Home-based businesses reveal biggest fear
Home-based businesses reveal biggest fear
A new survey has found that many Australians with home-based businesses chose to keep clients in the dark about operating from home, for fear of losing business.
The survey conducted by Serviced Offices International of 110 Australian home operators found that 56.2 percent don’t tell clients where they work from believing they will be hesitant to work with a home-based business.
According to Michelle Mills, Managing Director of Serviced Offices International, image is very important in business, and many home operators fear they won’t be taken seriously if their clients know they work from home.
“Image is very important, especially for a home operator who has to convince customers that home life will not infringe on the quality of product and service provided,” she said.
Of those businesses that do tell clients, 67.6 percent said they would never hold meetings at their home office, with 47.4 believing it may look unprofessional, while 30 percent don’t because it infringes on their personal space.
Mills believes that developing both a solid exterior and interior image is crucial to drawing in clients.
“In order to maintain a professional image, a solid exterior must always be supported with great results and proficient customer service within the business. When effectively balancing both, home based businesses are as successful, professional and dependable as their office based competitors”.
A new survey has found that many Australians with home-based businesses chose to keep clients in the dark about operating from home, for fear of losing business.
The survey, conducted by Serviced Offices International of 110 Australian home operators, found that 56.2 percent don’t tell clients where they work from believing they will be hesitant to work with a home-based business.
According to Michelle Mills, managing director of Serviced Offices International, image is very important in business, and many home operators fear they won’t be taken seriously if their clients know they work from home.
“Image is very important, especially for a home operator who has to convince customers that home life will not infringe on the quality of product and service provided,” she said.
Of those businesses that do tell clients, 67.6 percent said they would never hold meetings at their home office, with 47.4 believing it may look unprofessional, while 30 percent don’t because it infringes on their personal space.
Mills believes that developing both a solid exterior and interior image is crucial to drawing in clients.
“In order to maintain a professional image, a solid exterior must always be supported with great results and proficient customer service within the business. When effectively balancing both, home-based businesses are as successful, professional and dependable as their office-based competitors”.
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I’ve always found that saying something to the effect of, “We are a virtual company and we all work in various places. Our office is anywhere we happen to be at that moment, whether it’s at home, at Starbucks or at an office that we’ve rented.”
Most are intrigued by the model and not put off by it. Those that are, I’d rather not do business with anyway!
Disclosure – Serviced Offices International is a client of mine. But I’m also a virtual office user and a small business and therefore have a POV too!
We’re a small team of three and we’re office, not home based. But given our size, we couldn’t have the whole team out at meetings, for instance. Who’d answer the phones? Fort hold? Using a virtual office now, we just divert the phones when we’re out and all our calls are taken and if they’re super important, they get put through to our mobiles. Had I known about virtual offices, I would have delayed the office move a little longer … rather than rushed into the office we’re in now.
I’d have to say that, and hiring a finance manager and completely delegating all finance matters to her, have really freed me and the business in many ways.
Virtual offices make a great option for those who want to work from home but want to make sure they maintain a professional image. You get a local number (in whatever city you choose) and phone calls for you are answered in the name of your company by a professional reception staff. Then they can forward the calls to you or to a private voice mailbox. Plans are really affordable. ABCN offers virtual office locations everywhere: http://www.abcnvirtual.com
work should be viewed as performance based rather than location based. over head efficiency should be applauded. That’s the great thing about social networking and word of mouth advertising.
I have found it much easier to draw in clients without telling them I work from home. I love working from home and the benefits for me far outweigh the negatives for my personal situation. But, I do recognise that it can change peoples perceptions of how proffessional and experienced the business is.
For further reading on this question may I recommend “The Home Office From Hell Cure”, by Jeffrey A Landers. ISBN 978-1-599181-677
I have no financial interest in the sales of Mr Landers’ book.
Hi Tom.
I appreciate your comment, however the article focuses on the results of the survey and is not advertorial for this woman’s company. There has been no payment for this article and it is simply informing the public of the results of the survey to shed light on the issues home-based businesses face. I hope this clears it up for you. Thanks.
Regards,
Jessica Stanic
Online Manager
I would agree. Most can tell however when I answer a chat support request at 11pm. As long as my info is accurate and as up to date as I can keep it, customers will continue to use the service. At the end of the day they are after the info and comparisons, not necessarily my time.
That\’s a pretty shameless advertorial for this ladies serviced offices company. Pretty much in line with smh.com.au . Advertising disguised as news.
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