August 15 - When Jim Chaves launched Businessgems.com, a high-tech consulting startup, he chose Denver as the headquarters. It made sense. The Mile-High City, he said, had become a "technology place.'' Four months later, Chaves takes phone calls and receives mail through Businessgems.com's headquarters at 600 17th St., Suite 2800 South. Visitors to the company's Web site learn that the company is based here. But there's a twist: Chaves lives in Toronto, and his company has no employees in Denver. He has commissioned Your Office USA in Denver - a company that rents out office space and provides small businesses with a corporate image - to take voice-mail messages, receive faxes and mail, and transfer calls to him in Canada. "I was looking for a presence in the Denver area,'' Chaves said. "We operate from the facilities that they offer at Your Office USA . The location is absolutely perfect.'' Chaves said he wanted to avoid making the large investment required to set up a new office in Denver, at least for now. Instead, he rents the services Your Office provides from its 17th Street office. "It's cost-effective,'' he said.

Thanks to sophisticated technology and a growing cadre of companies like Your Office , physical presence is no longer required of foreign companies eying the U.S. market. With a monthly investment of less than $200, a startup company based just about anywhere can have the bare essentials of a branch office in Denver: a Mile High City mailing address and phone number, fax, voice mail, e-mail, even a Web site. "It provides the image of being a larger company because it gives the image of a staff of people working for you,'' said Gary Hahnenkamp, president of Your Office USA in Denver, which runs virtual branches for 36 companies. "These people are betting their business future on that image.'' Hahnenkamp also rents out real offices to small businesses, but he has room for only 34 offices. With his high-tech answering system, the capacity for virtual offices is practically unlimited. He's hoping to oversee at least 100 virtual office clients within a year.

Virtual offices are typically used by home-based businesses that need a professional image, such as lawyers who run their own practices. The growth of YourOffice is an example of the growing popularity of virtual offices. The company's franchiser, which started in Germany in 1989 and now has 120 locations worldwide, opened all of its 10 United States locations within the past year. Small business have looked to answering services and office space rental to fulfill their professional needs for years, but Hahnenkamp says his company's technological capabilities allow him to attract customers such as foreign companies hoping to establish a presence in the United States.

At Your Office, receptionists serve as virtual clerks. When the phone rings, a prompt pops up on a computer screen with the name of the company being called, the appropriate greeting for that company and contact information. A receptionist reads the greeting and then transfers the call to the phone number listed, which can be anywhere in the world. Your Office also will send e-mail messages with voice mails attached as audio files so its foreign clients can check their voice mail without paying hefty international calling fees. The company will even edit its clients' correspondence to make sure it's properly "Americanized.'' "It's really a different niche that we're chasing, and we're chasing it with technology,'' Hahnenkamp said. "These people are just starting business here; this makes it easier for them.''

Though it may seem deceptive for a small company in another country to create the image of an established branch office in Denver, Hahnenkamp of Your Office USA says they're simply using the resources that are available. "Technology is a big equalizer: It's not just that these companies can portray the image of a big company, but they can actually deliver the services,'' Hahnenkamp said. "With the Internet, e-mail and low-priced software with big capabilities, the small companies can now perform just like the big ones,'' he said. And according to Hahnenkamp, his international clients don't keep it a secret that they're overseas based businesses and may be calling from another country, a fact that is difficult to hide with time differences and the businessmen's foreign accents.

For Michael Fuerst, export manager for a German toy maker, Your Office USA sends out sales literature and toy samples to potential customers from its Denver address. Fuerst's company - Bartl GmbH in Germany, and Wooden Ideas here - hopes to eventually develop a larger presence here, but for now, a "virtual branch office'' does the trick. "I rented this office because I needed something for a first beginning, so the American customers see that we are present in the United States,'' said Fuerst, who has never visited Colorado. "It's like me being in Denver.''

For Zahid Imran, the virtual office concept adds legitimacy to his company, which breeds ostriches in Pakistan and exports the meat and by-products such as feathers and decorative egg shells. Imran says the ostrich market in the United States is good, and he's hoping to introduce his products in Denver. With a virtual office, he said, "even though we are a very small company, we can do very well with less expense.''