Battle the High Price at the Pump with a Home Office

With the rising price of gas, even the most steadfast ‘brick and mortar’ business junkies are exploring the home office alternative. For those of us who consider the Internet one of our favorite ‘hang-outs’ the idea of working remotely doesn’t cause us to bat an eye.  But for those business people who still are struggling with acceptance of e-mail as a viable form of communication it can seem downright ludicrous. For example, how in the world can a business not have an office complete with receptionist and employees without seeming unprofessional? It might sound impossible, but it’s really quite simple.  Let’s take the receptionist for instance.  It’s easy to have a professional answering system without the expense of an actual employee. Services like OneBox and eVoice Receptionist allow your callers to be greeted professionally, offers them a choice of whom they wish to speak to and transfers the call to the appropriate number.  It also gives the option of voicemail and can automatically send that voice-mail to whatever e-mail address you specify.  Some services also offer an integrated fax that sends all your faxes directly to an e-mail address. No need for a seperate fax machine. Another great feature with services such as these is the ability to forward your calls.  So if you’re going to be out of your home office for a few hours, simply log into the service and change the phone number that you can be reached at to your cell phone number. Now all the calls will ring into your cell phone. And you don’t have to give your cell phone number out if you prefer not to.  And it’s much less expensive than hiring a receptionist.

And if your wondering about a secretary or administrative assistant, we’ve already mentioned virtual assistants, haven’t we?  After all, there are virtual assistants that are experts in anything that you might need. And with secure online collaboration sites like Google Docs and Officezilla you can share documents, files, contacts and calendars easier than being in the same office. 

Worried about just what work is being done from home offices?  Online time tracking like My Hours  not only allows everyone to track work hours, but allows you access to see just how much time is spent and on what.

Online services such as these will allow any type of employee you might have to work remotely as efficiently if not more efficiently than being in a traditional office.Not only will it save you the price of gas, it will save the overhead of leasing office space, purchasing computer equipment and other associated costs. So what are you waiting for?  Make the home office move!!