I run a boutique digital marketing agency and for nearly 10 years (since 2004) we have been renting a small 3-person office in one of Melbourne most prestigious buildings. We loved everything about it - the location, on-site facilities, customer service, you name it. Every client that walked through the door for the first time would comment on how beautiful the place was.
In August 2013 one of my employees moved to Sydney for six months to support his family and started working remotely. With only two of us left in the office and less and less clients coming through the doors (primarily because of a fundamental shift in the way we communicated with our clients), I started seriously questioning the need for a physical office.
One day, I put together a list of all our monthly expenses related to leasing the office...
we were spending $4,860 a month... $58,320 a year!
Plus 52 hours a month (between two of us) driving to and from work - over 6 full working days a month, 72 days a year!
The decision to move out and get ourselves a virtual office was pretty much made for me.
The very next day I gave a vacation notice to the landlord and within a month we moved out and signed up for a virtual office. Our business kept the same address and phone number, so our "image" wasn't affected in any way.
Initially we had a custom virtual office package paying a couple of hundred dollars a month, downsizing to a more basic solution later on. Now we are paying less than $60 per month.
