Setting up and Running a Successful International Virtual Office

As an entrepreneur or startup, presenting your business card with an address at a prime business location in Toronto would leave a great first impression. But if you’re thinking of expanding your business globally, and reaching out to new markets, wouldn’t it be great to present your card with your address in your target market? Could it be in New York or Tokyo or other cities?

Can you afford having high profile offices in each of these business centres? Most probably, not. In addition to high rental cost, it wouldn’t be affordable for a small business to rent and hire staff in different cities for an extended period of time. 

You wish you could invite your clients to meet at your prestigious offices, and close that deal you've been working on for a while at your home office. Is it possible to get a prestigious office when you need it? You could do your day to day work anywhere else, as long as you have your laptop and your phone with you… 

Can someone answer the phone in Japanese and provide you with the message you need, while you are in another country? You would like to have your company’s name when the phone rings, a message taken, and delivered to you on time, without hiring full time assistants.  

You need to get your mail delivered to you, although you cannot pick it up overseas. You need to see the official letters delivered to you on time, without having to inform the sender that you are not actually in that country.  

Could there be a one stop shop combining these services, allowing you to pay for the time you spend in a meeting at the office? Could you pay the assistant for the time spent taking the messages, without paying vacation days?

Thanks to “Virtual Offices”, you can have a prestigious profile, at low cost! 

Virtual offices provide entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses with a cost efficient high-profile professional image. Businesses of any size can also establish global presence across countries, thanks to international virtual offices. In a business world where appearances and first impressions count, this service enables small businesses to be presentable and at par with big businesses.

A virtual office saves the rental cost of a high profile office in a prestigious business building. It also saves commuting time and cost; as well as the cost of hiring full time assistants, and paying for vacations or sick leaves. Whether the entrepreneur is working from home-office, or travelling from one country to another, calls can be professionally answered, mail can be forwarded, and you can hear your voice mail, even if it was delivered to a phone number in another country. 

Setting Up an International Virtual Office

• Decide which country the virtual office be located in. This depends on your global expansion strategy, and the market for your product or service. 
• Choose your virtual office operator. Compare prices and terms of service.

       Some international virtual office operators: 

      Regus operates virtual offices in 1800 locations around the globe, including Toronto.

      Servcorp operates virtual offices in 140 in 20 countries, excluding Canada. 

      Global Virtual Offices provides offices in USA and internationally.

      VH International Business Solutions provides virtual offices in New York.

• Compare prices of different operators, if more than one operator exist in the city of your choice. Compare the prices of different business buildings. The prices differ from one building to another.
• In case you travel frequently and need to meet with business partners in different countries, you could choose an operator with global presence.
• Decide on the period of time you will be using the virtual office. Some companies  provide a trial period for a month, followed by month to month payments. Some companies offer 20% discount for annual membership, while others provide annual contracts only.
• Voice mail and fax can be forwarded to you through email. You can receive a call, or a message informing you that you got voice mail.
• Choose the frequency at which you want the mail to be delivered to you- weekly or monthly. Get a scanned copy of the mail you receive, as soon as it arrives at your virtual address.
• Live answering of incoming calls. The agent can take a message, and send you an email with the content. The caller can be directed to a voice mail box to leave a message.  
• Fill out the required forms. Provide your full contact information, company name, actual address, ID information, credit card information.
• Provide the script for the greeting of incoming calls. It will be recorded professionally. 
• Incorporate the business at chosen location for $100. 
• Pay the fees using your credit card. 

Successfully Operating a Virtual Office

• Choose products that suit your needs.
• Use Live Answering service, and don't rely solely on voice mail. Voice mail is overused, and too many calls are unanswered. 
• Have your mail scanned and forwarded to you once received. Mail delivery is already time consuming. 
• Meet business partners when possible. Office space can cost only $25 per hour.
• Paying for a short period of time, could be more expensive. Consider getting a longer period of time.
• Compare the prices of different operators. Having the virtual office can cost $1 per day, $600 per year, and can reach $3000 per year.

