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17Jul

Virtual Office Toronto on a Budget

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For many home based businesses that do not require a full time office outside of the home, but they do need a professional look by having a prestigious business address. Without the need for a full time office space Toronto, many of these businesses look for a virtual office Toronto on a budget. The days of using a post office box as a business address are long over, because business savvy customers are weary of doing business with a company that works out of a post office box.

When you are looking for a virtual office Toronto on a budget, there are many factors to consider:
- Price – What will it cost you to use this prestigious business address?
- Location – Is the virtual office Toronto location easy for you to get to if you have to have a meeting?
- Meeting rooms – Does the virtual office Toronto on a budget offer meeting rooms and boardrooms a-la-cart?
- Personalized phone answering – When your client or customer calls your phone number, does the receptionist answer and handle your call the way you wish her to?
- Access to other business centres when you travel – Are you able to use the facilities of another affiliated business centre when you are traveling and working in another city?
Price – A number of providers of virtual office Toronto on a budget claim to have low rates, but they fail to tell potential clients of all the hidden costs and extra fees. Before accepting the price and choosing a virtual office location based solely on price, be sure to ask about any hidden extra costs or fees. A good virtual office Toronto solution provider will let you know all of the potential extra costs up front or will include them in the quoted price.

Location – While you will not be traveling to your virtual office Toronto on a budget very often, you will sometimes want to be able to pick up your mail and courier packages that are urgent. Some virtual office locations will only re-mail your deliveries or are not easy to access when driving. Chose a Toronto virtual office provider that has a prestigious address and is easy to access.

Meeting Rooms – Most office business centres that offer virtual office Toronto on a budget have meeting rooms and boardrooms, but many reserve those meeting spaces for only office space tenants. Other business centres that offer office space Toronto and virtual office services will allow virtual office clients to use the meeting rooms and Toronto boardrooms on an a-la-cart basis for a lower rate than non virtual office clients.

Personalized phone answering – Having someone answer your calls with your business name is one thing, but having your phones answered in a personalized manor with your company greetings is more impressive to your clients. It makes your clients believe that the person answering your calls is on your staff and not a generic call centre. Sometimes you want to have your calls re-directed to your home office or your cell phone; other times you may want the receptionist to say you are in a meeting and send the call to your voicemail. The sign of a good provider of virtual office Toronto on a budget is that you can change how you want your calls handled any time during business hours.

Access to other business centres when you travel – Business travel can be an important routine for you, but meeting a client in a hotel room is not always the best way to present your business. A few office space Toronto locations that offer virtual office Toronto on a budget offer you a place to touch down in other cities. Only one office space Toronto offers you a place to hold meetings in over 650 locations world wide in independently owned business centres that are part of the Alliance Network. Telsec is affiliated with the Alliance Network and is able to offer its office space Toronto and virtual office Toronto clients access to Office Business Centers around the globe.
16Jun

Canada Mail Service You Can Trust

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While the current rotating postal strike has not had a very large impact on the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) or most mail service Toronto locations, some people who do depend solely on Canada Post – such as those who use post office boxes, publishers of magazines and newspapers, retailers and other businesses fulfillment companies – are feeling the stress. For example, community newspapers, magazines and other periodicals, as well as retail flyers promoting specific product discounts, are usually time-sensitive. If they’re dealyed for even a week, they may be rendered outdated or totally useless. These companies are also on the hook for initial printing costs. For them, Canada mail service must be dependable. For them, “Canada mail service you can trust” really means “uninterrupted mail service you can trust.”

Fortunately, there are many alternatives to getting the best mail service Toronto can offer. The internet, of course, is still a great choice for Canada mail service you can trust. There are dozens of libraries and internat cafés in downtown Toronto and surrounding areas. If you must send paper copies or printed versions of your messages, many local printing shops, variety stores and virtual office locations offer inexpensive fax services comparable to Canada Post’s existing mail rates. Courier companies are also a viable alternative. Large or small, they can deliver letters and parcels often the same day or overnight to or from any home or prestigious business address across Canada. However, in general, their prices cannot match those of Canada Post.

