A local agency that provides coworking space is expanding its footprint in Albuquerque’s Journal Center for the first time since 2014.

Office Alternatives is adding 6,000 square feet to its operations at 4801 Lang Ave. NE. Nationwide Building Enterprises LLC was hired to handle the renovations, which includes 20 new offices, a training room and an event center.

The $60,000 project provides a 60% increase in rentable space and is expected to be finished by mid-February, Office Alternatives President Christina Esterly said.

Once complete, the new 16,000-square-foot facility will host 48 offices with rents ranging from $700 to $1,800.

“Post-Covid, people don’t want to sign long-term leases anymore,” Esterly said. “They’re tired of long-term expenses and our industry has become super hot. There’s a huge increase in demand, and we’re hoping to meet that increase.”

Since 2006, Office Alternatives has provided small businesses and entrepreneurs with executive and virtual office space in Albuquerque. The locally owned and operated company saw an increase in popularity after the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced many companies to adopt a hybrid-work environment. As of April 2023, more than 18% of employees in Bernalillo County worked remotely, according to a CBRE office market analysis report.

“I hadn’t even entertained the idea of expanding until [fall 2023],” Esterly said. “But we needed more space because we kept turning away people. We had about 15 people on our waitlist and our revenue went up 52% in 2023.”

Build trust and credibility with a commercially recognized address.

Establish your business at a commercially recognized address to achieve long-term stability in your chosen market. It’s a fast, cost- effective way to build trust and credibility with clients and stakeholders.

Your Virtual Office is much more than a business mailing address.

Behind every Virtual Office is a recognized business center with professional onsite staff, meeting rooms and office facilities. You’ll get a commercial address for your business, mail processing with forwarding options, and easy access to onsite meeting rooms for team meetings, client visits and focused work.

Set The Right Impression

Develop trust and credibility with clients.

Build a professional, established image. A Virtual Office provides a recognized home for your business while you work from home, or from anywhere. Choose the right location for your business and set the best impression, first time and every time.

Grow Business Roots

Sustain your business for the long-term.

Demonstrate integrity. A Virtual Office isn’t just a mailing address — it’s an integral part of your long-term business success. That’s why you can use your address to register your business, open a bank account, apply for credit, and much more.

Target

Your Market

Enter new markets with a low risk profile.

Location is a vital part of your business identity. An established local presence in the heart of your target market is a cost-effective way to gain high visibility with a low risk profile.

Modernize

the Way You Work

Work flexibly, safely.

Unleash your productivity. A Virtual Office enables remote work without compromising on professionalism. It provides a stable location for your business and a safe, on-demand environment for client meetings, team collaboration, and focused work.

Protect

Your Home Address

Separate your personal assets from your business.

Keep your private life, private. Is your home address published on your email footer and website? Now you can leverage your commercial address for long term success by using it for entity registration, business licensing, marketing, and more.

Build Credit

For Business Stability

Gain trust with financial institutions.

Did you know that a Virtual Office can help you build financial credibility? Lenders look more favorably on businesses that use a commercially recognized address and a business number.

As a busy lawyer, you likely have a lengthy to-do list that never seems to end. If you’re responsible for practicing law and running the business, your list of daily obligations will be even longer.

If you’re feeling stressed out about your own list of responsibilities right now, there’s some good news:

There’s an easier way to practice law and run your law firm… without losing sleep or skipping an important family event or escalating payroll costs.

Introducing: Virtual Office Services

The terms “virtual office or virtual services” encompass a wide array of solutions that lawyers can use to win in key areas of their practice. At Office Alternatives we break things down into two main categories: rentable office spaces and virtual office services. At Office Alternatives, some of our members even use virtual services and spaces to run the entire business from home without one single client realizing it.

Rentable Office Spaces: Physical Office Space & Meeting Rooms

Office Alternatives provides attorneys two options for office space. One is hourly and the other is monthly with no long-term leases.

Hourly Office Space

The hourly office space is space at our prestigious locations that can be rented for as long (or as short) as you need. From day offices to large boardrooms, we have something professional for you to use either to meet clients or to have a quiet place to build your practice.

Rentable meeting rooms give every law firm access to the same infrastructure that Big Law relies on to hold meetings, host depositions and mediations, and more. The days of battling projectors and rushing to set up are over — those details are all handled by the virtual space provider. Some providers, including Office Alternatives, even welcome guests, serve them coffee and water, and make sure they’re comfortable.