Maintain your professional profile… Your day-to-day office complements the virtual office’s professional look…

• Choose a quiet location 
• Set up your own office space and equipment. A laptop, with backup and antivirus software, wireless broadband, a phone, a printer, scanner.
• Keep your space tidy, especially if you need to have virtual conference calls. 
• Dress up professionally for conference calls and virtual meetings.

Could virtual offices help reduce small business failure? Future research comparing performance of companies using virtual offices and others that don’t, could provide interesting results. 

"Cobourg"- Northumberland County- East of Toronto | Knowing more about Cities in Canada

Cobourg is a "very" small town to the East of Toronto. It is part of Northumberland County.

I got the chance to visit Cobourg recently for one day.

Getting to Cobourg is very expensive if you don't have a car, and there is limited transportation inside Cobourg. You can get a taxi if you don't have a car to move inside

Via Rail has 4 trips per day from Toronto. You can check the prices of Via Rail online. Add to that the cost of the bus to Toronto from Mississauga, and a taxi in Cobourg.. and it would add up to around $100 for a round trip.

Cobourg is really small. I let the taxi driver take me around. There was basically one street which has all the shops. However, all shops close at 6:00 pm.

You would definitely need a car in Cobourg. The buses stop operating at 7:00.

The town is not well lit at night. There aren't a lot of buildings and houses in it. So you would definitely be identified as someone new in the street!

People living in Cobourg have been living there for a long time... it is basically their hometown. They live and work there.

The rental costs around $1250.. whether the building hosts older generation, or younger people. Utilities are added to the rental cost. As for the cost of buying an apartment, a two bedroom apartment costs $165,000.

New funding for Economic development in Eastern Ontario will help bring more businesses to Northumberland County.

Northumberland CFDC provides up to $30,000 funding for scientists and engineers willing to start their business in Northumberland County.

Northumberland CFDC is seeking entrepreneurs from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields who have a market-ready product or process innovation that they wish to commercialize in Northumberland County. Start-up businesses launched in Northumberland through the Scientists and Engineers in Business (SEB) Initiative may be eligible to receive up to $30,000 in the form of non-repayable performance-based contributions matching the STEM Entrepreneur’s equity in their new company.

http://www.northumberlandcfdc.ca/seb/

People working in Cobourg don't really need to go to Toronto much, as they work within Northumberland County.

If you find a job in Northumberland County, you would have to live in that area.

"Mississauga" - Peel Region - West of Toronto | Knowing more about Cities in Canada

Mississauga is a big city in Peel Region. It is on the West side of Toronto.

Square One is a big mall in Mississauga. Just beside it is the bus terminal of Mississauga Transit, in addition to Go Buses.

You can take Milton train from Union Station to Square One- Mississauga. The bus runs to Square One frequently. Their is either a train, or a bus at one given point in time. You can install the Go Transit iphone application to check the timings.

Mississauga is home to a lot of immigrants from different cultures. There are a lot of restaurants from different culutres, from Arabic, to Chinese, to Japanese, to Vietnamese, to Indian, in additiont to Western food, and all the food chains that are found at all the malls.

A lot of families live in Mississauga, although the father/ mother's job might be in other cities, and they would have to commute. In addition to the commuting time, the cost of fuel could reach $600 per month, and the companies might not cover this cost.

Houses in Mississauga are very expensive. The prices exceed $500,000 and reach $700,000. You don't have to be a millionnaire to live in these houses. What you need is a big downpayment, and mortgage that you will be paying off over many years. People do sell one house and move to another, and they don't have to live in the same house for 30 years.

Can insurance is more expensive in Mississauga than in smaller cities, such as Oshawa. Car insuarance can cost $5000 per year for $5000 car. Such a car would be old and would require having maintenance.

Public schools that offer French education are called "French immersion". The kids take one day of French, and one day of English studies.

The day care is very expensive in Canada, and can reach $1500 per month. Some moms decide to become stay at home moms, instead of working, due to high cost of day care. If the mom works, the child's day would be too long as well.

Mississauga Public Library is very big. It is a convenient place to work on your own laptop. You have free wireless Internet access.