So what are your best options? Well, all of the above actually! It really depends on your (or your client’s) budget, urgency of the mailing piece, speed and type of service required. Today’s modern business centres Toronto do offer most of these alternatives to Canada mail service you can trust – internet, fax service, couriers, mail metering and more. One such Toronto business centre listing that is located in downtown Toronto at One Yonge Street (Toronto Star Building), a prestigious business address, is Telsec Business Centres. It offers high-speed internet, mail metering and handling, affordable outgoing fax service and free incoming fax service. You’d be hard-pressed to find any business centre that features no-charge incoming fax service. You can even get inexpensive, dedicated fax service in your own private office! And when you add Telsec’s mass mailing capabilities and quick-printing services, you can indeed reap the benefits of Canada mail service you can trust at a prestigious business address in downtown Toronto. Visit Telsec’s website at www.telsec.net
20May

Toronto Meeting Rooms with a Professional Atmosphere

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Toronto Meeting Rooms with a Professional Atmosphere

Meeting with clients at a coffee shop or in your home does not always help to deliver the message that your company is as professional as you say. When you meet your client at an office business centre Toronto Meeting Rooms with a professional atmosphere, your clients are assured that you are serious about the business you are going to conduct with them.

Office space Toronto clients at Telsec enjoy free usage of the eight Toronto Meeting Rooms with a professional atmosphere. Each of the meeting rooms Toronto is equipped with white board, internet access, projector screens and audio visual equipment. Toronto office space clients simply go to the receptionist to see which of the Toronto Meeting Rooms with a professional atmosphere is available for the time and date of their meeting. Toronto Virtual office clients can also enjoy meeting rooms each month at the Telsec Toronto business centre or at one of 650 other business office locations around the world.

Another way to have Toronto Meeting Rooms with a Professional Atmosphere without having an office space Toronto or a Toronto virtual office plan is to rent a Toronto meeting room for a full or half day at Telsec. Telsec offers small and large Toronto Meeting Rooms with a professional atmosphere at affordable rates. Telsec also has Toronto conference rooms that are large enough to be used as training and seminar rooms for groups up 50 people. Complimentary coffee, tea and filtered water are included with all meeting room and conference room rentals. Your clients are greeted by a professional receptionist who calls you when they have arrived, giving the appearance that you have an office at this location.

Toronto Meeting Room and Seminar Training Rooms

Having a meeting, sales conference or a training seminar? Telsec has Toronto Meeting Rooms with a professional atmosphere that will fit your needs. If you are planning a full day meeting or conference and do not want to leave for lunch, we can arrange catering from simple sandwich trays to a full warm lunch.
18May

Personalize Your Toronto Virtual Office

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For many businesses a Toronto virtual office is the best way for them to have a prestigious business address at a fraction of the cost of a traditional office rental. If this is what your company needs, be sure to find the best virtual office provider that works for your business. One way of doing this is to find a Toronto virtual office that allows you to personalize your Toronto virtual office to suit your needs and project the image that works for your business.

How can a provider personalize your Toronto virtual office? First you want the receptionist to answer your calls with the greeting that you can customize, so they feel like they are contacting your business and not an answering service who handles many other customers. Another way to personalize your Toronto virtual office is to decide how your calls are handled on a daily basis. Some days you may want your calls sent to your home office, your cell phone or even just straight to voice mail, but you want the flexibility to change that when you need to. The most important way you can personalize your Toronto virtual office is in selecting the virtual office package that suits your needs. Some clients only need a Toronto mail service, some want a Toronto message and mail service, others may want a bit more. Some clients will rent a day office or a meeting room for half a day to meet with customers in person at the same address that is on their business card.

Telsec Toronto Business Centre offers virtual office solutions that allow you to personalize your Toronto virtual office. Located at One Yonge Street on the 18^th floor of the Toronto Star Building, they have the number one address on Canada’s most famous street.

Would you rather have a cookie cutter virtual office Toronto or would you like to personalize your Toronto virtual office?
25Apr

What is an Easter Parade without Darth Vadar and the Easter Bunny

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The 44th edition of the Toronto Beaches Lions Club Easter Parade was held yesterday. The parade was full of happy, hoppy people including this year’s parade Grand Marshal, Heather Moyse; who won Canada’s first ever women’s gold medal in bobsled at the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver. The parade also had Miss Canada, Miss Teen Canada and various other beauty pageant winners, including Junior Miss.

