Just over a year ago, the Green Garage branched out from coworking and began to offer Detroit virtual office service for the first time. This service provides business owners with a mailing address at our building—and, if needed, a registered office address and Michigan resident agent service, too.
In our first year, the response has been robust. We’ve helped more than 90 diverse clients establish virtual offices at our headquarters in Midtown Detroit—and that number is growing by the week! This reflects broader national trends. Virtual offices are becoming increasingly popular as more and more entrepreneurs recognize the value of separating their business address from their home address—and of establishing their businesses at a reputable hub like the Green Garage.
But we have 15 years of experience supporting our coworking community—the businesses who physically work out of the Green Garage. That experience has taught us that entrepreneurs need more than a business address to succeed. That’s why we structured our virtual office memberships to include à la carte access to in-person services, too, including coworking day passes and access to our conference rooms. It’s also why we’re happy to welcome our virtual office clients for community-building events here at our Midtown HQ.
Built to insipre
Many of our virtual office clients have day jobs, work from home, or do the kind of work that doesn’t require a dedicated space. But when a deadline is looming, or they just need a day or two to get some focused work done, they know they can call us. They can reserve a spot in our centrally-located coworking space in Midtown. We designed it not only to promote productivity, but to inspire great work.
Originally built in 1921 as an early automobile showroom, we rehabilitated it between 2008-11. We focused on reducing the environmental footprint of the building and creating a warm, welcoming professional environment. With an abundance of natural light, soaring barrel vault architecture, and emphasis on historic, reclaimed materials, the Green Garage is a one-of-a-kind workspace. In the memorable words of one of our members, it “encourages hard work and determination…and inspires me to improve every day.” Virtual office clients are welcome to purchase day passes to our open shared table area for $20/day, or to rent their own dedicated desk for $40/day. Either way, you also have access to various shared spaces, including our kitchen, dining area, open-air three season room, and cozy upstairs loft.
Spaces to connect
We believe that long-term relationships are the backbone of small business success. Nowadays, of course, meetings can take place anywhere, but there’s nothing like a purpose-built meeting room to strengthen a relationship with a potential client, coworker, or partner. Here at the Green Garage, we have five comfortable, state-of-the-art meeting rooms that we’re happy to make available to our virtual office clients as needed. Four of them seat between 2-4 people. One larger room 10-12.
The four smaller rooms are great for both in-person meetings and video conferencing. They include custom tables, comfortable task chairs, sound dampening felt walls for privacy, and floating whiteboards for design and planning work. They also support seamless plug and play video conferencing through large monitors and media bars, which include built-in speakers, mic, and wide angle camera. Virtual office clients can rent any of those four rooms for just $15/hr.
The 10-person Main Conference Room is also outfitted with felt walls, a custom table, and comfortable task chairs. It features four large windows to let in natural light, as well as a built-in projector and whiteboard. The whiteboard can be used as a traditional dry erase board or a virtual whiteboard, to digitally mark up and save images, documents, and presentations. For hybrid meetings with both in-person and video participants, you’re welcome to borrow our Meeting Owl. This portable video conferencing tool has a 360 degree camera that allows you to seamlessly blend in-person and remote guests. The Main Conference Room is available to virtual office clients for $30/hr.
Build your community with us
By design, the Green Garage is more than a building—it’s a community. We were founded not only as a place where business owners work side by side, but where they get to know one another, build friendships, and find opportunities to work together. To that end, we host regular events that provide priceless opportunities for members of our coworking and virtual office communities to make in-person connections.
The first is our longstanding community lunch, which we host on the first and third Friday of each month. Guests enjoy a light lunch from our sister business, Seasons Market & Cafe, while connecting with others and learning about some good work going on in the city. Each lunch typically features a short talk given by a member of the Green Garage community. Recent speakers include Nick Leonard of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and John Szarafinski, a local beekeeper.
Beyond community lunch, which is open to the public, we also host events just for our members. These include technology learning opportunities, where we look at particular tech tools. Recent conversations have focused on AI resources available to small businesses, like Otter.ai for notetaking. Our member events also include happy hours, where the only items on the agenda are to enjoy each other’s company, have some good food and drink, and have some fun. (Some recent happy hours have included a talent show, a book swap, and a World Cup watch party.) Virtual office members are invited to join us for any of these events to connect with each other and the fifty or so members of our coworking community.
Securing a virtual office is an important step on the entrepreneurial path. It helps protect your privacy, gives your business credibility, and turns over the handling of your important business mail to a dedicated, professional service provider.
But when you’re growing a small business, there’s no substitute for the benefits that come from face-to-face connection. If you’re deciding on a Detroit virtual office, be sure to find out which in-person services, resources, and amenities are included or available. If you’re ready to learn more about signing up for a virtual office here at the Green Garage, we’d love to hear from you! Just click the contact form below and we’ll be in touch.