Can a business centre replace a virtual assistant?

With your social media activities and administrative tasks, it’s hard to focus on the most important aspect of your business – serving your customers. So how can you devote your energy to that service without dropping the ball on your other chores? By hiring virtual assistants to take on those tasks that keep you away from your core responsibilities.

As we mentioned in a previous blog “Virtual Office or Virtual Assistant?” the terms virtual office and a virtual assistant are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are differences. The term virtual assistant (VA for short), refers to a person who is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative assistance to clients remotely. The term virtual assistant can also refer to software that helps you keep organized and automates tasks for your business. But for this blog, we will be talking about the human VA.

Our topic today is can a business centre replace a virtual assistant? The answer can be yes and no, depending on the amount of dedicated time you require of a virtual assistant to work on your tasks, and how specialized the tasks are.

A business centre is not just a rental office space in a shared environment at a desirable professional address. Business centres can be a total business solution for your small business. Before you hire a virtual assistant, you need to explore the add-on services that a business centre can offer you (while the person doing the work is just down the hall and not in some remote location).

Business centres like Telsec offer secretarial services such as:

  • Data entry
  • Updating/maintaining databases and CRMs
  • Typing notes/Transcribing written notes to a digital format
  • Writing/editing/formatting reports and presentations
  • Basic bookkeeping services
  • Printing and binding sales materials
  • Updating and monitoring Facebook pages, Google pages and LinkedIn pages
  • Blog writing, blog editing and scheduling of posts
  • Scheduling and posting regular ads on Craigslist and Kijiji sites
  • Newsletter set up/writing/autoresponders/editing/maintenance/scheduling
  • Gmail set-up and training
  • Plus many more.

The other bonus of a business centre is that even if does do not offer the services you need, the professionals there can often refer you to another office-space tenant who offers them. Some of Telsec Business Centres’ clients offer services like:

  • Account and business tax services
  • Photography and photo editing services – including photoshop work
  • Designing/formatting infographics, logos, banners, social media profile images
  • Business video production
  • Legal services
  • Transcription
  • Forum commenting/monitoring
  • Translation services from many languages
  • Data mining/online research
  • Chasing outstanding invoices
  • Lifestyle management – personal duties including buying gifts, dry cleaning, booking restaurants and events, moving, researching cheaper utility companies, paying bills, etc.
  • Event coordination – venue finding, confirmation of attendees, document management, on-site support, etc.

As a business centre client, the business services that you offer can be added to this list. Educate the staff about what you do, so when someone asks about those services, you can be referred to immediately.

After reading this blog, how confident are you that a business centre can replace a virtual assistant and offer you on-demand services compared to what a VA offers?

Looking to Learn More?

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Hotels

1. Jennifer Smith
General Manager
The Omni King Edward Hotel
37 King Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1E9
Tel: 416-863-9700
Website: www.omnihotels.com/hotels/toronto-king-edward

2. Mark Perry
General Manager
Executive Hotels and Resorts (Boutique)
8 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E1
Tel: 416-350-2419
Website: www.spazen.ca or www.cosmotoronto.com

3. Emeline Boul
General Manager
Hotel Victoria (Boutique)
56 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1G5
Tel: 416-363-1666
Mobile: 647-574-5832
Website: www.hotelvictoriatoronto.com

4. Omkar Sawant
Reservations Manager
One King West Hotel
1 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1A1
Main: 416-548-8100
Reservations: 1-866-470-5464
Website: www.onekingwest.com

5. Van Nguyen
General Manager
Cambridge Suites Toronto
15 Richmond Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1N2
Direct: 416-601-3757
Hotel: 416-368-1990
Website: www.cambridgesuitestoronto.com

Restaurants

1. Michael Pagliaro
Carisma (Italian)
15 Toronto Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2E3
Tel: 416-864-7373
Website: www.carismarestaurant.com

2. Patti Shaw
Terroni (Italian)
57 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1K6
Tel: 416-203-3093
Website: www.terroni.com

3. Declan
Restaurant 20 Victoria – Michelin guide approved
20 Victoria Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2A1
Tel: 416-804-6066
Instagram for reservations: https://www.instagram.com/twentyvictoria/