Some of the featured groups in the parade include the Malvern Marching Band, the Shriners’ Musical Train, the Tian Guo Marching Band of Canada, the York Lions Steel Band, The Toronto Fire Dept Pipes and Drums, a Zamboni from Ted Reeve Community Arena, members of the local roller derby league, four-legged friends and all sorts of clowns and other costumed characters, including, Storm troopers, Dark Sith, the Emperor, Darth Vadar and of course the Easter Bunny.

Before going to the Easter Parade, my girlfriend and I had brunch with some new friends at the Beacher Cafe. As we were waiting to be seated, a familiar face walked by me, It was another tenant who had just moved in down the hall from my executive suite Toronto. I remembered his face, as we had talked in the kitchen while he was grabbing a coffee and I was microwaving a bag of popcorn. I remembered that he mentioned that he too started off as Toronto virtual office client with a $30 Toronto mail service. As his business expanded, he decided to take a Toronto shared offices and make use of having a professional receptionist answer his calls and greet his clients.

After the parade, we went over to Ed’s Real Scoop for some homemade ice cream. While we were there I noticed the mother of one of my childhood friends. It seems that my friend Chuck who used to love to blow things up in the backyard and the ravine went back to school late in life, got his undergrad, his Masters, and now at 45 is working on his PHD in environmental sciences. I thought that was really cool.

Today while I was driving down to my downtown Toronto office space, I noticed the roads were not that busy for a Monday, but remembered that unlike the many entrepreneurs who have office space Toronto at Telsec, many government workers and other companies also take Easter Monday off.
26Mar

The Missing Programmer

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As many of my friends and family know, I develop websites and help plan companies online success. Most also know that I do not do all the back end programming myself. My skill set is planning and developing a team the fits each individual project, because different projects require different sets of skills and expertise.

This week I met a client about a project that required a programmer that was skilled in Oracle SQL data bases that would be used both online and offline by the clients staff. I had one programmer in mind that I had worked with in the past. I tried to call him on a phone number that I had for him, my call was answered by a voice mail system, as it was after hours. The next day when I tried to call his number again, it was answered by someone with a thick southern accent, they said he was out of the office and again transferred me to his voice mail. When I did not hear from him until two days later, I put out the call to other Oracle programmers.

I was getting myself a complimentary cup of coffee at my downtown Toronto office space, when another office space client came into the kitchen. I recognized him from previous conversations about technology, so I struck up a conversation about needing an Oracle data base specialist. He told me about a guy who he had work done by, I recognized the name as the same guy I had worked with, but the number was different. The number the other office client gave me was his direct cell number.

When I returned to my executive suites Toronto, I gave him a call. I told him about the project and asked him to come into my office for a meeting the next day. The next day we had out meeting in one of the Toronto meeting rooms at my office space Toronto. Near the end of the meeting, I brought up how difficult it was to get a hold of him through the number he lists on his website and that it was another office client who knew him that had given me his cell number. He explained to me that he was using a virtual office service that handled his calls and that he picked up his mail from a locked room in a downtown office building. It turns out that the virtual office provider he was using was not even located in Toronto, they were just piggybacking on another companies service.

Continue reading »
20Feb

O.Noir-Blacked Out Dining-and Trying New Things

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O.NOIR – Canada’s first-ever “Dine in the Dark” has two location Montreal and Toronto. O.Noir dining is a great idea. Sighted people are taken into a blacked out dining room and served by people who are blind. The idea is that when you eat food in the dark, your remaining senses are heightened to savour the smell and taste of food. The idea is to heighten the senses of taste, smell and touch by denying diners of their sight. It’s also to give guests an appreciation for what it’s like to be blind. It’s O. Noir. The idea was built on a concept started by a blind Swiss pastor, who blindfolded his guests at home so they could understand his eating experience. The idea of a dine-in-the-dark restaurant was one to teach people about blindness, but also to create jobs for the blind.

The menu is a fixed price menu with a choice of starter, main dish and desert. Diner’s are asked to select their choices before entering the blacked out room or can chose to be surprised. Often people will choose their main dish and be surprised by the starter or desert that is chosen for them.

