When starting up a new business your mind will automatically start thinking about why type of office set up you will need to get your new enterprise off the ground. This can be a very easy choice for a solo-entrepreneur that plans to start off working from home in a spare bedroom, home office or even from their kitchen table. However, the time will hopefully come where they will need to make plans for some sort of office as their business grows and expands.For those who are planning to jump-start a small business or a partnership where you need to facilitate an office or a workspace to operate from then there is the option of choosing to rent a fully serviced office. This type of office space can save you a lot of time and money because you don't need to actually set up your own physical office space at all – you will simply be able to walk your staff right into a fully set-up and working office space as soon as you sign on the dotted line of your serviced office agreement.
What is a fully serviced office?
Serviced office spaces isn't exactly a new thing to the business world. Rented service office spaces started to pop up in the USA back in the 1960s. The providers most often offered serviced offices as a temporary solution for business owners that were planning to relocate their business to another area or larger premises and who needed an immediate stop-gap solution to keep their business ticking over while their move took place.In most cases back in the early days of serviced offices, the space was only ever used for the short-term so were pretty much overlooked by well-established businesses that had no plans to move premises. It is only in recent years with the rise in the numbers of entrepreneurs and lean business start-ups that the idea of the fully serviced office has really taken off. The idea soon spread to the UK, mostly during the late 90s and in fact, the UK alone has recently seen a 157% increase in serviced office take up.There are many benefits to choosing a fully serviced office set up when compared to setting up your own physical office from scratch. Let's take a look at some of the key advantages:
Greater flexibility
Probably the most beneficial element of working from a fully serviced office space is the flexibility that this can give to your business. Most serviced offices come with short-term contracts that you can choose to renew over again, should you need to. This is in stark contrast to setting up your own physical office space where you may have no other choice but to sign up for a lengthy fixed term contract that could see you tied up with for several years.Leasing your own physical office space is not only costly for your business and can seriously impact of your budget, but it can often leave you tied into a long-term lease that comes with financial penalties should you decide to break the contract early.There are many rapidly growing businesses that need to start off small and can only afford a small office to start with, but may find that within a couple of years they have quickly outgrown their existing space. The need to move to larger premises may be made more difficult if you have signed a five-year lease on your office space that comes with a hefty fee for severing it before it expires. Not many growing businesses can afford to hang around and wait for their lease to expire while working out of very cramped and unsuitable office conditions.The perfect solution here is to hire fully serviced registered office space that you can pick up quickly and operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. This means that you can get the right sized office space that you need when you start up but also have the in-built flexibility to expand your office and take on more office space as and when you need to.
Adapting your office space to suit your needs
Flexibility and adaptability are two very strong features of hiring a fully serviced office space. Say for example that you hire a space that is suitable for your needs, but then you land a large project that means you need to add some extra office space for a few months. This is where using a serviced office space can work to your advantage. You can simply take on the extra office space for the duration of your large project, and then scale back to your original sized space once the project is completed and delivered.For your business, this means that you can have office space that is right for your business at every stage of your journey. Being able to upscale or downsize your flexible office space and renew or extend your lease gives you the freedom operate more efficiently without wasting any precious resources or be left with uncomfortable office space that isn't suitable for your changing needs.
Relocating from a different country
Many businesses are global these days, so this often means a company will simply up-sticks and relocate their operation to any part of the world. A lot of international businesses decide to expand into a new country so under both scenarios a company will look at using serviced office space to help their transition into the new country. Many companies will use fully serviced offices to set up their UK branch and establish their brand here while their permanent business premises is being prepared.Many international businesses are now using serviced office space as a solution for testing out a new location before finally deciding whether or not to branch out and move or open their operations up in that country. This is a very flexible approach to their expansion plans and means they can successfully test the waters before committing to anything in the long term.
Cost-effective solution
When you sit down and actually factor in every expense and overhead that you will need to pay for when setting up your own office space from scratch, you can see that choosing serviced office space rental is a very worthwhile investment.Because absolutely everything is included in your fully-equipped and fully-furnished office space, it completely removes the headache of having to sort everything out by yourself. Everything you need is included in one monthly pay-as-you-go bill, including your IT infrastructure, building maintenance and cleaning, power and water utilities and sanitation facilities.
Alternatives to fully serviced offices
Having said all this, there is also another very flexible alternative to hiring a fully serviced office. This solution is actually ideal for those solo-entrepreneurs, sole traders and small partnerships that are setting up an online business or small creative business and may be happy to work from their home office, or choose to have a workshop or warehouse set up without the need for a physical office.This solution is also ideal for new start-ups who want to run a lean business infrastructure where they operate using the bare minimum of resources to keep costs down and enable them to divert the time consuming everyday tasks of running an office elsewhere to avoid distractions.We are talking here about using a complete virtual office set up that can be even more cost-effective and flexible than taking up a fully serviced office space.There has been an incredible rise in the numbers of people going self-employed in recent years with many thousands of people looking for home business ideas that they can successfully launch from the comfort of their own home, while at the same time outsourcing many essential office tasks to virtual service suppliers.One of the major benefits of using a virtual office service provider such as Capital Office in London is that you can literally start using your office services right away.With minimal set-up times involved, you can get your own virtual office operating quickly and functioning at maximum capacity. This will allow you to focus your attention towards more urgent and important tasks, such as your R&D projects or meeting with clients or prospective new business partners without the fear of interruptions coming from phone calls.There will be no need to worry or fret about the levels of your incoming business mail piling up in the corner of the room. We understand that most small business owners have little time or patience to dedicate to dealing with your business post. This is where our mail sorting services will prove invaluable to you. You will no longer need to think about your mail and there will be zero risks of you losing any important pieces of mail coming from your clients or your statutory mail coming from HMRC and Companies House that you cannot afford to lose or ignore.Why not give one of our friendly Capital Office team members a call on 0207 566 3939or email: office@capital-office.co.uk to discuss your virtual office needs. We are here to help!
