June 14, 2012
Virtual Office: Strategies for Aspiring Business Owners
By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributor
The virtual office concept has much relevance in this tough economy, especially for startup businesses. Virtual office provides businesses with the capability to have access outside the traditional office setting.Virtual office is just one of the many ways for startups to reduce costs while expanding businesses to multiple locations.
Startups which struggle for funds and strategic support should build a strong business strategy and continue to build on them to improve to fit their own business, like Mike Mann, an entrepreneur. Mann recently outlined some of the best practices that aspiring business owners must implement in order to achieve their goals.
The 'Best Practices Guide' explains strategies that will ensure that “business is strong from the get-go,” according to Mann. These strategies are explained in the form of five layers. The guide attempts to help business leaders achieve success.
The first layer of Mann’s approach underlines the importance of research and company resources such as business plans, project management and analytics. The second layer explains why networking is important to establish close affiliations. According to Mann, close partnerships will help you “fill in knowledge gaps your company might have.”The third layer highlights the importance of networking with customers of partners and affiliates. The fourth layer occurs when businesses offer their services to the rest of the world.
The layer five calls for businesses to expand their influence by becoming leading experts for their industries. This includes launching new websites and brands, investing in appropriate domains and start new companies as wholly owned subsidiaries. Mann urges business owners to “be creative and set yourself up as an authority in your industry.”
Mann has succeeded using his “Best Practices Guide.” He has founded businesses including SEO.com, Phone.com (News - Alert) and DomainMarket.com. Mann is currently looking for business leaders to lead several companies he hopes to start. “The advantage of leading one of these companies is that you already have the support of sister companies and clients on day one,” Mann said.
Mann has also explained the importance of using business best practices in his book "Make Millions & Make Change! Secrets to Business and Personal Success”.
“These best practices can be applied at all levels of business,” Mann said. “From top-level strategy to macro-level a/b testing of website elements, no process is too little or large. These are just the basics though. Each company should continually add their own best practices and improve upon them to fit their own business.”
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli
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