Temporary Office Space During The Canadian National Exhibition
One of our virtual office space clients who lives outside of the city needed a ‘touchdown’ office space while he was vending at the Canadian National Exhibition. So guess who they called? It was a no-brainer – they were already using Telsec for their virtual office and mail forwarding service. The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) is unlike most consumer product shows – because instead of a few hundred or thousand potential customers, companies can have their product or brand exposed to millions of visitors during this three-week event. Small business owners selling consumer products can not only get exposure, but they can potentially sell a great deal of their product at the CNE. According to Wikipedia “The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Ex, is an annual event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, during the 18 days leading up to and including Canadian […]
Is Telecommuting Right for Your Company?
More and more businesses are starting to experiment with telecommuting. Whether it’s a set day a week or a flexible schedule, new technologies now allow employees to stay connected even when they're not physically in the office space.
How Telecommuting can Work for Your Small Business, Even During Vacation Time!
Searching for office space for your growing small business? Why not consider a flexible executive office space for yourself and have your employees telecommute? You can also think about a virtual office solution for your small business and have everyone telecommute. According to World at Work, there’s been a substantial increase year-over-year in the number of workplaces offering teleworking. In the USA and Canada, teleworking is offered to 42% of the nearly 2,300 employers surveyed – up from 30% in 2007. Teleworking is listed among more than 20 programs to attract and retain employees, ranging from the most popular (a signing bonus) all the way down to paid sabbaticals. Telus (a major Canadian telecom) has found that teleworking can increase employee productivity by about 20%, after reviewing a pilot project where 170 employees worked from home. Besides increased productivity and morale, it also saved 14,000 hours of time in traffic! […]
Why Working in an air Conditioned Office can be Awesome!
I primarily work from home, but on hot summer days there is nothing like going into an air conditioned office. Fact is that my apartment does not have air conditioning and most days I do not need it. But the heat and humidity over the past few days have taken their toll on my ability to work from home. I tried to work from the library for a few hours with my laptop and their wifi, but other library patrons were bothered by my cellphone ringing and my telephone conversations. So what was next? Starbucks, McDonald’s or Tim Hortons? They all have air conditioning and welcome customers with free wifi – but still not the greatest places to get work done. During busy periods, most fast food and coffee chains are not that receptive to customers who are buying a single beverage and taking up space for a few hours. […]
Bassem Ghali of Green Lotus Video Interview
Bassem Ghali of Green Lotus Interview A few weeks back we interviewed Bassem Ghali of Green Lotus as part of our “Meet the Telsec Business Centres Community” program. Our hope is that through these interviews we can provide some business tips and networking opportunities for our current and future clients. Transcript 0:10 Ian: y Your name and your role in your organization? 0:13 Bassem Ghali: My name is Bassem Ghali. I’m the founder and head of clients strategy at Green Lotus. Green Lotus is an online marketing company. The major benefit of using Green Lotus service are the insights and strategies that we provide for our clients. The most important thing that we do is track and measure every conversion and every lead from every source that we get – so that at the end of the day our clients have a clear insight of the performance of their big […]
Canadian Entrepreneurial Trends: The GEM Global Entrepreneur Monitor
I often find myself reading long reports such as The GEM Global Entrepreneur Monitor in order to gain insight into markets I am working in – especially if it is an industry I am not familiar with or I am looking for a need not currently being be met. As the online marketing and community manager for a business centre, entrepreneurs are an important target audience for most if not all of Telsec’s services. This yearly report is based upon over 16 years of data consisting of 200,000+ interviews a year. The GEM website provides more information about the report including: “GEM began in 1999 as a joint project between Babson College (USA) and London Business School (UK). The aim was to consider why some countries are more ‘entrepreneurial’ than others. Sixteen years on, GEM is the richest resource of information on the subject, publishing a range of global, national […]
Pan Am Games and the effect on Toronto Small Business.
