Q: What is Alliance Virtual Offices’ Platinum Plus plan and what does it offer?
A: Alliance Virtual Offices Platinum Plus plan offers more than just a virtual office address for your business; the plan can provide a savings of up to 70 percent on meeting room rental.
The future of work is flexible, and virtual offices are becoming a big part of it.
Even before 2020 reared its ugly head, there was a growing movement toward flexible work, remote collaboration, and cost efficiency.
Now, more entrepreneurs than ever before recognize the benefits of flexible work and how it can help their business save money and grow.
So, it’s no surprise that virtual office plans are becoming a key component in our future of work.
What is a Virtual Office?
A virtual office is a combination of both physical and virtual services. It provides a business address at an office building, mail processing, on-site meeting rooms, receptionist support, and more.
Some virtual office plans, such as Alliance’s Platinum Plus plan, provide inclusive access to meeting rooms and office space every month.
The address serves a number of important business requirements. Opening a bank account, registering your business, business licensing, and of course, receiving mail.
If you’re wondering, can I register an LLC with a virtual office?
Yes, you can do that too — so long as the virtual office provides a recognized business address, which all of Alliance’s virtual offices do. Our guide on using a virtual office address for LLC registration explains how to do it.
Meanwhile, you can get your work done from anywhere. From home, from a coworking space, or even from a minivan.
Good news is, whenever you need to work in a more professional environment, or meet with clients, virtual offices from Alliance provide a great selection of on-site meeting rooms and workspaces.
Alliance’s Platinum Plus plans make collaboration even easier by offering inclusive meeting room usage.
What’s more, they offer considerable cost savings on meeting room rental.
In this guide, we’ll explain how Platinum Plus works, how it helps reduce the cost of meeting room rental, and how virtual offices make flexible work even easier.
What is the Platinum Plus Plan?
Here’s a quick overview of what’s included in a standard virtual office plan and a Platinum Plus plan.
What are the features of a virtual office?
- Recognized business address in the city of your choice.
- Onsite mail processing and storage.
- Optional daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly mail forwarding (additional fee).
- Front lobby receptionist to greet visitors.
- Easy access to meeting rooms and office space (hourly fee).
With Platinum Plus you get the same features, plus:
- Monthly meeting room and private office usage (up to 16 hours per month).
Why is this important?
More and more people and teams are working remotely, and this looks set to continue in the future.
But we still need to collaborate in-person, perhaps now more than ever. So there’s a distinct need for remote workers to gain easy-to-access meeting space on a flexible, as-needed basis.
That’s why Alliance offers Platinum Plus.
With inclusive access to meeting rooms, it’s quick and easy to book a meeting space — plus it’s already paid upfront, which makes billing easy to manage.
How Does Platinum Plus Work?
With a Platinum Plus Virtual Office, you get exactly the same as a standard Virtual Office plan with the added benefit of inclusive meeting room access.
In the majority of locations, you get 16 hours of meeting room usage every month.
This is slightly different in some locations. In New York City you get 4 hours of meeting room time per month, and in London and Paris it’s 8 hours.
It’s worth noting that your inclusive access also applies to private office space.
After all, working from home can be distracting.
If you have children home from school, noisy pets, or sociable neighbors, it can be incredibly challenging to focus on complex tasks.
That’s why it pays to have a fully equipped office at your disposal.
It’s your choice whether you use your monthly allowance for meeting rooms, office space, or a mix of both.
In the same way as booking a meeting space, simply call or chat with our team to reserve your space through your Platinum Plus agreement.
Virtual Office Plans: Cost Comparison
Here comes the money question. With Platinum Plus, is a virtual office worth it?
The value all comes down to meeting room usage. We’ve found that on average, Platinum Plus provides a saving of 60-70% on meeting room rental, sometimes more.
Here’s a quick cost comparison.
As an example, this virtual office at Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, offers:
- Standard plan at $99 per month
- Platinum Plus plan at $199 per month (including 16 hours of meeting room rental)
That’s an extra $100 per month for 16 hours of meeting room usage.
Let’s compare the cost of meeting room rental with, and without, Platinum Plus.
Divide $100 (the cost of upgrading to Platinum Plus) by 16 (the number of inclusive meeting room hours) to calculate the hourly meeting room rate with Platinum Plus.
Then compare this rate with the standard hourly meeting room rate for non-Platinum Plus users.
With Platinum Plus, the meeting room rate equates to $6.25 per hour.
Without Platinum Plus, the meeting room starting rate is $45 per hour. For the same 16 hours, you would pay $720 in meeting room rental.
That means by paying $100 to upgrade to Platinum Plus, you will save $620 in meeting room rental.
That’s a pretty convincing saving.
How Does Platinum Plus Benefit Small Business Owners?
