shred the information (depending on the plan they’ve signed up for).
Why would someone need a Virtual office?
Even though the virtual office service has been offered as a service for decades, many people ask themselves why would someone even need that. Let’s take a look at the benefits for your members and potential customers:
Members
Your members are working from home but still receive mail and packages at their business address (your workspace). They might not be able to come to the space to take them. But you can manage all this for them.
You can offer a mail management service for free now to provide extra value for your members (with the intention that this will strengthen your relationship with them and will affect your revenue in the future). Or you can charge for it depending on how you structure your pricing plans.
For example, you may process (forward, scan and email, shred, etc) up to a certain number of mail parcels free of charge. Then charge extra for more or create weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly forwarding plans at fixed costs. If you have a lot of members and a high volume of mail, you may consider using a technology platform to help you manage the entire process and streamline your members’ experience. Read more below.
Potential customers
Many people don’t need to rent a physical office or can’t afford one, but still want to have a professional business address. The main reasons for this, not too obvious but simple, are:
Credibility
Safety
Full-time availability
Let me elaborate on them.
The business address of a company is essential for its reputation. Choosing to virtually place your office in a prestigious building might help you get more customers, build more credibility. Or simply make a good impression.
Safety, on the other hand, prevents listing your home address (if that’s allowed at all) across the web if you’re working from home, for example.
Also, if you (and/or your team) are not fully available to receive mail at your home or current office, you can buy a virtual office and delegate that responsibility to the workspace’s receptionists.
How do you make money from providing a Virtual office?
Most business centers and flexible workspaces generate between 10% and 30% of their revenue from Virtual office services. Of course, this depends on their ‘zipcode’ or how prestigious their business address is.
A virtual office also allows you to expand your target market outside of the area around your space. Many companies would want to claim a business address in a different country/city/state from the one they are actually located in.
You can monetize your virtual office service by selling it as an additional service to your current customers. Also, you can monetize by using it to generate new ones, especially now in the times of COVID-19.
How you’ll price it depends on you. But in most cases, a bottom line price is applied for providing a business address. Then every additional service builds on top of this price (e.g. mail forwarding, mail scanning, shredding, etc).
Also, a Virtual office might help you close old leads that were looking at you as a service, but eventually didn’t buy because they couldn’t afford it. It might be a good move to follow up and offer them to start with a Virtual office instead.
How can you set a Virtual Office with OfficeRnD?
To help OfficeRnD customers take advantage of the Virtual office service, we established a partnership with SphereMail, a mail management platform that allows you to sign in a secure online platform where you can manage your mail from remote locations.
To make it convenient for your members, you can create a dedicated Virtual Office page in your OfficeRnD Member Portal that allows your members to log in their SphereMail account and use the services it offers directly.
Coworking and Flex Space Operators using OfficeRnD are entitled to a discounted rate when setting up a SphereMail Operator account. For more information, contact [email protected] SphereMail offers a complete package of virtual office services including Virtual Mail, Virtual Telephone, Live Answering and Online Notary Service, find out more here.
Michaela got involved in the flexible workspace industry in 2015 when she joined a boutique coworking space as a Community & Marketing Manager. Later on, she moved to the technology industry but she continued working from shared spaces. Her passion for coworking and her experience in the technology sector eventually led her to join OfficeRnD, the world's leading coworking management software, where she's dedicated to creating content that empowers workspace operators to scale their business.
Set up the system on your own, following our detailed video guide. We will send you a step-by-step daily email with video tutorials on how to configure OfficeRnD. Once you аre ready, we will put you in contact with an onboarding specialist for up to 2 hours of Q&A sessions, where you can ask questions and verify your setup.
Key Details
PriceFREE
SettingRemote
Duration2h
Overview
Take advantage of this 6-hour dedicated onboarding process during which our team helps you set OfficeRnD up following best practices. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities on your own.
What’s Included:
Together we will outline an onboarding plan with action items and milestones.
We will regularly review the progress of the setup and guide you to the next steps.
Together we will create strategies for addressing complex use cases.
We will guide you over email and screen-sharing calls.
We will extensively review the final setup of the system and be available to immediately jump on a call on the go-live date.
We will help you set up and run your first bill run. We will also help you automate all the others.
