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London`s property prices are set to rise further more as London has been voted the worlds top city for investment in property by foreign investors. The investment from outside the UK is causing a housing bubble which could push out first time buyers. Being voted the best city does carry problems for the native home owners. The rise of prices on London property is happening at an unsustainable rate and is squeezing the average person out of the city. The conservative government are fully aware of the issue and have announced that as of the their will be a capital gains tax on foreign investors to help try and curb the soaring property prices. The house prices in London rose by nearly 9% in August alone, compared with around 2% elsewhere in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. Read more on Capital Office Virtual Office London services.

Update: June 2016

London is still ranking high on the list for business investments - both from home and abroad! In fact in a recent report earlier this year from EY's annual Attractiveness Survey revealed that London has overtaken New York and Shanghai in a global ranking of top tech cities, thanks to its "incredible entrepreneurial attitude". The report goes on to predict that London is the second most likely place to create the 'next big tech giant', only one place behind San Francisco. This means that compared to last year, London has jumped from fourth place to second place in the rankings - something that was hardly imaginable just five years ago. London has always been a world hub for Financial Services, and these will always remain as important to the Capital, but other businesses such as the tech industry and business services are now booming, making London a very attractive place to the rest of the world's investors.

The strength of London that has made it the financial capital of the world will also help the city as well as the whole country grow and prosper further over the coming years. Britain is a world leader with a prosperous future, and we have an environment that is well suited to entrepreneurs and business investors from across the world in all sectors of industry. The survey conducted by EY shows that 2015 was a record year for foreign investment into the UK and especially London. In fact during 2015,  London secured 406 foreign direct investments (FDI) projects – up seven per cent on 2014 – which created an estimated 7,026 new jobs.

With London now outperforming all other European cities, nearly 60% of business investors surveyed cited London as one of their top three cities for foreign direct investment, beating Paris into second place. With all the world movers and shakers enjoying the prestige associated with having a London based business, we feel that you shouldn't have to miss out on having a high quality London address for your business. Why not check out our great value for money London Address Services here to find out for yourself how you can benefit from having a London Registered Address.

Self Assessment, Are You Ready?

The online filing date for self assessments is 31st January, so make sure you have everything filed to avoid late filing penalties! If you need help or advice with working out your finances and filling out your return, get in contact with us today. Our team of experienced accountants can help advise you on what is needed and how much it will cost. As the deadline for self-assessment tax returns fast approaches each year, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are geared up and waiting for the deluge of millions of documents to come flooding into their offices and digital submissions to hit their accounts. Remember that if self assessment tax returns are not in by 31 January, millions of people will face a £100 fine if they do not get their forms in before the midnight deadline.

Don't be one of them! However, don't panic if you are one of those people who tends to procrastinate over their self-assessment submissions and always leaves it until the last minute. We are here to help take the stress out of the process for you, so whether you are simply too busy with your business to spare the time to complete your assessment, or you find the whole process confusing, we can help. Just give us a call on 0207 566 3939 to chat to one of our friendly team members, or alternatively fill out our contact form here, and one of our advisors will get back to you very quickly. It is better to be safe than sorry, and although it is a very British trait to leave things until the last minute, getting your self-assessment submitted in plenty of time can really take the weight off your shoulders.

Did you know that figures from HMRC shows a massive 569,847 self-assessment tax returns came in on the deadline date in 2014?I don't know about you, but I don't want to cause myself any undue stress by leaving it so late just in case something happens at the last minute that may prevent me submitting on time. What if you fall ill or your internet goes down? Yes, there may be lots of genuine reasons for not meeting the deadline date, but most are preventable by submitting self-assessment returns in plenty of time instead of risking it by leaving it so close to the deadline. Here are some prime examples submitted to HMRC of excuses given for missing the 31st January deadline: (Taken from the HMRC website).

1.) My pet dog ate my tax return... and all the reminders.

2.) I was up a mountain in Wales and could not find a postbox or get an internet signal.

3.) I fell in with the wrong crowd.

4.) I have been travelling the world, trying to escape from a foreign intelligence agency.

5.) Barack Obama is in charge of my finances.

These are pretty poor excuses to use and I am sure each person using these were landed with a £100 penalty for late delivery. Why leave it to chance? Let us help you to get your self-assessment filed away and off your mind. Contact us today.

Capital Office understand the importance of keeping overheads low when running a small business. We also know that keeping up to date financial records for your business is vital to help avoid any penalties from HMRC. With this in mind, we now offer affordable accounting services for small business owners who may struggle to find the time to keep track of all their business transactions.