Today’s blog was supposed to be about entrepreneurial trends and list some statistics, but instead we are going to talk about some issues that our office space clients are talking about regarding the Pan Am Games in Toronto. With the Pan Am games in Toronto, many of our office clients have chosen to either work from home or to take public transit to the office. This is mainly due to the added road congestion caused by the temporary HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes on the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardener Expressway. The intent of these lanes is to allow official Pan Am Games vehicles, buses, taxi cabs and vehicles with more than 3 persons to move along the roadways faster and avoid traffic. One of our office space tenants mentioned this morning that they would try using an Uber car to get to work, but they quickly found out that […]
Choosing What Kind of Office is Right For Your Small Business
While building your business, you might have to make some decisions about what kind of office space arrangement is best suited for your organization and business model. Before you make these decisions, you not only need to know what your business needs are, but also what types of office situations are available to your small business. Maybe your small business is best run from home or on the road. You will still discover that you need a proper professional business address, preferably one at a prestigious business location. In that case, you may only need a virtual office arrangement that offers mail service for a low monthly fee. Your customers see that you have a real physical business address – and not just a home office or a post office box. Some small businesses need a little more than just as small business address at an office business centre. They […]
The Benefits of a Business Centre
In a recent post titled Alternative office solutions we discussed some of the benefits of an office space in a business centre. The truth is, business centres have always been the best bet for any growing business, however, the alternative trend in office space is a juggernaut that has become a staple with mainstream businesses – not just start-ups and tech companies. Resources for the Benefits of a Business Centre Recently we have begun the process of building a community for our business centre clients to “showcase” their services and share their business experiences – which in turn positions the business centre as more of a resource beyond just providing space. Watch for announcements as we begin a to add features to this community. As we recorded these video interviews, we also took the opportunity to get testimonials for Telsec. These testimonials did not just provide a great way to promote […]
Alternative Office Solutions
What is an Alternative Office Solution? Simply put, it is a new type of office space design and philosophy that removes a lot of the headaches and expenses of traditional office space with much more emphasis on “collaboration space” – or as we like to call it “we space.” At first it was thought to be just a type of office space suitable for tech companies and young start-ups. Increasingly however, alternative office space is becoming mainstream with millennials actually preferring this new philosophy of office design. Typically, alternative office spaces are business centres – some sort of business incubator set-up where two companies “share” office spaces and leasing expenses often in traditional office spaces and/or co-working centres (which are basically business centres with less support services and business equipment provided by the centre). Another driving force behind the trend to alternative space is a changing workplace where employees are […]
‘Seniorpreneurs’ are Turning to Office Business Centres for Their Office Space
The terms entrepreneur and start-up have traditionally been associated with risk and starting off with nothing, but this new breed of entrepreneurs are the retiring "baby boomers" who have spent a lifetime building their wealth and are not interested in taking on too much risk.
Have you heard about the “Donate & Learn” event at Ryerson University June 30, 2015?
One of our office space for rent tenant, Green Lotus, is organizing the annual Donate & Learn Expo to help small businesses learn the latest online marketing techniques, while giving back to a great cause. How did it all start? In early 2012 Bassem Ghali (Founder of Green Lotus) wanted to give back to the community in a big way. With his expertise and network of marketing professionals, Bassem wanted to create an online marketing workshop and bring the community together in support of a local charity. More than 220 guests attended the sold-out event and he raised close to $3,800 for the YWCA Toronto! In 2013, the Donate & Learn initiative gained the support of GoDaddy. With GoDaddy as a major supporter, the Donate & Learn initiative grew. The Donate & Learn Workshop was sold out for a second time with over 260 attendees and another $4,185 raised for […]
An Interview With Judi Hughes of Your Planning Partners
This video and transcript are from an interview that Ian Payton of Telsec Business Centres conducted with Judi Hughes, co-founder and President of Your Planning Partners Ltd. It’s the first in a series of interviews with members of our community with the goal of raising client visibility within the Telsec business community and elsewhere. Judi Hughes, Co-Founder and President of Your Planning Partners Ian: Hi, can you introduce yourself? Judi: Absolutely! I’m Judi Hughes and my company is Your Planning Partners. I’m the President and Managing Partner. Ian: Would you like to give us an idea about what your business does? Judi: Your Planning Partners is a boutique management consulting firm. We work with established business owners who’ve been in business 3 to 5 years. Some up to 15 and 20 years have already seen some success with their business, but they hit a ceiling. So what we do is […]
Top 10 Advantages of Renting Toronto Office Space from an All-in-One Business Centre
Many expanding businesses, start-ups, international businesses and even established larger forms are looking to downsize their real estate and office-space. They are turning to all-in-one serviced office business centres and executive offices for their businesses office needs. Business owners are realizing that, with an all-in-one business centre to fill their office needs, their company can see a significant amount of savings in all aspects of their total office expenses every month over traditional raw-office-space leases. Read on to discover the top 10 advantages of all-in-one office space for lease in Toronto. 1. Professional Receptionist at Your Disposal If you’re a business start-up or are significantly downsizing your company, you’re probably operating with minimal office support staff. So why spend your money on hiring a receptionist when most all-in-one office business centres provide a live receptionist? You can have a professional receptionist answer all of your calls as you direct, without […]
Working Wireless in the Office? You Need to Know who has Access.