There is a nice skating place just beside the libarary. In the summer, kids enjoy playing with water fountains/ splash pads. There are a lot of nice parks in Mississauga.

"Oshawa" - Durham Region- East of Toronto | Knowing more about Cities in Canada

Oshawa is a small city to the East of Toronto. It is part of "Durham Region", which includes: Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa.

Transportation from Oshawa to Toronto is a disadvantage, especially if you rely on public transportation, as I do. I had to take a bus from Oshawa to Ajax, which took one hour, and then a train from Ajax to Toronto. Going back to Oshawa was the same issue. Walking back to catch the train from Toronto's Union Station, then to catch the bus that goes from Ajax to Oshawa - UOIT / Durham College.

Although Go Transit increased the number of Lakeshore East trains to every half an hour from Union Station to Oshawa, Durham Region Transit reduced or even cut the buses from Oshawa Go Station to University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and Durham College. Durham Region Transit mainly doesn't not want to serve Oshawa Go Station. A lot of people who live in Oshawa and commute to Toronto, have their cars parked at Oshawa Go Station. This would be an easy solution, if you can get a car. (Car insurance would be $300, gas would cost $280 on average in Ontario, car maintenance, cost of the car...).

On the weekend the buses in Oshawa are only every hour.  If you miss one, you have to wait another hour.

Go Transit's iphone application is a good one. However, Durham Region Transit doesn't have a good iphone application for the bus schedules. So you need to find the bus schedule that you find online or in the DRT book, with the Go Schedule.

Sometimes a bus would reach the Go station after the train leaves, so you'd have to wait for the next train. The same issue is when coming back from Toronto to Ajax.

I think there needs to be more coordination between Durham Region Transit and Go Transit.

Durham Region Transit routes do not appear on Google Maps. So you can't really find which buses to take within Durham Region when searching on Google Maps, unlike Go Transit.

There is a bus from Mississauga / Square One to York University, then another bus from York University to University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).  This is pretty convenient if you are going to Mississauga. But it doesn't go to Toronto.

As there are a lot of students in Oshawa, you can find a room in a shared house with other students. This would be cheaper than getting a condo in Toronto, if you were living in Toronto.

Some people live in Oshawa and commute to Toronto. The houses are cheapter there. There are houses for around $325,000. However, this would be the price of one room in Toronto.

General Motors has operations in Oshawa. It closed part of its operation in 2012, and 2000 people were laid off. In October 2013, General Motors decided to delay closure of its Oshawa assembly plant till 2016. http://globalnews.ca/news/908287/gm-delays-closure-of-oshawa-assembly-line/

I lived in Oshawa as I worked at UOIT for 15 months. I stayed in Oshawa for several months after my contract ended. I decided to move out of it, because of limited transportation to/ from Toronto. 

Planning to move to Canada? What to expect and points to be aware of...

1.     Although you were able to progress in your career, and you gained experience over the years before moving to Canada, finding a job is a challenge on its own. 

2.     You might find a job in a new field in which you did not work previously. So you need to expand your search beyond the fields that you worked in previously. This is where "transferrable skills" come in.

3.     You need to have money before moving to Canada. This money comes from savings in previous jobs that you held. A good thing for the Canadian banks..

4.     After moving to Canada, you will be spending money that you saved previously. If you have no savings, don't move. If you think that you'll be making and saving money, revise your expectations.

5.     Finding a place to live in, is actually tied to employment. A lot of landlords ask for one year lease, and you are requested to provide proof of employment, and references from previous landlords. If you don't have a job, it is difficult to find a place to live in.

6.     Rent is very expensive. $1000 per month is not enough in Toronto.

7.     Houses cost over half a million dollars.  

8.     Finding a job is more difficult than you thought.

9.     A lot of jobs are contract jobs, and not permanent positions. If you just look for permanent employment, your search will be a lot more difficult and a lot longer.