Low Cost Professional Business Accounting in London

When you begin trading, it makes a lot of sense to get your business accounts sorted out as soon as possible to keep track of your daily finances as well as prevent yourself from becoming bogged down with too much paperwork. You can save yourself a lot of time and effort by keeping on top of your accounts, but we understand that sometimes it can be a struggle to juggle so many jobs all at once. This is why investing in our low cost expert business accounting services can save you so much stress, especially when it comes to those dreaded tax returns! When it comes to the Tax man our accounting team knows best! Don't struggle along trying to do everything by yourself - if you need more help or advice, do not hesitate to call us.

Capital Office provide top-class business accounting services all across London as well as on a national level. No matter where you are based in the UK, our team of fully trained and experienced accountants can help alleviate any issues you may be facing. We aim to make your accounting process as easy as possible by taking it completely off your shoulders, so you can be left free to concentrate on building your business. You can get a FREE QUOTE from us - so why wait? Let us take the strain of completing your business accounts completely off your hands.

There are many reasons why a small business owner may choose to benefit from using a virtual office. One great advantage of this is that it can help to boost your company’s image and reputation. A large proportion of small businesses use a residential address and for some people this can cause uncertainty about the reliability and legitimacy of the business, which in turn can lead to less trust, custom and sales. Virtual office can provide your business with a prestigious mail forwarding address in London which instantly gives your business huge credibility and a higher status.

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Virtual Office Helps Keep Your Privacy Protected

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When seeing a registered London address, prospective clients are more likely to view the company as well established, trusted and reliable. As well as providing security for customers, using our virtual office service will keep your home address private and protect you from unwanted callers. This is an important reason for you to use a virtual office, and will help by keeping your home address off all public records. By using our virtual office address you will be preventing cold callers from just turning up at your home address at any time of the day completely unannounced -  which can be very awkward to say the least! Our service provides great peace of mind to our customers, you will know your home address is secure from all cold callers. In addition to our mail forwarding service, many small businesses use our virtual call answering service.

This service works much like having your own personal assistant who will handle all calls on your behalf. Unlike employing a full-time PA, which could cost you over £20,000 a year, a virtual personal assistant is an affordable option for your business. A full time virtual PA on the same hours would cost just a small fraction of that from Capital Office for 12 months. Your virtual call answering service will receive all calls and then divert them to your home or mobile phone quickly and without revealing either number to the caller. Alternatively, if you prefer not to answer all calls live, your callers are able to leave a message which you can listen to and then respond to later. This can be ideal if your work is very hands on meaning you cannot answer your phone straight away each time it rings, or your job means you are away from your phone regularly throughout the day. All of our call answering staff are native English speakers and have impeccable telephone manners and customer service skills.

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Get the Best Virtual Office Services for an Affordable Rate

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Using this service will allow you to remain focused on your work without the worry of distractions or missing an important client’s calls. If you would like to discuss any of our services please do not hesitate to contact our expert team who will be happy to talk you through your preferred options. We can find a package suitable for your business. Why not take a look at our extensive range of Virtual Office packages we have available. We are confident that we will have something to suit your business needs!

Welcome to our new look website and blog. We hope you find it easy to navigate and to find out more detailed information about our products and services, for example:Virtual office services: Our complete Virtual Office London package is ideal for businesses who are wanting to get ahead and want to impress their clients and associates. Our virtual office package combines our highly sought after central London business mail forwarding address with a professional and experienced virtual PA telephone answering service. Find out more here.Call answering services: Do you want to impress clients with your own prestigious London based business telephone number and your own professional Secretary who will answer all your incoming calls? Find out more here.Professional meeting room hire: High Quality Modern Meeting Room Space in London for hire with full rapid speed fibre optic WiFi and cabled Internet solutions. Find out more here.Company Formations: Establishing or reinstating a business can be a complicated process involving a lot of paperwork, and if you make mistakes, you can experience a whole range of problems further down the line. Fortunately, help is at hand. At Capital Office, we have decades of experience in these areas and offer a comprehensive company formation service. Which one is right for you? Find out more about our packages here.We hope you enjoy reading our blog and hope to keep you updated with fresh content that you find useful for your business. If you have any queries about any of our services, please do not hesitate to contact us with your questions. We are here to help!

With 95% of all self-employed people inthe UK being sole traders, or single entrepreneurs heading up theirown limitedcompany, there is a lot of pressure on a small business owner tobe present and responsive for their business 24/7.