Some attorneys use our reception staff to meet and greet clients, client drop-off and pickup and for witnessing (extra charges occur).

Virtual Services

Virtual office services are services on-demand and à la carte. That means you only pay for the support you need when you need it (kinda like your legal hourly fee). They range from phone service, admin support, copy/print services, client drop-off/pickup, witnessing and more!

Phone Answering: Your Virtual Receptionist

An attorney could utilize phone answering services a variety of ways such as temporary time periods like vacations and during trials or trial preparation only or full-time Monday-Friday 8-5pm. This virtual service means your firm’s calls will be answered every single time without fail.

Many lawyers rely on phone answering services to handle all incoming calls, so they can spend more time on billable hours. They enjoy getting calls screened and automatically routed by a live person. Office Alternatives will answer calls using your firm’s name, but that’s just the beginning.

We deliver a fully personalized service, and your callers will never realize they’re speaking to a virtual receptionist. Office Alternatives can also provide scheduling service and in-take form help. This really frees you up from having to hire staff full-time or be bombarded with calls all day. It’s like having a dedicated, full-time receptionist on your team — without the price tag and management hassles.

Virtual Mail: Your Professional Business Address

Many attorneys use a virtual office provider such as Office Alternatives, to rent a physical business address for their business. This way they can use a fancy and professional office building in the heart of a business district as their business address on their website, business cards and more. They can get mail/packages in a secure safe place with 24/7 access. They also establish business continuity by never having to change their business’ address even when their residential may change several times over the years. There are plenty of benefits to a virtual business address:

• They protect your privacy and make it easy to keep your personal and professional life truly With a virtual business address, lawyers who work remotely don’t need to use their home address for business purposes.
• The optics of a premier business address can give your firm a competitive edge, and there will always be someone at the office to receive important mail.
• Plus, this service makes expanding your practice and establishing a local footprint a breeze.

Let’s get into some more detail on that last point, because it’s an important one. A virtual business address allows lawyers to maintain multiple office locations.

Permanent Executive Office Suites (month-to-month)

Ready to leave the house and stop working from home? Don’t get involved in long-term leases and heavy overhead costs. Keep your operating expenses low and take home more net revenue. Office Alternatives has long-term monthly suites all-inclusive for your practice to build on in 2 ABQ locations.

Each suite comes with everything you need to get running off the ground including free coffee, parking and filtered water. We never require a lease; all contracts are month-to-month with a 31-day notice to vacate.

Transform Your Law Firm

Now that you’ve learned how office space and virtual business services can help your law firm run more intelligently, efficiently, and profitably, fill out this simple online form to receive a personalized consultation for your practice. CLICK HERE

Your local Office Alternatives branch will be in touch to help you develop a personalized program that’s designed to save time, money, and energy. Think of us as your business partner …helping you achieve success –

After years of working for a Fortune 500 company in Colorado, Christian Esterly was able to get a taste of the small business community upon moving to the Land of Enchantment. She knew it was something she wanted to continue to be part of, and she realized that goal when she became owner of Office Alternatives (OA) in 2018.

“I have a strong passion for how OA helps the ABQ business community, specifically helping startups, small business and entrepreneurs adopt a credible big image and have the infrastructure to thrive, network and conduct business,” Esterly says.

OA offers a wide range of services to local businesses. It provides onsite office suites in the prestigious Journal Center location and the growing Westside Riverside Plaza location. The company also offers hourly, daily and weekly rental of offices, conference rooms, training rooms, and even a wifi coworking lounge. OA “rents” the use of its professional addresses, so that a business can prevent using a home address in public, and they have a safe and continuous place to receive mail/packages at the one provided. Booking an office suite with OA comes complete with full administrative support.

Clients can also have the service of a virtual telephone reception service so calls are never missed. This is something that Esterly says helps save sales and increases revenue, as 93% of clients who get voicemail move on to the next listing, while 73% who get a “live” answer before voicemail will wait for a return call.

OA’s services have become even more valuable with more businesses reopening following the peak of the pandemic, particularly with those who have grown tired of working from home. OA’s services provide the option of renting office space on a month-to-month basis, instead of making a long-term expensive commitment.

When she’s not busy with her work at OA, Esterly enjoys spending time with what she refers to as her “pack:” her three English Cream Golden Retrievers – Boaz, Ruth and Zeke – along with her husband, Richard, her daughter, Kyra, and her bird, Malachi. She also enjoys floating in the pool, hiking, camping or reading to help unwind in her down time. “At home, it’s my family and dogs that keep me smiling and level-headed,” she says.