10. Once a contract ends, you are back to a new job search.. that could be longer than the first.

11. International experience and education are definitely discounted.

12. The interviews are scarcer than you thought.

13. Salaries are lower than you thought.

14. The job titles are more flat. People could have the same title for years. Career progression does not follow a steady path as in other countries.

15. A lot of Canadians are looking for a job... not just immigrants...

16. Finding a job is not just difficult for immigrants, but for Canadians as well....

17. A lot of people are establishing their own business instead of waiting to find a job... although it is known that a lot of businesses fail...

18. You would think that you would be able to find a job quicker than others as you were progressing in your career.... and you'll be surprised to see that finding a job is a challenge, even to you!

19.  You need to be lucky more than once in your job search. Being lucky once is not enough in the contract job market.

20. There are a lot of jobs that are posted out there... you might be applying for lots of jobs by submitting your resume on the companies' websites... If a recruiter thinks you are a good fit for a position, and it turns out that you applied on the company's website directly, then the recruiter can't present you to their client! The companies work with recruiters, in addition to posting the jobs online.

21. The companies post the jobs online, after posting the job internally...

22. Some of the jobs that are posted online have already been filled... but they are still posted…

23. Long job descriptions, with a lot of details and credentials required... Even a job that might seem very easy, such as cashier at a big store would have a long description…

24. You would be considered overqualified for entry level positions, and lacking experience for higher level positions.

25. Large number of applications received by big companies, while small companies might not receive enough applications. Big companies could receive over 4500 applications or up to 40,000 for one job posting. A small company might not receive the minimum allocated number of resumes for a job posting.

26. Some companies offer Free internship for several months

27. Financial services companies that provide commission only positions, referred to as entrepreneurial business. You might be contacted for these opportunities.

28. Small companies looking to grow their business, without the capacity to hire employees full time for longer periods of time to confidently grow the business.

29. Multilevel marketing or network marketing, and companies trying to grow their business through word of mouth, providing commission without hiring employees full time. Referred to as “Opportunity for lifetime earnings”.

30. A lot of services are available in the market to job hunters, starting from resume writing, to job search strategies. A thousand dollars is not enough if you wanted to tap into these services.

31. You could apply for hundreds of jobs, and never hear from a lot of companies. Getting to the interviewing process is what is needed.

32. You will be happy to know details on the hiring process and timelines. It is one of the companies you heard back from.

33. You will be happy to get an answer quickly after an interview, even if you didn’t get the job. You need to continue searching if you did not get hired. Getting a prompt answer makes a difference.

 34. Statistics show that the Unemployment rate for immigrants landed 5 or less years earlier is 12.1%, more than double the unemployment rate for Canadian borns. Even after 10 years from being in Canada, the unemployment rate for immigrants is higher than the unemployment rate for Canadian borns. 

     

     Labor force statistics by immigrant status

35. You will be astonished when you learn the definitions of “visible minority”, and “non white". If this is the first time to hear of the terms… you might find that you are considered non white although you could be white. This is definitely astonishing as the days of discrimination by race or color are long gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_minority

      According to the Employment Equity Act of 1995, the definition of visible minority is: 

“members of visible minorities” means persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour;^[7]

This definition can be traced back to the 1984 Report of the Abella Commission on Equality in Employment,. The Commission described the term visible minority as an "ambiguous categorization", but for practical purposes interpreted it to mean "visibly non-white".^[8] The Canadian government uses an operational definition where they classify as visible minorities the following groups: Blacks, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Latin Americans, Pacific Islanders, South Asians, and West Asians/Arabs.^[9]

The term “non-white” is used in the wording of the Employment Equity Act and in employment equity questionnaires distributed to applicants and employees. This is intended as a shorthand phrase for those who are in the Aboriginal and/or visible minority groups. In this context, the use of the term non-white does open the door to ambiguity. For example, people who are Arabs or Latin Americans or even some South Asians may consider themselves to be white, yet the federal government treats Arabs and Latin Americans as members of the visible minority category.^[11]

36. Please join “Hire Immigrants in Canada” LinkedIn Group… You can find lots of discussions there… Please be active on the group!


(Added points 31-34 on Dec 16, 2013)