While you must get some downtime awayfrom your work for the sake of your mental health, you can makethings a lot easier for yourself by effectively connecting both youronline and offline presence to reassure your existing and potentialnew customers that there are real people behind your business, andyou are happy to engage with them.

Theimportance of maintaining you online and offline presence

We live in a very interconnected worldthese days, so solo entrepreneurs need to keep up both their onlineand offline presence to help generate new business and maintainexisting business.

What you need to do here is to ensurethat both your digital and real-life persona match up and that youpresent a consistent image to your customers and followers. Havingthis consistency really helps to build trust with potential newcustomers and loyalty with your existing customer base.

Presenting a fragmented image ofyourself or your company which differs greatly between your onlineand offline persona can confuse prospective new customers causingthem to pause and hesitate over whether or not to trust you withtheir money.

When you present a united andconsistent front you will be reassuring potential new customers thatyou run a genuine business and that you can be trusted.

So, what can you do to join-up youronline and offline persona to build and strengthen your overallpresence? Let's take a look at a few solid ways to market yourselfand your brand to connect them together and present a united frontfor your business.

1:Maintain consistent branding and marketing messages

Take a look at your analytics to findwhat marketing message is performing the best for you. Use thismessage to lead your brand and repurpose it to fit across all of yourmarketing and awareness campaigns.

Finding your best customer touchpointsand being consistent with your delivery is the key for reaching outand connecting with both existing customers as well as engaging withnew ones.

As your target audience continues tosee your online marketing messages and come to recognise your brand,there will be an increased likelihood that they will choose to buyyour product or service due to their consistent recognition andfamiliarity with your brand.

You must take the same marketingmessage and brand to use in your offline marketing efforts to helpbuild your online and offline connection. Those potential customersmeeting you in real-life will be much more comfortable to go onlineand buy from you when the information you provide them in person isthe same as they see online.

2:Join your local chamber of trade and commerce

Most towns and cities will have a localchamber of trade and commerce in some form or another. Check onlineor with your local council to find their contact details.

Joining your local chamber of commercecan be very useful as this is a group of local business people thatwant to help local businesses of all sizes, from large commercialbusinesses to small businesses and sole traders.

Most are run by volunteers, but othersmay charge a small membership fee. Do your research and join one thatsuits your needs the best. This may mean that your nearest large citythat covers your area may run a group that is bigger and morepro-active than a much smaller group in your town.

The meetings they run allow localentrepreneurs to gather together to learn from each other and makevaluable networking contacts. You can take advantage here bypromoting your own online or offline business to fellow businessowners who may be interested in using your services or buying yourproducts.

You can also set up a reciprocationoffer where you share your business details on their websites inexchange for you doing the same for them on your website. You couldalso set up a discount scheme for your fellow chamber members to useand they could offer the same for other group members.

3:Collect email subscribers manually

As most of you will already know,having an email list can be one of the most valuable tools yourbusiness owns. You can use your email list to send out directmessages to your existing customer base that you encourage to sign upwith you when they make an online purchase.

You can keep your email list informedof new product launches, special appearances, seasonal discounts orother special offers or news that you want to share.

While you should be using leadgenerating software on your website to encourage more emailsubscribers, you should also try to collect new email subscribers inperson. This can be done quickly, easily and in a friendly way whileyou are mingling at a local networking meeting or you are presentingat an event. You could offer them a special discount voucher or freegift that they can claim on the day and take home with them when theygive you their email address. This is a great way to connect youronline and offline marketing.

4:Hold a live online Q&A or demonstration

When you offer a product or servicethat you can demonstrate in person, then running a live online showand tell session will help to connect your online and offlinemarketing in a great way!

You can build up a lot of anticipationand excitement around your product or service by promoting an up andcoming demonstration event and live Q&A session where yourcustomers get to learn more about what you do and can get instantanswers to their questions.

Live Q&A or demonstrations work inthe real world too, so if you have booked a booth at an event, takethis opportunity to do a demonstration or a show and tell session toengage with a live audience. This can be more effective than simplystanding by your stall and handing out flyers.

5:Continue the conversation

A great salesperson never leaves aconversation open-ended! Where there is a conversation there is theopportunity to make a great close. You should be using the majorsocial media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for yourbusiness, so make sure that you recognise any customer pain pointsthat are raised during conversation, and make sure that you close outthat conversation with a solution (usually your product or service)explaining how it can help solve their problems.

Always remember to continue yourconversation and your engagement beyond making a sale. Ideally, youwant to build up a rapport with your customers to help build theirconfidence in your business and encourage them to stay loyal to youwith their repeat business.

