Virtual Office vs. Serviced Office

Are you searching for a flexible workspace to get started for your Hong Kong business? Serviced offices and virtual offices are becoming the solution for entrepreneurs all over the world. Whether you want a space for your existing business, or you are setting up a new company, you can choose either of these options.

Many business owners often get confused about these types of business options. In fact, both virtual and service offices are a cost-effective way to establish a new physical commercial presence for your business. However, they differ in many ways. So, the real battle that comes up is when you need to choose one of these options for your startup.

Virtual Office vs. Serviced Office for Hong Kong Business

Serviced offices and virtual offices are the most common options for businesses that want to save money from leasing or buying office space expenses.

Serviced offices are quite similar to the traditional mortar and brick offices, but these offices are managed and owned by management companies. On the other hand, virtual offices offer a physical space for entrepreneurs and workers who work from remote locations worldwide.

Let’s get some insight about a virtual office and serviced office for Hong Kong businesses.

What is a virtual office?

As the name suggests, a virtual office is not a physical office for conducting the company, and all the transactions and the business operations are done remotely. In today’s digitalized world, more people are opting for a remote workplace and remote workers. That’s why virtual offices have become an ideal solution for entrepreneurs all across the world.

Virtual offices offer business owners an excellent opportunity to hire employees worldwide based on their business objectives and requirements without actually leasing or buying office space. Virtual offices have become a budget-friendly platform for small business owners who want to operate the business with limited resources.

Hong Kong companies can use virtual office space as their address for official purposes such as receiving business contracts, invoices, agreements, and other related matters. There is no provision in Hong Kong that the address of the virtual office space should be the same address where the company is located.

Virtual offices are useful for small companies to operate their business from home but use another location as their business address for privacy issues, reduce potential risk and create a more professional image. Business owners can also use this space for mail forwarding services. The documents can be sent for the business owners to the virtual address, even if they are away from home.

What is a serviced office space?

Another type of office space that can be used by Hong Kong startups is serviced office space, which is similar to traditional types of office space. But this space is generally operated and managed by a facility management company. The facility will be responsible for renting out the rooms within an office building to various businesses. In this serviced office space, the companies will get all the required furniture and fixtures along with a good internet connectivity.

Major Differences Between Virtual Office and Serviced Office

As stated above, both types of office spaces offer flexibility and various facilities to business owners. But there are some major differences between these two terms that you need to know:

Physical Space

The first difference between virtual offices vs. serviced offices is the physical space facility. In serviced office spaces, employees usually commute to the office every day for work, like a mortar-and-brick style office space. However, the virtual offices don’t offer physical workspaces for the workers.

So employees can work from all over the world per their working schedule. This type of office space provides a business address, which can be used for invoices, agreements, phone calls, or even mail-forwarding.

Technological Skills

The next difference between these two kinds of office spaces is the availability of experienced and determined workers.

Employers who choose a virtual office can hire employees from all over the world as per their requirements. There would be no boundary or territory limit for the hiring process. However, in a serviced office, employers can only hire the regular office goers and the people who reside nearby. This may limit their ability to find experienced workers with the right technological skills.

Face to Face Meetings

In a virtual office space, employees can’t attend face-to-face meetings, as they reside in various parts of the world. They communicate with coworkers and employers via telecommunication, which may not be as effective as in-person meetings.

On the other hand, serviced office space employees can meet each other in person on a daily basis.

Cost

And last but not least, the cost of both types of office spaces are quite different. Serviced offices charge higher prices than virtual offices. If you are dealing with the tight budget, but still want to open a startup, then virtual office space should be your best perspective. This place offers the maximum level of flexibility within the low price range.

Both virtual office and serviced office space offer the flexibility and services business owners want. These office spaces also let business owners pay for the facilities’ they need, allowing them to scale the business in the beginning.

Virtual Office vs. Serviced Office – Which is better for your Hong Kong Business?

Both virtual offices and serviced office spaces offer numerous benefits to business owners. The primary benefit of virtual offices is the lower price of using the place. These offices are not as expensive as traditional offices and serviced office spaces, and provide a business address, which can be used for invoices, agreements, and other related matters.

Let’s look at an example of the benefits of a virtual office over a serviced office space:

Heard about Zapier company? It is a software company offering multiple integrating applications into a comprehensive workflow. This application helps the seamless transition between various applications such as Gmail, DropBox, Calendar tools, and Slack. But do you know how it got started? How did it achieve success without setting up a traditional physical office space?

Zapier organically grew into a virtual office space like other businesses. Its founders were starting Zapier from the ground up as a side project because of their busy working schedules. The company started by hiring remote workers from all over the world.

The company has managed to have a remote team since the start of 2011. They scaled up with the same fully remote process. Both the founders were finding it very difficult to manage their team members and business because of their jobs and the school studies. This meant time for communication and face-to-face meetings was very minimal. That’s where they developed the concept of remote style communication.

They hired workers who believe in hardwork and innovation. In short, the “doers’’ who complete the work without many instructions and micromanagement from the seniors. With their dedication and excellent business idea, their startup turned into a success. This inherently created a quality workforce to be deployed from anywhere in the world. Moreover, the virtual office offered legitimacy to the Zapier company from the start of the business and gave flexibility to the business owners to thrive in the competitive business world.

So, if you want more flexibility and excellent employees for your startup, a virtual office space would be your best choice. In fact, we at Startupr can help you to have a prime business address in Hong Kong. All you need to do is contact us. For more information about a virtual office in Hong Kong, click here!

Looking at Virtual Offices in Hong Kong? Startupr helps you!

With this, you now know how a serviced office and virtual office differ and why people prefer to choose a virtual office. A virtual office facilitates businesses to work from any location and also provides savings and more flexibility to employees.

Moreover, it helps reduce the renting or leasing expenses and gives a professional image of a traditional office and infrastructure. If you are looking for the best virtual office space in Hong Kong, Startupr can help you. We also offer mail forwarding services to our clients. For more information, contact us now!