2 training modules.
Key Details
Price$299
SettingRemote
Duration6h
Overview
This onboarding package is best for multi-location teams with complicated workflows. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities and reporting tools on your own.
What’s Included:
Together we will outline an onboarding plan with action items and milestones.
We will regularly review the progress of the setup and guide you to the next steps.
Together we will create strategies for addressing complex use cases.
We will guide you over email and screen-sharing calls.
We will extensively review the final setup of the system and be available to immediately jump on a call on the go-live date.
We will help you set up and run your first bill run. We will also help you automate all the others.
4 training modules
Key Details
Price$599
SettingRemote
Duration12h
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Basic Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Onboarding – Basic onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (24h) and Critical (4h)
Key Details
PriceFREE
Setting Remote
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Standard Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions (1 hour / month) – Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month.
Onboarding – Basic Onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (16h) and Critical (4h)
Key details
Price$149
SettingRemote
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Premium Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions (4 hours / month) – Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month.
Onboarding – Basic Onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (8h) and Critical (1h)
Key details
Price$299
SettingRemote
Overview
Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month with them.
What’s Included:
You get direct access to a lead support specialist.
We will prioritize your support requests.
Together we will discuss strategies for addressing custom use cases.
Together we will discuss your feature requests.
Together we will troubleshoot any issues.
We will show you the latest new features in the system.
Key Details
Price$150/month
SettingRemote
Duration4h/month
Overview
We will cover the basic CRM functionalities OfficeRnD supports. We will show you how to create, update and delete companies, members and opportunities. We will show you how to create custom properties to better describe them. We’ll demonstrate how to create memberships for members, change their status and invite them on the members portal.
Learn How To:
Add a company.
Add a company member.
Add an individual member.
Assign a membership to a member.
Invoice memberships in 3,6 or 12-month periods.
Add a one-off fee to a member’s profile.
Invite a member to the members portal.
Invite multiple members to the members portal.
Change the email of a member.
Pause a membership.
Mark companies and members as former and what that means for their access to the portal.
Manually add day passes.
Add custom properties to a company/member.
Extend the information captured for opportunities.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will cover all billing options available in OfficeRnD. We will show you how to create tax rates and revenue accounts, how will they be applied on invoices and what discounting options the system provides. We will demonstrate how to create invoices and manually run the bill run. We will also together review the billing settings in the system and automate the billing operations.
Learn How To:
Configure your tax rates and revenue accounts.
Add discounts and apply those to memberships.
Review the billing settings and automate billing operations.
Raise an invoice
Raise multiple invoices with a manual BillRun.
Understand invoice statuses.
Edit an invoice.
Charge invoices.
Record a refund on invoices.
Create an invoice for a period of longer than 1 month.
Review outstanding not-invoiced fees and memberships.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will show you how to create meeting rooms and configure their pricing options, booking and cancellation policies. We will cover how to create booking credits – hourly and value-based. We will demonstrate how to make a booking and how to review its corresponding fee.
Learn How To:
Understand resource rates and how to add one.
Add a meeting room and set its privacy.
Configure booking and cancellation policies.
Add a booking.
Update and cancel a booking.
Add extras as purchasable options available with a meeting room booking.
Manually add booking credits to members.
Invoice bookings.
Review bookings and take advantage of the Bookings Report.
Change the business hours of the space.
Change the visibility of the bookings on the members portal.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will go over what a contract is, what are its building blocks, and what types of contracts OfficeRnD provides. We will show you how to create contracts, how to sign and how-to terminate them. We will also discuss the lifecycle of each contract.
Learn How To:
Use contracts and what they are for.
Create a Membership Agreement, a License Agreement or a Lease Agreement.
Add a contract.
Generate a contract PDF document.
Sign a contract.
Differentiate memberships attached to a contract.
Different stages of a contract and how to terminate it.
Configure and implement a contract approval process.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will show you the default resource types available in OfficeRnD. We will cover how they can be edited and when should you create custom resource types. We will demonstrate how to assign memberships on the floorplan and how to accommodate floorplan changes.
Learn How To:
Understand the default resource types and how to track their occupancy and utilization.
Create private offices and desks.
Assign resources to members.
Assign memberships on the floorplan.