The Office Angel

Christina Esterly, President

In business, first impressions count. A telephone answering service makes it easy for customers to contact your business, and this can mean the difference between capturing new clients and losing them to one of your competitors. Crucially, it also allows you to concentrate on other aspects of your business whilst ensuring that no potential customers are neglected.

Here are our 15 reasons why your small business should be using a telephone answering service.

1.  Never Miss a Sales Call Again

Sales calls are the lifeblood of your business. What’s the point in spending money on marketing or any other aspect of your business if you’re not going to make yourself accessible to your clients? Although a lot of business and sales are now done online, there are still plenty of people who prefer to use the phone. Clients prefer to speak to an actual person. Getting just one sale a month through your telephone answering service could mean that it will pay for itself.

2.  Saves You Money On Hiring a Receptionist

Hiring a receptionist can be expensive for a small business, and you probably don’t have enough incoming calls to justify paying someone to handle them full-time. Even if you get members of your existing team to take calls, this will draw them away from their other tasks, effectively costing you money.

Telephone answering services represent a huge savings in comparison to handling your calls in-house. Not only do you avoid having to pay a salary, you also save on the costs associated with having someone in the office. As well as this, many small business teams work remotely, and telephone answering services are a great way to organize and manage a remote team.

3.  Call Answering, Message Taking and Order Placement, Even When Your Business is Closed

Unlike a real receptionist, a telephone answering service can be on hand all day, every day.

This means that even outside of office hours, your business has a real person manning the phones, ready to deal with enquiries and provide any other aspects of customer service required.

4.  Free Up Time For Your Team to Generate Revenue and Grow Your Business

Even during office hours, dealing with the flow of inbound calls can be extremely time-consuming and distracting. It’s no good hiring great staff to improve and grow your business if they are going to be glued to their phone all day answering mundane enquiries.

As well as this, a telephone answering service filters and forwards calls, so that you can screen calls during busy periods or times when you need to focus on working without distractions. Without picking up the phone, you can find out whether the call is from an important client or from someone trying to sell you a photocopier. A phone answering service can handle many of the day-to-day enquiries, allowing you and your team to concentrate on growing your business.

5.  Book Appointments and Manage Your Calendar

Many telephone answering services can also do other tasks, such as acting as a switchboard to transfer calls to the appropriate people. Even better, some virtual receptionists can be trained to use your calendar software, which means they can book, cancel and rearrange appointments for you (usually a small extra fee).

This is a great way to cut down on time-consuming admin.

6.  Personalized Service For Each Individual Company

Call answering services usually let you choose from a number of options, so you can get the service

that’s right for your business. At the most basic level, a service will take messages for you and filter out unwanted calls. If you want more, you can provide the receptionists with bespoke scripts and briefings, product descriptions, and FAQs, which you can update as often as you like.

This means that upon calling you, your customers will be greeted with a well-informed, polite and friendly service, which will feel like a part of your actual business. We’ve found that good providers are able to build their services around you, and meet the needs of your company. You can give them service briefings, product descriptions and info about your staff, which allows the receptionists to handle a lot of basic enquiries without ever interrupting you in the office.

7.  Eliminates The Headache of Handling Hiring, Absences, Training and Performance Monitoring

When hiring staff, small business owners need to take into account more than just the wage they’ll need to pay. Time, effort and money all go into the process of hiring people, as well as making sure they are doing a good job and are happy in their role. As well as eliminating another name from your payroll, a phone answering service gets rid of all of the added responsibilities and stresses of hiring a dedicated receptionist.

8.  Creates The Illusion of “Size”

A virtual receptionist lends your business a bit of legitimacy and the illusion of size. Even in a startup’s infancy, when the business is run from an old laptop in the living room, a telephone answering service is necessary because we knew that we needed to have good brand perception. Because with many services you can provide your virtual receptionist with custom scripts, you can maintain any brand voice and personality that you may have already created online or elsewhere.

9.  Messages Taken Can Be Sent To The Business By Text or Email, Meaning You Can Access Your Messages Anywhere

With most telephone answering services, your messages are comprehensively logged and securely stored, so you’ll never lose or accidently delete an important message ever again. Even more importantly, many services give you access to a catalogue of your messages wherever you are, which is a great resource when dealing with potential customers or pitching to new clients. It also helps with coordinating the activities of everyone in your team. With a messaging service, everyone is kept in the loop and there are no slip-ups in communication.

