The Benefits of Video Conferencing When Starting a New Company

A major cost of starting up or expanding a business isbudgets and effective working time as well as
the price of organising and attending meetings withdamaging to the environment."
clients and colleges. What's more, the vast amount ofWhat is perplexing is why it took a volcanic eruption to
travel involved in attending these events, especiallyprompt companies to take up video conferencing as
those held abroad, makes it hard for companies toan alternative to physical meetings. Eliminating the
meet growing demands to minimise their negativecosts of travel and accommodation, as well as the
impact on the environment. Nevertheless, holdingneed to spend time away from work, video
effective meetings is an essential part of running anyconferencing has already been used by savvy
successful business; as the Icelandic volcanic cloudbusinesses for years. For the price of a webcam and
proved when it grounded all flights, companies cana decent internet connection, both new and established
grind to a halt when these conferences becomecompanies can hold daily conferences with clients and
impossible.customers all across the world, without having to
Effective conferences and meetings are expensive,stretch their budget to pay for air fares and hotels.
time consuming and damaging to the environment, yetWhere establishing a client basis used to be a long and
they are essential for successful business and, in thearduous process that consumed the majority of the
greater scheme of things, the economy. As a newfirst few years of income, it can now be as simple as
business with a relatively unstable or irregular turnover,a series of emails and a brief video call from the
finding the time and money to invest in these events isoffice.
a challenge that is not easily overcome. Whether it'sIn these days of economic recession and budget cuts,
the financial cost of finding travel, accommodation andevery company should be making efforts to reduce
food for employees sent to conferences, or thetheir overheads as much as possible. With travel costs
under-staffing caused by having people away frombeing a large part of many companies' outgoings,
the office for days on end, the overall impact ofreplacing physical meetings with video conferences is
attending a conference can be devastating for a newas obvious and effective a means of saving money
company struggling to balance the books.as a company could hope to find. Moreover, new
However, in the modern age of technology, this doesn'tcompanies starting out in these tough times need to
have to be the case. When the volcanic cloud madeensure they keep start-up costs to an absolute
gathering for conferences impossible, business acrossminimum, to reduce the amount of money they need
the UK dealt with the problem by turning to whatto persuade the banks to lend them. By slashing the
should have been an obvious alternative from thefunds required to establish and maintain client relations,
beginning - video conferencing. While the ash cloudnew companies will now only save money when they
grounded all flights, one served office provider saw asget started, they will also guarantee their business
much as a 230% increase in the number of companiesproposal is more likely to be accepted in the first place!
using video conferencing technology to communicateThe volcanic cloud helped business in the UK discover
with clients and colleges! A spokesperson for thethe benefits of video conferencing. Hopefully now they
company said of the incident that it had been "awill keep at it, to improve their chances of weathering
wakeup call for businesses on their dependence on airthe economic storm that lies ahead.
travel, which let us not forget is costly on both tight