As Wi-Fi technology improved and faster speeds resulted, businesses who did not want the expense of running wires all through their offices started to look more seriously at Wi-Fi. With the help of stronger signals and better equipment, the Wi-Fi alternative started to become more popular. While businesses use repeaters and wireless access points to maximize the strength of connection in their office space, small businesses found that these solutions could also be scaled to their needs. In a smaller office space for rent, you may only need one access point! Today you cannot go down the street and have your device telling you of available WiFi access points. Today, just about every location – from coffee shops and restaurants, librarys, bookstores and many other places – offers Wi-Fi. You can now even get Wi-Fi when traveling by plane, bus or train. Even when no free hotspots are available, most smartphones […]
Office Safety and Security Issues Faced by Female Entrepreneurs
While workplace safety and security is an issue that every entrepreneur and small business owner has to think about, they are often more important to a female entrepreneur who works alone. As a general rule, it is not safe to work in an isolated office location, even for men. But for women entrepreneurs who have limited funding, these types of office environments may be the only alternative that fits their limited start-up budget. Working in isolation can put anyone at risk for security problems. Putting aside security risks, working in a stand-alone office with no contact with other people can also be a major safety factor when it comes to possible accidents that may occur. Nobody ever expects a home accident to happen, but a slip down the stairs or a kitchen grease fire can occur in the blink of an eye. Entrepreneurs who work from home often become complacent […]
Pan Am Games Teams are Using Short-Term Office Space While in Toronto
The Pan Am and Parapan Am Games begin in Toronto on July 10, 2015. The Pan Am Games are the world’s third largest international multi-sport Games, only surpassed in size and scope by the Olympic Summer Games and the Asian Games. Many of the teams from the 41 countries will be competing in 51 sports (36 Pan Am sports and 15 Parapan Am sports). With over 7,500 athletes participating, many have already began renting temporary office space in Toronto. For many of the teams, games of this magnitude cannot happen without the help of coaches, trainers and other staff – but finding team headquarters is also a necessity. While the athletes are housed in the Athletes Village, many of their support staff are not even able to stay in the same hotel, so they need space to work together. With any major international sporting event, each country sends along publicists, […]
Why Should Start-ups and Small Businesses use a Serviced Office?
A question that we often hear is “why use a serviced office?” So, let us look as some of the advantages to using an alternative office space like a serviced office over traditional office space – as well as some of the perceived disadvantages. It is important to note that business centres serviced offices offer more than office services. The advantages of serviced offices over traditional offices are: Many business centres’ office-space solutions provide a sense of community for a small business to network and exchange knowledge. Serviced offices have no building “fixed expenses” like taxes, repairs etc. Low or no capital expenditure to open and maintain your office or workspace. Flexible rental terms that facilitate full utilization of space needed for business growth. Serviced offices can often provide or facilitate retaining professional services like accounting, lawyers and marketing services. Serviced offices provide a sense of community A serviced office […]
When you own a Small Business, Every Week Should be Small Business Week!
May 4th, 2015, the official start of “Small Business Week” in the United States, yet in Canada Small Business Week is in October. Every year since 1963, the U.S. Small Business Administration takes the opportunity to highlight the impact of outstanding entrepreneurs, small business owners, and others from all 50 states and U.S. territories. In fact, every year since 1963, the President of the United States issues a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. Having a week of recognition for small business is important because every day, small business owners are working to grow their small businesses to create 21st century jobs, drive innovation, and continue to increase North America’s global competitiveness. This week across the United States, National Small Business Week events will be held in multiple cities. While some larger cities will feature one day of events during […]
How to Create a Great Place to Work
It is no surprise that when a ranking of Canada’s 100 best workplaces was recently released, that Google and AOL Canada (Large and Multinational Category) held on to the their top spots in the annual study by The Great Workplace, which is a global research, consulting and training firm. However, these types of studies usually mean nothing to an entrepreneur who is self employed with a much smaller business and staff. What should a small business owner do to ensure that he or she is providing a great place to work for themselves or any employees they may have? A research study may or may not exist that reveals what makes for the best small business workplaces – or even a list of the best small businesses to work for. However, there is plenty of information on the Internet to help a small business make its workplace better and more […]