Largest Coworking Companies
Serviced offices provide the space you need from an office with the hassle of getting it set up or having to find utilities. These offices are already fully equipped and furnished, letting you pay as you go instead of having to sign a long-term contract. There is no need to sign a long-term lease like you would with a traditional office or to waste time finding amenities; all of this is already done with a serviced office. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of a serviced office.
Those considering the type of space to use next will find a long list of benefits of a serviced office. There are plenty of reasons to choose this type of space and take advantage of the sharing economy.
As mentioned, one of the biggest benefits of a serviced office is the fact that you do not have to deal with a long-term lease. Most offices have a minimum of a one-year lease, if not three, five, or 10 years. This is a long-term commitment and doesn’t provide you room to grow or shrink. By contrast, a serviced office typically has a monthly agreement, so you can enjoy flexibility when it is needed.
In addition to the ability to end or change your office, the flexibility of a serviced office also makes it possible to test out different locations in the city. This is particularly useful if you frequently interact with clients and want to be in a convenient spot for them. Spend a few months in one location, then a few months in another, and compare how it goes.
Most companies only need certain amenities, such as a conference room, every once in a while. With a traditional office, you are stuck allocating the space and maintaining it, no matter how often you will use it. With a serviced office, by contrast, you can just book the space and pay a small fee for the times you need it, likely hourly.
When you set up a traditional office, you will need to take the time to buy desks, tables, bathroom supplies, printers, and other amenities, as well as to sign up for utilities. By contrast, a serviced office is already fully equipped and furnished, so you can just move in and get working, saving time and money.
Since you do not have to buy furniture and supplies or sign a long-term lease, there is much less overhead needed to use a serviced office than there would be to get your own office. This makes a professional, productive space more accessible, regardless of your company’s financial position.
Because of the lower overhead costs associated with serviced offices, even small businesses are able to enjoy the prestige associated with having a private, fully furnished office. In most cases, this simply would not be possible with a traditional office.
To further enhance that sense of prestige, serviced offices tend to have more modern resources that are well-maintained. This applies to teleconferencing equipment, printers, and more. This can improve your productivity and decrease downtime due to tech failures.
Serviced offices mean that you do not need to worry about hiring someone to take care of maintenance or allocating the time of one of your staff members to do so. Instead, the office takes care of it and factors it into your monthly rent/membership, saving you plenty of hassle.
Another area that the serviced office will automatically take care of is administrative staff, saving you yet another expense and sparing you the hassle of finding someone to take on this role. After all, serviced offices are already fully staffed.
Finally, consider that most serviced offices will have multiple tenants within their given buildings. This gives you plenty of built-in networking opportunities that can help accelerate your business, particularly in the case of a startup. Over the past few decades, commercial real estate has undergone significant changes. The global economic crisis, fast-paced technological development, job positions going online, a rise of the sharing economy all have a bearing on the approach to a workplace. In the era when sustainability goes hand in hand with agility, there is a viable and more flexible alternative to the traditional restrictive leases with long-term tie-ins.
Annually, more and more people are flocking into coworking spaces or prefer serviced offices over regular office spaces. Their main argument for choosing such workstations is flexibility and lack of a long-term commitment. However, there is a number of other benefits that a business gets by signing a lease with a serviced office operator.
So what exactly makes serviced offices so popular compared to the traditional leases?
1) Added flexibility is one of the key benefits of a serviced office. A company can sign a short-term lease agreement under which there is usually a 28- or a 30-day notice period.
There’s also a possibility to buy additional services such as reception services, meeting room or print facilities if and when required. Needless to say, a business can expand or contract its office space according to the scope of the workflow.
2) Ready for business. Moving into a serviced office is seamless and causes no downtime. You move into a fully kitted out office with all the communications systems in place and where not even little things require your attention.
3) No extra costs. While your monthly lease will be higher compared to the one in a traditional office, you won’t have to spend on such things as cleaning, maintenance, security, professional staff.
4) Efficiency. Such facilities as conference rooms and pantries are always at hand, but you can make use of them only when you need them. You only pay for the services you get.
5) Ideal option for test-marketing. If you are entering a new market, a serviced office may be a perfect choice for you. Surely, you don’t want to get in deep water with a 5-year lease to find out that your business idea did not gain traction!
6) Disaster recovery plan. No one is insured against business affairs going sour. A serviced office can be used as a place to survive the tough times.
7) Positive brand image. As your clients enter an impressive building in the downtown, they see a spacious lobby with a receptionist. When they are being escorted to a modern hi-tech conference room with the cutting-edge equipment, they are naturally impressed by the services offered. What they don’t realize is that you are only renting a 150-square-foot office with access to the valuable auxiliary services that you might need once in a while.
8) Less stress. You don’t have to stress over finding a good janitor, electrician if something breaks down, nor should you spend hours on end looking for a team of professional cleaners. All of these matters are taken care of by the space operator.
9) A possibility to rent a virtual office. Sometimes managed offices provide such services as a virtual address, mail handling and access to a meeting room for their tenants when those are in town.
10) Professional staff and cutting-edge equipment. These benefits of a serviced office are less apparent and come as an additional bonus. However, there’s no need for hiring/training personnel who would pick up the telephone, and speak two or more languages. Nor there is a need to invest into the latest office technology.
Service offices have taken root since their appearance in the 1980s and they continue to conquer office space landscape by quickly adapting to the needs of the modern companies. And if the trend continues, there is a possibility that traditional office leases will become a relic of the past.
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