We’ve already discussed the cost savings of inclusive meeting room usage with Platinum Plus, but why do you need meeting rooms anyway?
After all, following the onset of the pandemic, the world coped remarkably well without face-to-face meetings.
Aside from the fact that we’ve all grown tired of remote video calls, there are plenty of reasons why we humans need to get together and meet in-person.
- Build relationships. Whether with your team or with clients, face-to-face communication is an authentic way to build trust and relationships. Humans are social creatures, and spending time in-person is our natural way of building connections.
- Clear communication. It’s easy for messages to get mixed when speaking over the phone or on a video call, especially when you’re dealing with spotty WiFi. When you’re meeting in-person, you have the advantage of facial expressions and body language cues to help convey meaning and gain full understanding.
- Make decisions. Making informed decisions requires lots of different perspectives. The best way to gather the information you need is to get everyone in a room together. That way, conversation can flow more freely, opinions can be heard with clarity, and you can reach the right decision, faster.
- Gain inspiration. There’s nothing quite like a group brainstorming session to get the creative juices flowing. Whether you need to develop a new marketing campaign, come up with new content ideas, or take your sales strategy to the next level, a working meeting with your team will help you get there.
- Set the right tone. Even if you work from home most of the time, your clients will expect to meet you in a more professional environment. A meeting room will help set the right impression and demonstrate that you’re a forward-thinking entrepreneur with a credible, growth-oriented business.
Now that we’ve covered the main benefits of physical meeting rooms, let’s consider some other important features of Platinum Plus.
A big one is the business address.
Every one of Alliance’s virtual office plans includes a commercially recognized address.
That’s the really important part, as it enables you to register your business to a recognized office address and separate your business from your home.
It also creates a more professional exterior, helping you to build business credibility while marketing your business in a specific location.
It’s useful for other reasons too.
Namely, mail. You can have an unlimited number of letters sent to your virtual office address, which prevents your home from becoming inundated with mail.
Many businesses start out by using the owner’s home address, but this soon becomes unviable. This can be for many reasons, including:
- Credibility. Using a home address for business doesn’t convey the same professionalism or credibility as an office address.
- Separating work from home. Most home-based entrepreneurs feel uncomfortable publishing their home address on public business records, particularly if they have family at home.
- Financial credit. When applying for financing, it helps to have a commercial address attached to your business. Mainly, this is because it demonstrates the credibility of your business — but also because many banks simply don’t accept a home address.
- Online information is ‘sticky’. Once you publish your home as your business address, that information has a habit of sticking around. If you don’t want your business to be associated with your home in the future, it pays to use a commercial address sooner rather than later.
By choosing a business address Virtual Office plan, entrepreneurs can alleviate many of these challenges.
In particular, the address can be used for:
- Registering a business entity.
- Setting up an LLC.
- Opening a bank account.
- Applying for business licenses.
- Applying for financial credit.
- Marketing — including ‘contact’ details on a website, email footer, business cards, letterheads.
- To receive mail and unlimited letters.
If you’re wondering: Should I get a virtual office?
Virtual offices are a fast and cost-effective way to gain credibility in your target market. You’ll get all the key ingredients you need to build a local presence, but without the high cost, risk, and commitment of full-time office space.
We hope this guide has helped you to understand whether a virtual office, and specifically a virtual office plan with inclusive meeting room access, will suit your business needs.
After all, the more flexible your workplace strategy, the more money you’ll save and the easier your business can adapt to market changes, and grow.
What Next?
Want to explore the benefits of Platinum Plus?
It’s easy to get started. To search for a business address online, head to www.alliancevirtualoffices.com and type your city into the search bar.
Click on a virtual office listing and you’ll see the plans available.
Alliance offers two plans: Platinum (standard) and Platinum Plus, as shown in this Houston example below:
As you can see in this example, you have the option to add a live receptionist service to every plan, too.
Find out more about Alliance’s flexible live receptionist and appointment scheduling service here.
Can’t see a Platinum Plus option on your virtual office listing? That means it’s not currently available at your chosen location. Speak to our team and we’ll work with you to find a great alternative.
If you have any questions, simply chat online with our team or contact us by phone or email.
Conclusion
When it comes to deciding between virtual office plans, you’ll have your own set of criteria and requirements.
If access to meeting rooms or private office space is a priority for you, then we recommend a Platinum Plus plan.
Whether you need a business address for LLC, or a flexible meeting location, it’s a cost effective way to gain easy, flexible access to meeting rooms and office space up to 16 hours every month, ensuring you can meet with clients or brainstorm with your team whenever you need to.
In addition, your business gains instant credibility with a commercially recognized address, an efficient mail processing service, and support from professional on-site staff.
Get started today by searching online at www.alliancevirtualoffices.com or chat with our team to learn more about the advantages of Platinum Plus.
Further Reading
