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Offices for hire are gaining popularity

By Elaine Aradillas, THE ORLANDO SENTINEL, 1/22/2006

Ed Sackett/Orlando Sentinel EBC Office Center's operations manager Ismael Perez. The firm provides virtual offices for clients.

CELEBRATION, Fla. — When Kirby Ryan meets with clients interested in his medical services, they sit around a polished wooden desk inside an executive office in downtown Celebration.

But Ryan must make an appointment to use the office at 215 Celebration Place because he's allotted only 16 hours a month there. He spends most of his time at his home office 10 blocks away, a spare room lined with laptops and file cabinets.

About 150 small businesses share suite 500 on the fifth floor in a corporate park surrounded by lakes and manicured lawns. They pay $250 per month for a package that includes an elite mailing address, an answering service, and occasional office space.

It's called a ''virtual office," and for small business owners — who choose not to, or cannot, pay for expensive and scarce office space — it's a way to look big time at a small-time price.

"It gives the appearance of a professional office setting when you need that setting," said Ryan, whose Clinical Mobility business sets up flu-shot clinics and diagnostic services at retailers and employers across the country.

Adding to that professional appearance, he said, is the receptionist's computer that tells her which business a client is calling, allowing her to answer the phone with a greeting that includes the business's name.

Virtual offices have become the modern-day post office box — with a physical address. Budding entrepreneurs no longer have to conduct business at their local Starbucks where they compete for table space, electrical outlets and a quiet moment between the hisses of the espresso machine to make a phone call.

People are attracted to doing business with companies that have established reputations, said Al Polfer, director of the Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida.

"'Celebration' denotes success," Polfer said about the upscale community near Walt Disney World. "It's a high-rent area. It would give a perception of success."

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest virtual offices are popular. But a thin paper trail makes it difficult to report how many people are using them.

Carol Ann Dykes is the chief operating officer for University of Central Florida's Technology Incubator, where start-ups receive guidance in business development. She said her operation provides real office space but also assists two or three virtual office clients.

Virtual offices are well-known among business people, said Polfer, whose center offers seminars and counseling to small business owners. But if customers feel they are being misled by the setup, then it's up to them to do the research.

"It's not a deception," Polfer said. "That is your technical business address."

He added some business owners claim to have locations in Rome, Vienna or London, but sometimes those locations are nothing more than a virtual office.

"People like to do business with people they know or trust. Trust can come from a misplaced belief that you're well-established. If that claim is important, you need to check on it," he said.

Nick Mowery is the regional director for EBC Office Centers, which provides the virtual offices with a Celebration address. He calls himself the "cruise director," and many clients said he fosters a networking relationship among the business people who work from there.

Some of his company's clients started as virtual office-space owners. Once they felt established, they rented office space full time in the building.

Bob Guidice, a real estate agent for Golfpark Properties, started his own business a couple of years ago with two associates and used virtual office space.

But his business grew and so did his company. Since then, seven more employees have come to work for the company, which now occupies two large offices.

"It's a great way to make your business seem like a bigger company," he said from his office, which overlooks the lush greenery surrounding Walt Disney World. "We can grow into the office as we grow."

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