Partner Article

The Serviced Office: Short-Term Solution or Long-Term Strategy?

The advantages and benefits of renting a serviced office have long been understood by small companies and would-be entrepreneurs, but larger companies are now beginning to recognise that hiring an office to work out of has its advantages for them too.

Keeping Costs Down

The most important monthly expenditure in a business often is the cost of renting the space to conduct business in. Overheads are often significant and rent never cheap but lately the rise of the serviced office has started to give businesses more freedom to work as they choose.

SMEs and start-ups have long been aware of the advantages of renting serviced offices but the current economic climate has convinced larger companies of their value too. Whether it is locating a branch of their business in another office to relieve the pressure on their own premises or taking advantage of a different area, the serviced office is no longer just the preserve of the entrepreneur and small business.

One of the most important factors in hiring an office is the savings to be made on property. If you rent serviced offices you don’t have to spend money on buying new business premises and you can also avoid many of the overheads that come with them. There’s no need to pay maintenance costs and utilities, cleaning and insurance are usually paid for by the landlord.

Moving into a fully furnished and equipped office also means you can have your business up and running within an hour of walking through the door. Utilities are provided, as are office furniture, telecoms and internet access and there is usually a meeting room available for conferences on a pay-per-use basis and a kitchen or a cafe for breaks. There is also no need to employ extra personnel to work in reception or in administration, maintenance or security as they come as part of the serviced office package.

There are also offices that provide extra services for clients, to be paid for on a per-use basis, so that you can arrange a concierge, catering, screening rooms for projects and launches and chauffeur services to meet any business need.

Flexibility is vitally important in business and a serviced office offers a greater amount of freedom to either expand or reduce office space quickly when the need arises. There is no commitment to a traditional long-term lease lasting 10 or 15 years. Leases when hiring an office can be as short of three months and notice to leave is usually just a month.

There are, however, some disadvantages to working out of a serviced office. Because they are mostly located out-of-town business centres with a lot of other companies using similar offices, it is easy for visitors to tell it is a shared rented space. This really shouldn’t be a disadvantage in the current economic climate and is more an indication of knowing the realities of modern business, but it is sometimes seen as one.

If you’re renting for the long term it could prove more costly than running and equipping your own business premises, but as a solution for start-ups and short-term business strategies a serviced office can be ideal.

John Lee is a former chairman of an SME and has worked out of serviced offices regularly. Now a popular speaker at business community events, he writes for a number of blogs and websites about how small companies can benefit from new approaches to business.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harry Wilson .