10.  Usually No Contract and No or Low Set-Up Fee – Pay As You Go So You’re Never Paying Over The Odds

Although it varies from provider to provider, as a rule you won’t need to sign any contract and you can monitor spending by either paying a fixed monthly rate, or a pay as you go tariff, so you’ll never receive any unexpected bills.

11.  It’s All About The Personal Touch

Answering machines should be banned for small businesses especially the phone tree (press 1 for this and 2 for that). If Office Alternatives was in charge of the country, the first thing we’d do is make it illegal for small businesses to use answering machines. It reflects badly on you, makes you look disorganized and will turn customers off before they’ve even had a chance to get through to you. A call answering service means that whenever they call, potential clients get through to an actual human being.

12.  Free Trials Or Low Cost Trials Are Often Available

If you’re not sure you really need a telephone answering service, or want to test how effective it will be for your company, many providers offer a free trial. A free trial means that you can measure whether a virtual receptionist really will improve your business.

It’s a good idea during this test period to do a couple of “secret shopper” calls yourself to make sure that the service is satisfactory. Ring up with a couple of messages or a question so you can evaluate for yourself how the receptionists handle your enquiry.

13.  You Can Have An 800 Number Or a Landline, Even If You Only Have a Mobile

This is especially useful for small businesses that need to be able to provide clients with free support and assistance. As well as this, only having a mobile number on your website is a sure sign that your business is a one-man band.

14.  Ensures That Calls Are Answered Promptly and Efficiently, Even At Busy Times, So You Won’t Miss a Potential Client

Having a virtual receptionist means that calls will never ring through or go unanswered. As well as this, during busy periods the service provider will be able to handle any unexpected spikes in the number of calls, meaning that you’ll never lose out on potential business.

15.  Increases Productivity of Your Staff

Research has shown that telephone calls are the single biggest distraction people face in the workplace.

Answering the call isn’t necessarily the problem, either. When you are constantly having your workflow interrupted, it breaks your momentum. The time wasted isn’t the time it takes to answer the call, it’s all the time it takes to get yourself back into the swing of your work.

When you and your staff are being bombarded with calls, this can be a serious drain on the productivity of everyone in your office. A telephone answering service can field all of your calls, so not only will you never need to take a cold call again, but when you need to concentrate on something important, you only need to handle high priority calls.

Next step: Try us out today.

The terms Virtual Office,” “Virtual Reception,” or “Virtual Mail” can be confusing in today’s age. What does “virtual” mean? Is there an actual office? A real receptionist or a robot? Is real mail involved with Virtual Mail? Office Alternatives would like to outline 7 Benefits of Virtual Office Services helping New Mexico Small Business or Independents grow and succeed.

Here are seven things you didn’t know about virtual offices.

Virtual offices are real. A virtual office is a physical, brick-and-mortar location that features all of the modern amenities of a typical office, including professional on-site staff. Virtual Mail affords you to use this professional address as if it’s your company’s place of business when you might actually work out of your home. This becomes important when you’re setting up Google My Business (a must do!) and a geographical presence to be used with all online advertising. Google and the City license department will not take a PO Box and why would you want your personal home address publicized and associated with your professional business? Office Alternatives has 2 physical locations providing business owners with day-to-day infrastructure and mail packages allowing the small business owner to expand the geographic reach of their business. OA also has Registered Agent service to protect your privacy on the Secretary of State of NM website.

Virtual offices hourly conference rooms can be rented for as few as 30 minutes. One of the primary benefits of using a virtual office is the low level of commitment. Gone are the traditional leases and overhead associated with a traditional office infrastructure. Whether you need a long-term home for your business or a short-term site for an emergency meeting, virtual offices are an efficient solution. Office Alternatives rents meeting, conference, boardrooms and even training rooms as few as 30 minutes and as low as $15 an hour for members. Virtual offices are designed to be flexible tools for businesses. It’s space when you need it and no cost when you don’t.

Virtual offices offer full-service administrative services. All Office Alternative locations have on-site staff that greet and accommodate you and your guests, offer free coffee with ceramic mugs and real half and half. Most importantly, our trained receptionists offer billable administrative assistance services billed by the minute not hour such as printing, copying, scanning, and mail-forwarding. OA also offers notary and witnessing which help many in law or CPAs.

