Ready For Business Blog

Office Business Centers (OBCs) are rapidly adapting to new realities in our working environment, but their image is rooted in the industry’s inception several decades ago. In order to help executives properly evaluate the OBC option, we have compiled a list of 10 commonly held myths about the industry.

1. OBCs Offer an Alternative to Renting Commercial Space

This fallacy represents one of the key misconceptions our industry struggles against every single day. Today’s OBC provides administrative services, electronic infrastructure and a working environment ready to go from day one. In doing so, it frees clients from the time and responsibilities required to install telecommunications systems and copiers, select and train administrative staff, and monitor maintenance items such as cleaning and painting.

2. Office Location is Unimportant in Today’s Global Marketplace

As industries become more competitive, differentiation among rival organizations often hinges on intangibles. An office in an impressive building with beautiful grounds, in a prestigious location, speaks volumes about a company’s success and ability to satisfy its clients. Prospects can be overwhelmed by plush interiors, an accommodating staff and a professional atmosphere. Proximity to other successful organizations affects the impression of your own.

3. OBCs are Too Expensive

Some executives are impressed by the services offered by OBCs and think it would be cheaper to start from scratch with empty commercial space. This viewpoint ignores the economies-of-scale employed by OBCs to provide services infeasible for singular use such as videoconferencing. OBCs also offer meeting spaces for large gatherings, avoiding the need to find and rent space for a yearly event. Considering all the costs necessary to transform traditional commercial space from an “empty box” into a working office environment, the OBC option can actually be less expensive.

4. OBCs are Primarily for Start-Up Companies

This myth views OBCs as a stepping stone to a commercial office. While some companies using OBCs benefit from administrative services, especially if they do not have enough work to hire a full-time employee, OBCs serve small, medium and large-sized firms in a wide variety of fields including law, finance and business-to-business. Larger, well established companies open satellite offices in new locations and utilize OBCs as their regional headquarters. Some clients are so happy in their OBCs, they stay in them for decades.

5. Office Business Centers are Only Staffed from 9 AM to 5 PM

In today’s 24/7 world, this limitation would sound a death knell to our industry. OBCs offer customized solutions for their clients including flexible hours for staff, telecommunications and other specialized needs. In fact, when a traditional employee in a commercial office is unavailable, OBCs offer full staff and administrative support to help a company meet deadlines in any time zone.

6. The Luxury and Amenities in High-End OBCs are an Anachronism Today

Clients, prospects and employees today, especially Gen X’ers, expect certain perks. Sometimes winning that big account may be achieved through a workout in an on-site weight room, or a basketball game in the company gym, instead of a PowerPoint presentation. People do business with their friends, and winning a person over involves becoming one. A walk outside on well-kept grounds with fountains and gardens in the background can be very persuasive.

7. All OBCs are Alike

Like every industry, there are high-end and low-end OBCs. Some were founded over 20 years ago and deliver a level of expertise suitable for high-paying clients. These OBCs generally stay on top of the latest technological innovations, with fiber-optic networks and electronic packages for their clients including website administration. Other OBCs focus on volume and deliver a less personalized approach.

8. The OBC Industry is Well Known in the United States

OBCs were considered a vital option for businesses in Europe well before the start of the OBC industry in the United States, where they are still relatively unknown. Terminology creates a fundamental misunderstanding of our industry. In Britain, we are recognized as a service industry, and instead of executive suites, our colleagues use the term “serviced office.” Instead of referring to “leases” and “tenants,” they talk about “clients” and “contracts.”

9. OBCs Provide More than My Company Needs

Yes, OBCs provide packages to save companies money including an electronic package, virtual office services, worldwide business access, concierge services, etc. But some OBCs also offer an “a la carte” menu with basic items such as word processing, document creation, graphics and more. OBCs provide customized, flexible service solutions for clients to fit their needs.

10. OBCs are Insulated from the Negative Effects of Economic Downturns

While many OBCs benefit from increased occupancy rates during economic downturns, their clients may be overly cost-conscious about services designed in the long run to save them time and allow them to focus on their core competencies. As a result, the revenue per office declines. However, on the upside, companies may use OBCs more when they renovate their own location instead of moving to a new commercial space. OBCs specializing in renovation interim-workspace service benefit from this additional source of revenue.

Executives must be aware of all these myths when considering the OBC option. They should talk to colleagues in their industry and analyze the costs and benefits of all alternatives. However, they should be aware of the many intangibles in the OBC industry and evaluate each OBC company based on both its history of service and current capabilities.

