All Singapore businessmen are aware of the time. You are already half-sung and have a good prospect, the atmosphere in the room is favourable, you are feeling good, when they look at your name card. Two seconds. And all you have to do is to have your speech do the talking. Doing here!

Business moves fast. Swifter than thine fame sometimes may.

The good thing is that this can be repaired at a very low price compared to what most founders would want. Virtual office in Singapore provides you with a valid business address, mail services and professional call answering services but does not tie up capital in a long term lease.

It costs SGD 50 to SGD 150 a month and varies based on your requirement. In comparison, that is about what you can buy at a reasonable two person dinner on Boat Quay. Unlike that Friday meal, this investment will continue working on your business 24/7.

It has a compliance angle that one should know. ACRA demands that all registered businesses in Singapore have an address of local business operation – that which is directly fed into a publicly accessible database. Most founders will just add their home address without thinking they have just put their front door on the market to any laptop and internet connection. A virtual office eliminates that exposure with a lot of no hassle.

Location is a fact in this city. Speeches in Tanjong Pagar, Cecil Street and Raffles Place have an implicit approval. You have not met your prospective client before and he or she has created an opinion only relying on that postcode. It sounds superficial. And it just so happens to be the case.

The more favorable offerings enrich the deal even more with access to physical meeting rooms on a pay-per-hour basis. Whenever you really require a professional environment due to the visit of a client, you will have one, without the permanent lease or the electric bills silently running in the background.

It was simple as explained by one freelance consultant: the acquisition of a virtual office was the least expensive change that she had made and the one that had a most noticeable effect on her business. All other upgrades were ten times more and ten times less effective. Would be difficult to disagree with such a reasoning.

The area that should be closely monitored is the pricing transparency. Other providers will promise to charge low prices to enter, and will charge mail forwarding, call-handling minutes, and access to a visitor separately. Insist on a complete breakdown of fees. A SGD 60 plan can easily rise to SGD 600 should you not keep your eye on it.

And the case is closed with flexibility. No lock-in. No renegotiation headaches. A mere business base that grows along with you – or retreats when you require space to breathe.