Experiment with an E-Office to Save Some Money

In as tough an economy as the one we currently find ourselves in, rare is the small business which can safely say they aren't going out of business anytime soon. Just about all of us are watching our backs, but most of all we're hankering for ways to cut the amount we spend on overheard without making the tough calls when it comes to laying off workers. For companies that are strictly service, and even more so for companies that are strictly digital, making the move toward a virtual office is probably the smartest decision they could make when it comes to saving money.

If the lease on your office space is about to run out, why not go ahead and experiment with an e-office? Throw the office furniture into a self storage rental if you're worried about it not panning out. But chances are overwhelming that you'll notice enormous savings almost immediately, thanks to the following effects of switching to a virtual office:

No “brick & mortar” expenses: Every month your office undoubtedly goes through a fair share of utilities, pens, paper, coffee, and other business neccessities. If you convert to a virtual office, these real-world purchases are no longer part of your monthly budget.

The cost-effective cloud is waiting for you: Chances are your business is already operating via cloud technology thanks to co-location and other more cost-effective means of managing small scale digital businesses. The switch then should almost be seamless. For those of you not connected to the cloud, what are you waiting for?

No more rent: This one is obvious. Depending on the size of your office space, you'll be saving anywhere from $600 to $2000 a month in rent alone. This would be an enormous boost to the amount of money you have available to invest directly into your company.

Employee pay can be less: By subtracting the cost of a commute, you can justify paying your employees a little less to work from home. Add up the number of employees you have and this can result in substantial savings. Or you can make working-from-home an offer made in lieu of raises you are not able to provide while paying your employees the same salary.

Electronic communication is free: Whether via email, video conferencing, or social media, your workers will have no problem touching base with one another sans office. Such means of communication are completely free, so there's no added cost of maintaining ties to each other without a physical office space to go to.

Employees are more productive: Studies and surveys seem to suggest that remote workers are in fact more productive than their office-bound equivilents. It may seem counter-intuituve to anyone who went to business school, but responsible employees (the only kind of employees you should ever hire) have no problem making the transition from office to elsewhere and in fact seem to show improvement.

Six ways to save by switching to a virtual office is nothing to sneeze at. If your small business is struggling, give this strategy a try, at least for awhile. You have nothing to lose besides your electric bill.