Email a thank you message further downthe line and encourage them to feedback to you how your product orservice has helped them. If they are local to any events that you areattending, invite them along so you can meet them in person.

Meeting your customers face-to-face inthe real world can be incredibly powerful. They, in turn, will goaway as happy customers willing to talk about, spread the word andshare the benefits that your product or service brought them to theirpeers, family, friends and larger network.

6:Connect with influencers

No matter what business you areinvolved in, there will usually be some online or offline influencerthat is an expert in the field. Connecting with and building arelationship with an influencer can be a powerful move for yourbusiness.

When someone new discovers yourbusiness, they will be curious about what you can offer, but theywill be more inclined to listen to you or to trust your business ifyou are connected with a well-known and highly respected influencer.

It is important to take the time toslowly build your connection with any major influencers and not toblatantly go out to promote your product or service to them. You needto join in with the conversation or topic being discussed withoutmentioning your business.

Offer useful (free) advice or tellpeople about your own experiences and what helped you overcome anyshared issues you had. As you get drawn into the conversation andpeople get used to you and recognise your name, their naturalcuriosity will lead them to do a bit of research on you and yourbusiness.

This, in turn, can lead them to strikeup a conversation with you where they ask you about your products orservices, which then gives you a stage to start leading theconversation from and to draw in potential new customers.

7:Always be there for your customers

While all of these tips can help you toconnect both your online and offline business presence and promoteyour business, it is fair to say that no matter whether you areworking online to engage with your customers, or you are connectingin person at a live event, you simply cannot be in two places atonce!

By far the most simple, convenient,professional and effective way of always being there for yourcustomers is to have a good communication back up system.

You don't want to miss an importantphone call from a potential new customer because you are busy doing alive demonstration at a business event. You also don't want toencourage the people you meet in real life to call you only for themto be met with an ever-ringing phone that goes unanswered.

You need to capture every singlevaluable phone call that people make to your business. You can onlydo this by using a reliable and high-quality telephone call answeringservice, such as the one offered by CapitalOffices, so that you don't miss any salesopportunities.

The great thing about using aprofessionalcall answering service such as this is thatyour potential new customers, as well as your existing customers,will know their call is important to you and that their query orrequest has been noted and that you will be guaranteed to get back tothem or put directly through when you know their call is urgent.

Technology is a wonderful thing, butwhat seems to be happening more and more in the world of business isthat AI including chatbots, automated answerphones, driverless taxicabs, lorries and cars, self-service supermarkets and fast-foodrestaurants are all making the headlines, but are effectivelyremoving the human element from many walks of life.

While advancements in technology canhelp to automate many a task and save big companies a fortune by nothaving to employ staff to perform certain tasks, it really isworrying that they can believe their customers are going to be happyabout these changes.

At the end of the day, a business ownershould never forget that their customers are the life-blood of theirbusiness. Without happy customers, how would any business manage tobe successful?

Howcommunication has changed

The internet has completely changed theface of business and the creation of mobile technologies such assmartphones, laptops and tablets have transformed the way we interactwith each other.

No matter whether you are a B2B or B2Cbusiness, how we communicate with each other and our customers havegone from just face-to-face meetings, letters and telephone calls tocommunicating over various messaging platforms, social media andthrough apps.

With the creation of Skype and Slack,business people no longer need to meet face-to-face, but instead caninteract with each other and directly with their customers in waysthat not too long ago were once unimaginable.

Greaterflexibility in the workplace

All of these new technologies andcommunication platforms have enabled people that work more remotelyand work together, whether that's via online collaboration sites orSkype when you can have meetings in different time zones unimpeded bygeography.

The ability for teams to work togetherremotely means businesses have a whole new level of freedom thatmeans that they no longer need to build and rely on one physicalcentral head office.

Technology has also enabled soloentrepreneurs and micro-businesses to operate on the same platformand at the same level as the much larger companies that used todominate business sectors.

Adoptingvirtual services

With so much new technology at ourfingertips, it makes sense to adopt and make good use of as much newtechnology as we can, including the creation of virtual services thatthis new technology has allowed to grow and flourish over recentyears.

As a business owner, it is importantthat you identify and utilise virtual options that could bettersupport you and your staff as well as your customers.

Depending on the size of your businessthat could be as simple as adopting one single virtual service, suchas a real-life human callanswering service, an app or piece of softwarethat will help to resolve an existing issue with your business.