4. Mana
Nami (Japanese)
55 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1K6
Tel: 416-362-7373
Website: www.namirestaurant.ca

5. Restaurant Lucie
100 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2W1
Tel: 416-788-9054
Website: www.restaurantlucie.com

6. Niam H
Cantina Mercatto
20 Wellington Street East
Toronto, ON
M5E 1C5
Tel: 416-304-0781
Website: www.cantinamercatto.ca

7. Siva Sathasivam
Uncle Tony’s
38 Wellington St E
Toronto, ON
M5E 1C7
Tel: 416-455-6650
Website: https://uncletonys.ca/

8. Pizzaiolo
104 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2Y6
Tel: 416-860-0700
Website: www.pizzaiolo.ca

9. Robin Singh
Woods Restaurant and Bar
45 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-214-9918
Website: www.woodsrestaurant.ca

Health and Wellness

1. Thom Tullo
Morpheus8 by Inmode
47 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-863-6564
Website: www.amanspa.ca

2. Altitude Athletic Training
56 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-366-3838
Website: www.altitudeathletictraining.com

3. Physioheath Studios
33 Victoria Street, #130
Toronto, ON
M5C 2A1
Tel: 416-368-2525
Website: www.physiohealth.com

Our Amenities

We are by far the most experienced and best coworking team in the market – established in 1980

  • We are the highest Tech centre in the market
  • We have a very modern, high quality, brand new facility located at:

   18 King Street East, Suite 1400

      Toronto, Ontario   M5C 1C4 Canada

    • 18 King Street East is a boutique Class A building – East of Yonge: easy street parking, less traffic, excellent restaurants and lovely parks – St. James Park @ Church & King and Berczy Park @ Wellington East, Scott and Front Streets – Very high energy and engaging area
    • A few steps (a few seconds) to the Yonge Street subway/underground PATH network and streetcar available outside building
    • Building is located in Toronto's vibrant financial district
    • Plenty of parking available in the area including street parking and reserved parking in the 18 King building 
    • Adjacent to the building huge outdoor food courtyard - Beer Bistro www.beerbistro.com and Craft Beer Market www.craftbeermamrket.ca restaurants and bars with onsite catering services
    • Onsite amenities:  Tim Horton's, Beer Bistro, Convenience store and Starbucks across the street 
    • Nearby amenities:  underground PATH network, numerous restaurants, banking, Starbucks plus a wide array of nearby shops and services 
    • New modernized office layout fully furnished with meeting spaces and training rooms plus café lounge area
    • We are leaders in the service of training/meeting rooms with full conference facilities, high quality hot and cold catering
    • Largest training room and conference facilities accommodate up to 60 people classroom style
    • Ultra-high-speed - 1 GIG pipe = 1,000 x 1000 fiber-optic network, which will deliver internet connection speeds faster than most North American services
    • Private shower room
    • Indoor Reserved Parking at the current building rental rate
    • Bicycle parking
    • Rent a space to accommodate your team for meetings, training sessions, corporate events or coworking space or flexible office space for one day, one week, one month or one year, or whatever term suits your business
    • Telsec has over 650 locations in 40 different countries worldwide available for their clients.  Office clients receive up to 8 hours of meeting space per month at no charge at any ABCN member location.  Plus, Office and Virtual Office clients may rent a space from any member location at special member rates which varies depending on the location 
    • King Edward Hotel is located across the street - recently completed a $40 million renovation and boutique hotels close by within walking distance
  • Dining and entertainment at high quality restaurants only minutes away – Carisma, Terroni, Woods Restaurant & Bar and Michelin Rated - Restaurant 20 Victoria. Plus numerous lunch and takeout eateries nearby

         Please check out our 70 second video on our home page or click here:

Take a look at our facilities www.telsec.net    

Telsec will Customize Your Client’s Office(s) Layout to Meet Their Requirements

You are welcome to drop-in any-time, a quick call would be appreciated to ensure our availability Vanessa 416-574-1112 or Josie 416-606-4349 or e-mail josie@telsec.net.