Virtual offices throughout Australia remain open to help businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. 

With all non-essential businesses either closing their doors or implementing new remote working policies, virtual office services are remaining open, whilst implementing strict rules around the use of co-working environments and practicing social distancing at reception and mail collection counters.
 
 “We are taking all available precautions to reduce the risk of contact and remain as safe as possible in providing these and other essential services to our customers” says Michael Davison, Managing Director of Virtual Headquarters.  Virtual Headquarters is Australia’s largest aggregator of virtual office addresses, with over 60 locations.
 
As businesses let go of leases and cut overheads to survive, many are turning to virtual offices to maintain a credible business address and access services that keep their businesses open.

Along with a CBD business address, Virtual Headquarters offers mail-handling and forwarding, 24/7 call answering and messaging services, and diary management. 
 
“We are doing our best to ensure businesses can keep the basic infrastructure they need, but without the usual heavy costs”, says Michael.
 
Savvy businesses are also expanding market reach by purchasing virtual addresses in new local markets.  While some multi-national businesses use virtual locations to support their business in major cities apart from where they are headquartered.
 
Illia Sotiropoulos, owner of IP Partners, a specialised IT services company headquartered in Adelaide is one such company.  He explains his strategy in deploying virtual offices for his business in January.  “Our customers are multi-national and so are we”, explains Illia.  “We have staff located in every major city in Australia.  They mostly work from home or visit client sites.  Having a virtual office in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, gives my team a physical hub they can connect to when they need it.  I don’t need to carry the cost of office leases and office administration in those locations.  Now I have premium virtual offices and pay for facilities as and when I need them”.
 
Businesses like IP Partners also benefit from having a physical presence in multiple states as the office locations appear in local online searches.  “It’s a win win”, says Illia, “we can service our customers with local facilities, staff can work at home as usual, and we communicate to prospects that we are local to them”.
 
While meeting rooms at virtual offices stay closed to meet current Government restrictions, maintaining a physical presence might offer businesses a much-needed silver lining when recovering from the COVID-19 crisis.  With staff well equipped and capable working from home, businesses can use virtual offices as a low risk way to rebuild their operations.  Some may decide that shared real estate is the new normal.  Virtual business locations will once again boom as dynamic business hubs, with even more companies only paying for the space they need, when they need it.

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