You know what’s better than having a high-paying job? It’s being paid continually for something that you did in the past. You know what’s even better? It’s having multiple payments. That is precisely what multiple income streams are all about. Building multiple income streams would help you get unlimited income. How, you ask? Well, a multiple income stream would help you because of the concept of residual income.

Residual income is income that you receive long after you stop working. Unlike salaries, the flow of residual income is not stopped when you get weary of working. As long as the business exists, you will get an income. What’s more? Well, your income will actually increase with time. Huh? Is that for real? It is for real, my friend.

A residual income stream, like its namesake, would gradually grow while it flows. Soon, the stream would flow into a river and the river would flow into the sea. Before you know it, you would be swimming in a veritable ocean of income!

In order to have your ocean, however, you need to build your streams. Some people may find that building multiple residual income streams could be difficult. Here are tips to help you out with this task:

1) Be patient - Your goal is something worth having. Although some people try to get multiple income streams because they are impatient with work, you have to realize that building multiple income streams does require you to work a bit. You cannot expect to have a perpetual source of income just because you wish it. You need to build multiple income streams in order to enjoy the flow. This is something that you must understand.

2) Stay focused - Many people get tired of waiting for opportunities and give up on building multiple income streams before they have even begun. You need to stay motivated and keep your goal within your sights. One advantage of building multiple income streams is the fact that although it does require work, it actually requires minimal work. All a person needs to do is stay focused and the work will be done in no time.

3) Maximize resources - the key to building multiple income streams is proper resource utilization. It is not resource gathering but utilization. This is because multiple income streams only require people to use the resources that they have in order to succeed. Although you are not required to use what you do not have, it is still recommended that you use those resources wisely. By maximizing those resources, you would be getting the most money out of what you have. That’s the ultimate goal of business.

4) Use one business, but diversify - What does this mean? Well, in order to build multiple income streams you need to have multiple investments. However, people find it hard to manage various types of income and different types of businesses. You need to make use of only one business and diversify this through your network.

This way, you would be able to keep yourself focused. You need only to develop the skills that you know would help that business grow. You would only need to utilize these same skills multiple times in order to build each stream. Sure, some people may think that it is boring, but it would also be easier than having to learn a different set of skills for each branch of your multiple income streams.

Are you a Spiritualpreneur? This is someone who is Spiritual Entrepreneur.

Spiritualpreneur’s are people who want to build their business and expand their business in a new way. Spiritualpreneurs also want more in their life. They want health, balance, a greater sense of collaboration and connection. The way to do that is really to use both an inner and outer approach.

They are business people who want to operate on a conscious level by bringing enduring transformation into the world. They’re reading books and watching movies that introduce them to spiritual universal principles, about attracting more of what they want, having more power within them and having the vision of a business that fits them.

Many Spiritualpreneur’s want to apply these principles in their business but don’t know how to do that. They feel the old ways of doing things don’t support them, and end up feeling frustrated and want a new way. The old ways of doing business and marketing by selling with hype and bullying people into taking action doesn’t feel good to Spiritualpreneurs. They often think that something is wrong with them since they feel that resistance.

I say NOTHING is wrong with you! You are a Spiritualpreneur and you need a different approach and you need to be with people who understand that. At the same time you need an inner and an outer structure.

There is a process called an activation session to help you determine if this is the next right step for you! You need help to connect in with your own inner guidance. You’ll be able to feel and tell and know if this is a right fit for you. You’ll feel it in your body. You’ll know it in your heart. You’ll have a sense of it.

You need both the inner and outer perspectives. You need to align with the idea of making a connection to your inner guidance and from an outer standpoint, you need to understand why making an investment in this would really make sense for you.

We talk about the formula that so that you can have multiple streams of income regardless of what business you have. The selling process is about serving. People can feel when your selling process is more of an activation than it is an agenda where you feel like you have to get them to do something.

One of the ways you can begin to offer an activation process with potential clients and customer is to absolutely shift your perspective that this is about selling anything.

Tip #1
It’s about activating in people their possibilities and then helping them to see that you’re a match to assist them in accomplishing their vision. It’s about YOU making a shift at an inner level.

It’s not about selling, it’s about activating and serving.

Tip #2
You have to have a process to understand the energetic elements of what happens when people are drawn to you. They’ve come to you for very important reasons!

You need to have a solid process that helps them explore some of the things that are not working in their experience in a way that doesn’t put them on the defensive but really activates the possibilities in them.

And this is really important to have.

Tip #3
To really activate people, you need to really be able to hold the intention that you’re partnering with your inner guidance.