Relocate a membership.
Upgrade or downgrade a membership on the floorplan.
Change a meeting room to an office and vice versa.
Replace a dedicated desk with a hotdesk and vice versa.
Create custom resource types.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover how to collaborate with members via the members portal and the mobile app. We will show you how to create posts and events. We will demonstrate how to upload information about benefits and different how-to guides on the members portal. We will also go through integrations that power up collaboration with members.
Learn How To:
Take a short overview of the members portal and the different type of users and their permissions.
Add posts.
Add events.
Add benefits.
Add How-To Guides.
Find where members can add issues and where you can review them.
Set up integration with Slack and its benefits.
Connect OfficeRnD with Eventbrite using Zapier.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover the billing reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Learn How To:
Find the billing charts available on the OfficeRnD Dashboard
Use the Revenue Dashboard
Use the Memberships Dashboard
Use the Projected Revenue Report
Use the Invoiced Revenue Report
Export invoices.
Customize the invoices export.
Use the Memberships Report.
Use the Members Report.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover the occupancy and utilization reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Learn How To:
Use the Occupancy Dashboards.
Use the Occupancy Report for private offices and dedicated desks.
Use the Occupancy Interval report.
Use the Resource Utilization report.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
Set up the system on your own, following our detailed video guide. We will send you a step-by-step daily email with video tutorials on how to configure OfficeRnD. Once you аre ready, we will put you in contact with an onboarding specialist for up to 2 hours of Q&A sessions, where you can ask questions and verify your setup.
Key Details
PriceFREE
SettingRemote
Duration2h
Overview
Take advantage of this 6-hour dedicated onboarding process during which our team helps you set OfficeRnD up following best practices. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities on your own.
What’s Included:
Together we will outline an onboarding plan with action items and milestones.
We will regularly review the progress of the setup and guide you to the next steps.
Together we will create strategies for addressing complex use cases.
We will guide you over email and screen-sharing calls.
We will extensively review the final setup of the system and be available to immediately jump on a call on the go-live date.
We will help you set up and run your first bill run. We will also help you automate all the others.
2 training modules.
Key Details
Price$299
SettingRemote
Duration6h
Overview
This onboarding package is best for multi-location teams with complicated workflows. We will start with a short kick-off session to discuss your current processes, timelines, integrations and outline a step-by-step plan to ensure the smooth adoption of the system on your end. Our Onboarding Specialists will make the most effective use of your time together working to empower you to take full advantage of the system capabilities and reporting tools on your own.
What’s Included:
Together we will outline an onboarding plan with action items and milestones.
We will regularly review the progress of the setup and guide you to the next steps.
Together we will create strategies for addressing complex use cases.
We will guide you over email and screen-sharing calls.
We will extensively review the final setup of the system and be available to immediately jump on a call on the go-live date.
We will help you set up and run your first bill run. We will also help you automate all the others.
4 training modules
Key Details
Price$599
SettingRemote
Duration12h
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Basic Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Onboarding – Basic onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (24h) and Critical (4h)
Key Details
PriceFREE
Setting Remote
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Standard Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions (1 hour / month) – Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month.
Onboarding – Basic Onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (16h) and Critical (4h)
Key details
Price$149
SettingRemote
Overview
Get familiar with the essentials in the Premium Support Package.
What’s Included:
Email & Chat Support – Our support team is available to customers via chat and email at [email protected] Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM UTC.
Monthly Training Webinars – Joins us monthly for a short and focused webinar on the features of OfficeRnD where our team discusses how to best take advantage of different parts of the system and addresses commonly asked questions.
Dedicated Q&A Support Sessions (4 hours / month) – Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month.
Onboarding – Basic Onboarding
Initial Response Time – Normal severity (24h), Restricted Operation (8h) and Critical (1h)
Key details
Price$299
SettingRemote
Overview
Get direct access to one of our lead support specialists and book up to 4 hours of screen-sharing calls per month with them.
What’s Included:
You get direct access to a lead support specialist.
We will prioritize your support requests.
Together we will discuss strategies for addressing custom use cases.
Together we will discuss your feature requests.
Together we will troubleshoot any issues.
We will show you the latest new features in the system.