We all like to say we are willing to try new things. This weekend a group of friends suggested we try O.Noir restaurant in Toronto, my girlfriend was all up for it and raring to go. When it came time to go, I knew that I would panic in the dark and potentially ruin everyone’s fun, so I backed out and allowed them to enjoy their dinner. By all accounts, they had a great time and really loved the experience. I later found out when I picked her up, they did have a lit dining room for those who could not handle the darkness to finish their meal, so I should have at least tried. The group is planning another blacked out event, so next time I will go and experience it.

As a business person, I am always looking to avoid risk. When I chose my downtown Toronto office space, I chose an office business centre that did not require me to sign a long term lease, in case it was not the office space Toronto for me. Even when I signed up for my Toronto virtual office package at Telsec, I did not want a long term agreement, just in case I wanted to move or to upgrade to Toronto executive office space at the same location.

When it comes to dining at work, I love the natural light that comes into the 4th floor cafeteria of the Toronto Star Building. Having a cafeteria on the fourth floor and not some artificially lit basement food court was not one of my original deciding factors in choosing my Toronto office space for rent. In fact it was not until I had been renting Toronto office space for a few months did I even find out that The Toronto Star Cafeteria was also open to other building tenants to use.
06Feb

Finding the Super Bowl Ads Online is Hard Work

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Every year millions of people around the world look forward to the Super Bowl, but not everyone is interested in the game. There are millions of people who want to watch the big game just to see the epic Television commercials that will only be aired during the Super Bowl.

In 1973 (Super Bowl VII), the first ever super-high-profile Super Bowl ad was aired. The ad featured the sexy Farrah Fawcett spreading Noxzema cream on Joe Namath’s face. The next most talked about Super Bowl commercial came in 1980, Mean Joe Green tossed his game-worn jersey to a young boy after the boy gave him his Coca-Cola. Then in 1984, Apple used a George Orwell’s “1984″ inspired commercial to introduce “The Mac Computer” and thus starting the trend of creating epic commercials for the most watched annual event.

The problem for me and millions of Canadians is that we do not get to see them. Unless you are watching an American TV station via antenna or satellite, Canadian commercials are substituted by the network who hold the Canadian rights to air the game. Over the past years, these epic ads find their way onto the Internet a few days after the big game. A few years ago, I found a site that was uploading the commercials minutes after the commercial aired on TV.

Fast forward to 2011 (Super Bowl XLV) This year, I cannot find that site. There seems to be hundreds of web sites claiming they have the 2011 commercials, but most of the ads they feature are the ones that were released in advance by the advertiser. Most of the sites were set up to lure people onto the site and gain revenue themselves from online advertising, some did not even have links to any Super Bowl commercials. It took a while, but finally the commercials started getting put up on the Internet.

Some will ask me why I put so much effort into finding these commercials tonight, my answer is three words – Water Cooler Chat. I know that when I get into my downtown Toronto office space, everyone will be talking about the Super Bowl and this year’s epic commercials. I do not want to be the only one at my office space that has not seen them. As I am writing this, I wonder what the Toronto virtual office clients do when they want morning coffee chat. Maybe I should convince the staff at my Toronto office space to create a virtual coffee chat room for the clients in their virtual office locations.

By the way, does anyone know the score on the game? Go Team Go!
02Feb

What Happened to This Epic Snow Storm?

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For days the media has been talking about a major storm that was heading our way. They were promoting this storm like it was going to be the biggest storm to hit Toronto this millennium. School closures were planned before the first snowflake fell, even the Toronto District School Board offices were scheduled not to be open today. Colleges and Universities cancelled classes and programs, day care centres were not even going to open. All of this was in preparation for this epic storm that only delivered about 15 centimetres of snow instead of the 30 or 35 centimetres that was forcast, and then it was of the light flakey variety at that.

While many people like myself planned not to go into the office, I could at least make it look like I was in the office. Similar to how Toronto virtual office clients have their calls answered by a receptionist and transferred to the number of their choice, those clients with downtown Toronto office space at Telsec can also have their calls routed to wherever they are working.

