If you are a freelancer or run your own small business, working out of your home may make perfect sense, at least at first. Renting an office can be hugely expensive, and most rental agents usually will require you to sign a long-term lease.
You also will have to purchase furniture and equipment and pay utilities. That’s all while still trying to keep up with your business in the first place.
If you’re not absolutely sure what your business is going to look like a year or two from now, a better option may be to use a serviced office.
What is a Serviced Office?
A serviced office is basically a space that you rent only as you need it. They typically have all the amenities you need to do your work, as well as other benefits. The downside is the that their average daily rental cost tends to be higher than you would pay if you were to sign a long-term lease to rent office space.
Serviced offices provide flexibility because they can be rented with short-term lease agreements. Most businesses that rent serviced offices will provide the space you need on a daily, weekly or month-to-month basis. Typically, you pay at the end of each month only for those facilities that you have used.
Since the contract length is so short, rental prices are often higher. But the contracts often come with a lot more services and facilities than you would find in your home while freeing you from having to be tied down to a long-term lease should your business change.
Pay to Play Facilities
One analogy to a serviced office would be renting a hotel room versus renting an apartment. A hotel is perfect when you are staying only for a night or two – or a week or two. You don’t have to deal with the hassle of a monthly lease. But for that convenience, you are going to pay a higher average daily rate.
With a serviced office space, you only pay for what. So in addition to the physical space, you usually also will have access to other services and facilities, such as copiers, meeting rooms and, in some cases, even secretarial and research staff.
For example, if you need to meet with a client, with a serviced office you usually can rent a conference room on a per-hour basis.
Find Where Your Business Does Best
Another benefit of using a serviced office is that it lets you try out different geographic locations with your office so you can find the one that works best for your business. Serviced offices let you test many different markets and locations without any significant long-term investment.
So if you are expanding the size or scope of your company and aren’t sure which city to target next, you can test multiple locations with minimal risk. Then all you have to do is base your final decision on the real world results you get at each location.
Saves on Downtime Costs
The flow of business can be substantially hampered by the downtime required to move offices. But service offices are already set up and ready to go. You can have immediate access to everything you need from the first moment you arrive, from communication systems to office equipment.
So you don’t have to worry about being offline while you are waiting for office equipment to be delivered or for the phones to be turned on, for example.
Top Quality Equipment and Services
When you sign a long-term lease with a landlord for office space, you are tied into that space for the duration of your agreement. Once the landlord gets your signature on that document, there’s little motivation for him or her to upgrade or even make necessary repairs to the facility should something break down. They are guaranteed to get paid anyway.
But the people who run serviced offices are competing to find new clients all the time. So they will make more effort to maintain their facilities so they are always in optimal working order. They also will hire professional staff and keep them productive and on the ball at all times so that the customers are always happy.
No Maintenance Costs
Let’s face it: One of the best things about staying in a hotel is that you don’t have to make your own bed in the morning. The same concept holds true for serviced offices as well.
In a serviced office, the cost of maintenance and cleaning is included in the rental price. So you don’t have to spend more money on overhead such as utility costs, cleaning crews, facility upkeep or equipment repairs. If the copier machine breaks down, for example, all you have to do is contact the serviced office manager and a new one will be delivered or the repair man dispatched instantly. And it doesn’t cost you a penny more.
If you’ve outgrown your home office but aren’t quite ready to sign a long-term lease for office space, a serviced office could be exactly the solution you need.
Image courtesy of gameanna/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Author Bio – This guest post has been written by Ben Jones on behalf of Servcorp. World’s best serviced office and virtual office provider.