Member Article

The Importance of a Good office Location

Location, location, location… it doesn’t just apply to home real estate or flat renting. In fact, it is still quite important for your business to have a good location for office space as well. This is certainly true when it comes to having an office that customers and clients are going to be visiting in order to close deals and conduct business.

Before you start searching for your office location, there are going to be a few questions that you must ask yourself to determine exactly how important location is to you.

• Does your business rely heavily on customer traffic?
• Will it provide convenience to yourself and employees?
• Are there any tax implications?
• Does reputation matter?

Let’s take a look at these one by one to determine how the answers to each of these will play a role in seeing just how important location is for you.

Customer Traffic

Now, some businesses might never have a client set a foot in the door ever, and others could have a steady stream, so certainly location plays a role in that. If your business is rarely, if ever, going to see a customer, then location might not play as a big of a factor.

However, for firms such as accountants, public relations or marketing, it is likely that there will be clients coming in the office quite often.

Thus, location does matter in this case. You will need to determine if being accessible via public transport is important, or if the office should be close to any major motorways.

Convenience

This goes somewhat hand in hand with the concept of traffic. You and your employees will have different needs than your clients depending on your business model. Perhaps you will need a place that has parking, or room for lorries to load and unload inventory. If that is the case, then being in a hot downtown spot just might not be the best idea because the parking situation could quickly become a nightmare.

Tied into this is also understanding your facility requirements. As mentioned above, if you are going to require storage space, or a quite large office floor plan, then your needs will be different than those who are willing to fit their two employees into 100 square metres.

Tax Implications

With central locations also come higher taxes. Being in the most trendy and desirable neighbourhood of London will have a different taxing structure than somewhere in the country. While you might end up saving some funds when it comes time to paying the tax man, consider if you are giving up anything that could affect potential traffic by being in a higher taxed, but more desirable location.

Reputation

Let’s face it, sometimes the address does matter. And for those firms that are looking for a certain amount of prestige to work with their company, then having that all important high class address is necessary. While this can certainly bring in some additional clients, be prepared to pay for the privilege of listing certain addresses on company letterhead.

As you can see location does matter and it will certainly have implications for specific businesses that are looking to bring in specific clients. If you are in the position to open a new office or move from an old space; keep the above considerations in mind when searching for new office space.

This article has been provided by Official Space, one of the UK’s premiere office space websites, allowing visitors to view available office spaces all over the UK including space in Manchester, London and Edinburgh office space. To find the perfect office for your business, please consult their website.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jake Hall .