You can do this in every area of your life. I do this all the time when I am talking to someone. I like to do it verbally. I’ll do it in meetings or in any experience I am having, like with my dentist. I’ll state an intention. I may say something like, “My intention is that we connect at a very deep level.”

If I were talking to a Spiritualpreneur, I would say to them “My intention is that I’m detached to any specific outcome, but I really want to be here to serve you and to assist you and to help you explore what you want. And if this is a right fit for you then I want to be here to support you and to assist you in activating all that you want to activate.” I would incorporate that kind of language in a way that feels really good for me and for the person I am talking to.

Tip #4
You have got to look at the stories that you’re telling yourself about the selling process.

You have to look at the things you say to yourself like “Can people afford what I’m doing?” That is not your choice.

If you see someone as not being able to afford something then you’re not going to be able to help him or her or activate anything because you’re joining him or her at a place of limitation.

What you’ve got to do is see the person as they want to be, really see it and feel it for them. I think of it as embracing them, sending a sense of light and surrounding them with this connection to the inner guidance that can assist them in all of the things that they want to do.

Often times I’ll hear people say, “You know but I feel bad when it comes time to talking to people about the money. My product or service is expensive or what I’m charging is a lot of money.”

You’ve got to get clear about the stories you’re telling yourself.

• Take a look at the results that you’re getting in your sales.
• Examine what you don’t want to experience.
• This will help you examine your patterns of beliefs and thoughts that you have activated.

You’ve really got to look at the stories you’re telling yourself. When you show up with the vibrational patterning that what you are offering is a high price and it is difficult for people to make a decision to purchase it, then you are more likely to elicit a response from people that they can’t afford your product or services.

And you can change these dominant vibrations. And when you do, you have totally recession-proofed your business!

Are you a Spiritualpreneur ready to change your dominant vibrations so you can have the business and life of your dreams? Please join us at http://www.coachingfromspirit.com/bizactivation

Forging strong relationships with your suppliers can be essential to the success of your company. And like any relationship you need to embrace building and strengthening that relationship. You may only see yourself as a customer and them as a vendor but your relationship can be much more than that. You may say that there are other suppliers out there and that may well be true but will having to start all over give you more value or less. And if you do a lot of business with other small companies will a larger company appreciate you as much as that fellow small business does. Your relationships are not something that you should overlook.

Relationship building in business is never ending and it starts in the first day your dream is born. When you take your concept and begin to turn it into reality. And no matter what type of business you are in you will need suppliers of one sort or another. Whether it is for your phone service, landlord, banker, or a soft drink supplier. Everyone you purchase something from regardless of whether it’s a product or service is a form of supplier. Now obviously some suppliers will only require limited contact, and going to your local office supply store and buying something won’t provide opportunities to build a meaningful relationship but plenty of opportunities will present themselves.

Many opportunities will come through phone calls with your sales representatives. This can turn into sit down meetings with them. Many times they’ll come to the office for a visit. One of my standard practices has always been to get to know the sales reps that come to visit. And whether you need something from them or not ask them to drop buy. The better they get to know you the more they might appreciate the business you do with them. Especially if they’ve worked for the same company for many years. I’ve always made it a point to show them around our facility. So that they could get a feel for what we do and where we’re going. I’ve always made sure to tell them how much I appreciate working with them and that I’m glad they’re along for the ride. Using the saying my success is your success may sound kind of cliché but it has always been the point I was trying to make. My suppliers are my partners and with they’re help I can succeed. And my business can thrive.

You do need to remember that you’re still their customer and they will look out for their own best interests first just as you would yours. So when you are on the lookout for new suppliers especially in the first months of your company’s existence you need to be diligent when searching for vendors. Especially if they’re going to be critical to your existence by supplying something you have to have that few companies offer.

So you need to realize that just as your relationship with your customers is important so to is the relationship with your suppliers. Because when you need something in a hurry, or you need to stretch a payment out a little, or you have a large job that won’t pay for awhile and you need special terms they’ll be more willing to listen to you if they know you by more than a customer number. In business every relationship is important.

Cash Miller is an experienced entrepreneur and speaker who has spent over a decade as a small business owner. His years of experience in small business cover a variety of topics. If you are looking for more small business information you can go to http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com

Do you remember when the first personal paper shredding machines became available to the general public? Perhaps then, you can recall the very first time that you used one and the joy that you felt? Remember standing there in your own personal moment of bliss, watching the common piece of paper you were feeding into it being instantly transformed into in pile of wonderful confetti?