Key Details
Price$150/month
SettingRemote
Duration4h/month
Overview
We will cover the basic CRM functionalities OfficeRnD supports. We will show you how to create, update and delete companies, members and opportunities. We will show you how to create custom properties to better describe them. We’ll demonstrate how to create memberships for members, change their status and invite them on the members portal.
Learn How To:
Add a company.
Add a company member.
Add an individual member.
Assign a membership to a member.
Invoice memberships in 3,6 or 12-month periods.
Add a one-off fee to a member’s profile.
Invite a member to the members portal.
Invite multiple members to the members portal.
Change the email of a member.
Pause a membership.
Mark companies and members as former and what that means for their access to the portal.
Manually add day passes.
Add custom properties to a company/member.
Extend the information captured for opportunities.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will cover all billing options available in OfficeRnD. We will show you how to create tax rates and revenue accounts, how will they be applied on invoices and what discounting options the system provides. We will demonstrate how to create invoices and manually run the bill run. We will also together review the billing settings in the system and automate the billing operations.
Learn How To:
Configure your tax rates and revenue accounts.
Add discounts and apply those to memberships.
Review the billing settings and automate billing operations.
Raise an invoice
Raise multiple invoices with a manual BillRun.
Understand invoice statuses.
Edit an invoice.
Charge invoices.
Record a refund on invoices.
Create an invoice for a period of longer than 1 month.
Review outstanding not-invoiced fees and memberships.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will show you how to create meeting rooms and configure their pricing options, booking and cancellation policies. We will cover how to create booking credits – hourly and value-based. We will demonstrate how to make a booking and how to review its corresponding fee.
Learn How To:
Understand resource rates and how to add one.
Add a meeting room and set its privacy.
Configure booking and cancellation policies.
Add a booking.
Update and cancel a booking.
Add extras as purchasable options available with a meeting room booking.
Manually add booking credits to members.
Invoice bookings.
Review bookings and take advantage of the Bookings Report.
Change the business hours of the space.
Change the visibility of the bookings on the members portal.
Key Details
Price$150
SettingRemote
Duration60min
Overview
We will go over what a contract is, what are its building blocks, and what types of contracts OfficeRnD provides. We will show you how to create contracts, how to sign and how-to terminate them. We will also discuss the lifecycle of each contract.
Learn How To:
Use contracts and what they are for.
Create a Membership Agreement, a License Agreement or a Lease Agreement.
Add a contract.
Generate a contract PDF document.
Sign a contract.
Differentiate memberships attached to a contract.
Different stages of a contract and how to terminate it.
Configure and implement a contract approval process.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will show you the default resource types available in OfficeRnD. We will cover how they can be edited and when should you create custom resource types. We will demonstrate how to assign memberships on the floorplan and how to accommodate floorplan changes.
Learn How To:
Understand the default resource types and how to track their occupancy and utilization.
Create private offices and desks.
Assign resources to members.
Assign memberships on the floorplan.
Relocate a membership.
Upgrade or downgrade a membership on the floorplan.
Change a meeting room to an office and vice versa.
Replace a dedicated desk with a hotdesk and vice versa.
Create custom resource types.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover how to collaborate with members via the members portal and the mobile app. We will show you how to create posts and events. We will demonstrate how to upload information about benefits and different how-to guides on the members portal. We will also go through integrations that power up collaboration with members.
Learn How To:
Take a short overview of the members portal and the different type of users and their permissions.
Add posts.
Add events.
Add benefits.
Add How-To Guides.
Find where members can add issues and where you can review them.
Set up integration with Slack and its benefits.
Connect OfficeRnD with Eventbrite using Zapier.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover the billing reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Learn How To:
Find the billing charts available on the OfficeRnD Dashboard
Use the Revenue Dashboard
Use the Memberships Dashboard
Use the Projected Revenue Report
Use the Invoiced Revenue Report
Export invoices.
Customize the invoices export.
Use the Memberships Report.
Use the Members Report.
Key Details
Price$100
SettingRemote
Duration30min
Overview
We will cover the occupancy and utilization reports available in the system. We will show you how to use each one and dive deeper into the data it exposes.
Learn How To:
Use the Occupancy Dashboards.
Use the Occupancy Report for private offices and dedicated desks.