Virtual offices offer phone reception services. All Office Alternative locations have highly trained reception staff to answer your company’s business number and route your calls according to plan. This gives you the appearance of a larger staff and saves prospects from calling your competitors. Stats show that clients who get voicemail are 93% likely to call the next Google listing. Whereby, clients who have a nice friendly “live answer” are 73% likely to wait for your call back. That equates to more sales and better customer service. Don’t have a business number yet? Office Alternatives can provide you one!

Virtual offices can prevent missed sales and missed $$$ Business owners often feel like they can’t step away from their business duties to answer phones. Yet every missed potential client is a missed sale. If a business owner makes $75-$100 per hour, one missed client is missed revenue. What if you missed 1 client per day? Statistics show 89% of all potential clients move the next company on the Google or Bing listing if they do not get a live answer. Virtual Receptionist Phone service, by Office Alternatives, provides the big-business infrastructure that allows business owners to have live-answer phone service even when on vacation. From answering phone calls and taking messages while you’re gone, and even scheduling appointments, customer interactions will be professionally handled with your specific instructions.

Virtual offices allow business owners to go on vacation. Business owners often feel like they can’t step away from their business. Virtual Receptionist Phone service provides the big-business infrastructure that allows business owners to take a break. From answering phone calls and taking messages while you’re gone, customer interactions will be professionally handled with your specific instructions.

Virtual offices are full-scale, professional facilities. The benefit of being a virtual office customer is the ability to conduct business at prestigious upscale full-service offices as if the infrastructure was your own company’s entirely. Office Alternatives’ locations include professional lobbies, meeting rooms, executive day offices, break rooms, conference equipment, high-speed internet, and more. Our locations are equipped to meet the unique needs of every business for a fraction of the cost of other long-term solutions.

Office Alternatives is a growing New Mexico company with two locations in Albuquerque, NM currently. We are the largest and most established local Office provider in ABQ and Rio Rancho. We can provide virtual telephone reception to any company in the Mountain time zone currently even outside of the state. Call us Monday-Friday at 505.796.9600 for a free consultation.

Take calls from anywhere: Receive calls on your cell phone or any WiFi-enabled device and maintain productivity while working from anywhere. 

Voicemail by text or email: Have voicemail messages emailed to you or transcribed into text so you can read them on the go. 

Reduce distractions: Having your phone answered and calls screened helps you save time and reduce distractions by easily diverting calls to other team members or to voicemail. 

Provide helpful information so you don’t have to – A receptionist can provide basic information to your clients such as business hours, company directory, and any other helpful information. We can even fill out intake forms and email you leads.

Streamline the call experience: Assign the right staff to the right call categories to streamline your clients’ experience. Calls for HR to go Kathy. Calls for Sales go to Susie etc etc 

Appear larger and more staffed than you are: Using a reception service makes your company appear to have a bigger team onboard than what you can afford or want to afford. A team of professionally trained receptionists represent YOUR company image.

When deciding to join an Executive Office Suites Rental space such as Office Alternatives or Lease your own space, there are several cost and qualitative factors to weigh out

1. COMMITMENT LEVEL

   Leasing one’s own space requires a financial commitment and often a personal obligation of 3-5 years. Shared office space such as Office Alternatives is short-term!

2. START-UP COSTS

   Leasing:
   Common space Furniture/equipment – $2.5K – $8k
   Building signage $3-5k
   Supplies $500

3. MONTHLY COSTS

   Leasing: Aprox $6,100
   Rent $2500+ Janitorial $$200
   Internet $250+ Pest control $100
   Phone $200 Copier lease $300+
   Coffee $50+ Receptionist Payroll $2k
   Utilities $0-$500

4. QUALITATIVE CONSIDERATIONS

   Can I downsize quickly if my business takes a bad turn? Not if leasing
   Can I expand and contract quickly based on demand? Not if leasing
   Can I get additional meeting space when needed? Yes with shared space

5. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!!

   We’ve all heard it’s all about location. Leasing usually means “off the beaten path” side streets and strip malls whereas Executive Office Shared space such as Office Alternatives locations are at the right place at the right time. So ask yourself these questions when deciding:

   Can my budget afford me a prestigious building and great location?

    

   Would my clients think I’m doing well with a nicer facility?

   Do I (or my clients) have to pay parking? Yes would be a bummer!
   Do I care about image and appearing more established? Shared space appears larger and more established. It gives the appearance the entire Class A/B building is your business’ alone.

OTHER HIDDEN COSTS

Snow removal

Pest Control
Security monitoring
Business property insurance

OPEN OFFICES

1st come 1st served 2024 – We have just expanded so there are open offices! Stop by for a tour.