Turn Documents into Confetti

There is just something about confetti that does something to people. Just watch a politician being transformed from a boring dishonest dolt into an instant hero, simply by having a bunch of confetti fall down from the ceiling after his long winded boring speech. Throw a handful of confetti in the air and kids instantly go nuts.

Employees Aren’t Reliable

The sad truth, is that even paper shredding loses its thrill in time and this is why you simply can’t trust employees to do it reliably any more. Also, the portion of the population that truly never grows tired of paper shredding have all been hired up by commercial paper shredding services.

Prompt and Reliable Paper Shredding Services

Each night these “special people” gather in their dark cement chambers and look on in wide eyed wonder as all the paper that they have gathered from throughout the surrounding provinces is converted into mountains glorious confetti. Do they grow tired? Do they get bored? Never!

A Common Sense Solution

This is the one main reason why each day more and more businesses all over the land are choosing to let the “paper shredding people” do their paper shredding for them. It all just makes perfect sense. If you cant trust your employees to show up on time and put in a full forty hour week, then why on earth would you trust them to shred paper?

Written by James Worstshire. Find the latest information on Bronx Document Destruction Services as well as Suffolk County Document Destruction

Their has been a recent surge of new business owners across the globe due to the advent of the internet. The world wide web has allowed entrepreneurs everywhere to start up their own home based business with little or no start up costs. Here’s four work from home opportunities that people are using to make money online.

Work From Home Opportunity #1:

Sign up for a click bank account and promote other peoples products and services. You can end up earning a great income from all the commissions you can make doing this. Some of the affiliate commission percentages are over 75%!

You can promote these products effectively both on and off-line. Set up a free blog and make a sales page on the blog promoting the different products. By posting and pinging new blog posts and by passing out flyer’s and cards you can easily bring traffic to your new blog.

Work From Home Opportunity #2

Start up your own website. Really anything is possible with your own website and domain name. You can promote the click bank products mentioned above, other affiliates, or make your own product and service.

Even without a product or service, if you can provide good information on a subject, you can bring traffic to the site. Just by simply bringing traffic to your website, you can make money by selling advertising space and/or through Google AdSense.

Work From Home Opportunity #3

Get paid to take surveys. The best way to make paid surveys work for you is to sign with multiple survey companies. You will usually be compensated between one and ten dollars for surveys that normally take 10-20 minutes to complete.

Taking surveys will not net you enough to money to make a decent living but it will help ease some of the stress from your normal monthly bills.

Work From Home Opportunity #4

One of the most effective ways to work from home and make money online is to start a list and use email marketing. The list that you build can provide income forever. All you have to do anytime you need money is to email a helpful product or service to your list that they might be interested in.

So there you have four legitimate work from home opportunities that anyone can use. Just let it be known that there are many people who are having plenty of success making money online using these methods as well as countless others. In order to make enough money to be able to pay the bills and live comfortably it would be wise to diversify your income opportunities.

The workplace can be stressful for you and your employees. You deal with deadlines, meetings, travel, budgets, long hours, and commuting right along with everyone who works for you.

If you want — or need — stress relief, invest in a custom water fountain for your office. It will serve as a calming background and provide a visual and auditory point of reference for relaxation. Opt for colors that spur creative energy, or go for hues that promote serenity, tranquility, and calm. The sound of running water produces peaceful background noise and is far more appealing than the sound of the photocopier or printer.

Custom water fountains can be expensive, but not as expensive as the cost of paid sick or stress leave. Every time you lose an employee, it costs money to rehire and retrain. As morale and stress increase in the workplace, so do workplace absences. A custom water fountain can’t change any inherent problems in the workplace, but it can create a more calming, inviting atmosphere. That alone can instigate the changes needed to turn the workplace into a better place to be.

Some ideas for where to start your search for a custom fountain….

1. Consider a wall hanging water fountain that you can have your corporate logo engraved on. This will serve not only as a focal point of the decor for everyone walking in to enjoy, but can also serve as your company sign. There are many materials available for logo fountains such as slate, glass, mirror, marble etc.

2. Would a floor standing model serve the space better? You will find many sizes and materials available here as well. A floor model could go against the wall, serve as a room divider or finish off a corner nicely.

3. Consider all the options you have for placement. Will it go right in your office or would you rather share it for all to enjoy and get a smaller desktop fountain for your own personal benefit? Some great places for large commercial waterfalls are lobby’s, conference rooms, patient or customer utilized areas and courtyards.

A lot to think about but many great uses for custom fountains. A great place to start your commercial water fountain search is Serenityhealth.com. You will find a section with commercial fountain examples as well as many wall fountains and floor standing fountains.