Around 11 am, I got a call transferred to my cell from a potential client. The potential client was in the city and had a few meeting cancelled, they wanted to know if I could meet with them today while they were in town. I called the receptionist at my office space Toronto and asked her if there was an open boardroom for 1 pm, she looked it up and indeed there was an available boardroom. While I was talking to the receptionist I asked if the office was quiet today, she said it was a little quiet but most were in and it was business as usual.

It took me a few more minutes than usual to get into the office, but that was because I was stuck behind a row of snowploughs on the Don Valley Parkway. When I got to the office, I headed directly to the same place I do every day, the kitchen. As I was getting my cup of hazelnut coffee, a few of the usual suspects were also getting their second or third cup of the day. The topic of conversation … What else… the storm that never came. The one woman was upset at the school closures, she remembered walking to school in blizzards when she grew up in Northern Ontario. Another person who runs a branch office for a Southern California company was experiencing his first taste of winter and was happy to see the snow. He got a few odd looks from us hardy winterized Canadians when he mentioned he was heading to California tonight.

The meeting with the potential client went well and I counted on a slow drive home. To my surprise, the commute home was not that bad. The roads were clear and there were fewer cars than normal. I want the weatherman to make more storm predictions like this and keep more people off the roads.
28Jan

I am Always Asked-What DSLR Camera Should I Buy?

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As a photographer, I participate on a number of photography forums and blogs. I do this to learn new techniques and get tips on the things that I do not know about. I also like to give back by sharing my knowledge and answer questions. One of the most frequent questions I see on these forums and hear from friends and family is “What Camera Should I Buy”? The answer is not a simple one.

Often the first reply on the forums comes from someone who has a personal bias for one brand over the other. The thread turns into a “My camera brand is better” type of debate. This is not often helpful to the person posing the question. The most common brand debate is Canon Vs Nikon because these two brands are the biggest selling brands of cameras, especially when it comes to digital single-lens reflex cameras (digital SLR or DSLR). This is a debate that will never end.

When people do ask me my preference, I tell them Nikon. The only reason I tell them my preference is because over the years I have made a considerable investment into my two Nikon DSLR bodies. This along with the handful of Nikon lenses and other accessories that are Nikon specific I have purchased. I believe that both Nikon and Canon are great camera manufactures, when I purchased my first DSLR I could have easily started with a Canon.

Here is my advice to choosing which camera to buy a DSLR.

I would recommend Nikon or Canon instead of one of the other brands. Why, because they are more popular and widely used. You will find a wider range of body styles, lenses and accessories for the two brands that outsell all of the other brands combined. Even the aftermarket manufacturers make more lenses to fit these two brands.

In deciding between these two brands, do not try to choose a brand based on the features of similarly priced models, each will have those same features in a lower or higher model. My best advice in choosing a brand is to ask those you know what brand they own and have the most knowledge. If more of the people you will be looking for help and advice from on your camera have Nikons, choose Nikon. If your support circle shoot Canon, then choose Canon. The other reason for this is that you want to be able to try their lenses or accessories on your camera body before you make a purchase.

This reminded me of a situation last year when a friend asked me how would they find the right virtual office Toronto for them. Putting aside my bias for the office space Toronto that I first started out at as a Toronto virtual office client, I decided to show him how he should choose what he wanted based on his needs.

I asked him if he needed a virtual office solution that included Telephone Message Service and Mail Service arrangements or just a Toronto mail service at a prestigious business address. He was not sure, so I explained the differences to him. He said that the virtual office in Toronto that he needed would need to have a live receptionist answering his calls and transferring them to either his home office, his cell phone or even directly to his voicemail.

I then asked him where he wanted his virtual office to be. Did he want an uptown or a downtown Toronto office? He chose downtown.

Did he want his mail forwarded to him or did he want to be able to pick it up when he wanted? He was clear that he wanted to pick up his mail when he needed to pick up special deliveries and cheques. I told him in that case, he would probably also want it to be a convenient location in terms of traffic and close parking.

After all this I went through a list of office business centres that offered downtown Toronto virtual office packages that would fit his needs. He asked me if my Toronto office space offered virtual office plans, because he would rather chose one that he knew some who would recommend it. Besides that he would also want to make arrangements so that I could pick up some mail for him from time to time.