Interactingwith your customers

As mentioned earlier, a lot ofbusinesses are moving more towards using AI and technology to replacethe human element of their production line or business structure.While it has meant that companies have cut their overheads and savedmoney, it has served to create a big disconnect with their customers– the very people they need to keep their business alive.

As any business improvement consultantsand managers will tell you, how you interact with your customers ishugely important. While a company can adopt technologies to helptheir staff work better with each other, they need to remember to dothis with their customers too.

Workon your infrastructure

Your business needs to be fast, agileand always connected. However, if you are a solo-entrepreneur or youare running a small business with a skeleton staff, then you will berunning at maximum capacity with little to no time to dedicate to thecare of your customers or to be able to effectively deal withprospective new clients that are calling your business 24/7.

An important part of the success ofyour business will be to realise that you need to run a human-centriccompany that makes good use of modern technology but also maintainsthat essential human element and connection that your customers needto trust your company and get the high-quality customer service thatthey want from you.

While these days it is important thatyour business needs to be connected 24/7, it doesn't mean that you asan individual must be!

Takingthe virtual option

You need to take a regular break fromyour business each day and enable yourself to step away and rest forthe sake of your own mental health. However, you don't want to miss asingle phone call from a prospective new customer that can become anew source of income for your business.

This is where our completevirtual office services can come in very handy.Not only can we help you to catch every single call from aprospective new customer or B2B company that wants to contact you byhaving your calls answered by a real-life human receptionist, we canallow you to break free of being permanently tied to your businessphone line.

Unpluggingyourself from technology

If you prefer to stay in control ofyour business phone and can answer every single incoming call on yoursmartphone during your working hours, then you can at least allowyourself to take the night off after work.

Capital Office London also offers busybusiness clients the option of a voicemailonly service that you can switch on after youleave work so that you are not disturbed by your business calls whilespending time at home with your family or friends.

By using either of our call answeringservices you can set yourself healthy boundaries between work andhome life. This will encourage you to take needed downtime andunplugging yourself from technology as and when you need to.

Protectingyour privacy

Because modern technology allowsbusiness owners to work from pretty much anywhere, this means that alot of lean business owners are able to set up and run their companyfrom home rather than to go to the expense of hiring offices to workfrom.

It can be quite eye-opening to realisejust how much company information is available online. While you wantyour business to have a strong online presence and you will beactively doing everything you can to build up your brand recognitionand raise awareness of your business, you will still be wanting toprotect your own personal privacy and the privacy of your family.

While it is important to protectyourself and your business from hacking and identity theft, you willneed to submit a lot of your information to the CompaniesHouse website for public display.

The Companies House website has aregister of every single registered limited company, a publiccompany, LLP, CIC and persons of significant control (PSC) in thecountry. This means that the details of company addresses, the namesof directors and their addresses are all available for anyone toview.

While all these details are required bylaw to aid transparency and prevent people from hiding behind nomineedirectors or control companies without having to declare an interest,it can be riskier for those running a business from their ownpersonal home address to be exposed to cold callers and disgruntledcustomers knocking on your door, or potential ID fraudsters stealingyour identity.

A great solution here would be to makegood use of our virtual office address services.

Virtualoffice address services

Registered Office Address: Byusing our virtual office address services you can have a RegisteredOffice Address in London for your business.This means that your home address will not be publicised online.

A registered office address is a legalrequirement for all UK Companies. Our service includes free statutorymail forwarding and is cost-effective, reliable and efficient. Yourregistered office address with us is HMRC approved so you know ourservices are credible and trustworthy.

Directors Service Address: Adirectorsservice address package allows your companyofficers to use our central London address as their businesscorrespondence address, which is displayed at Companies House on thepublic record. Using this service will keep your private home addressoff public display.

When using our virtual addressservices, including a directorsservice address option, you will still need tosubmit your residential address to Companies House, but this will bekept private and off the public record.

The only address for your company thatwill be displayed is your virtual office address that is based in thecentre of London's famous business district, giving your businessinstant credibility and a sense of gravitas that will do your companyimage a world of good.

By taking out any of our virtual officeaddress services, your registered office address or directorsservice address will be:

Your name

Your company name

Kemp House

152 – 160 City Road

London EC1V 2NX

Do not hesitate to contact ourexperienced team at Capital Offices to discuss your business needs,whether that is for any of our call answering services to ourcomplete virtual office package or virtual London business addressoptions.

Call our team +44 (0) 207 566 3939 oremail us office@capital-office.co.ukor call in for a chat at our London offices in Kemp House – we arealways happy to talk to you!