Graduating from serviced offices
The vast majority of our new customers find that, as they grow, their general purpose serviced office has become restrictive, frustrating and unjustifiably expensive.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide to explain what you can expect when your business graduates from serviced offices to renting directly from a landlord.
Your business is growing
It’s been tough economic times, but thanks to your vision and leadership, your small business is growing.
I’m prepared to bet that staying above financial water has been your biggest concern during your early years, and now that you’re growing, you need to invest in employees, tools, technology and acquiring new business while keeping overheads as low as possible.
Your office is certainly a key bit of infrastructure. The workspace affects your staff’s productivity, your company’s personality and your client’s perception of you, not to mention the important operating stuff like Wi-Fi, kitchens and meeting space.
But here’s a question for you: do you ever think of how much money you’re spending on your serviced office and what you get in return for that expenditure?
The costs of using a serviced office
The main appeal of using a serviced office is the flexible tenancy terms. When you’re a small business with finite capital, it’s not always advantageous to commit to a longer-term tenancy.
But once you’re up and running, you quickly find that serviced offices come with a few disadvantages.
Wasted money on unrequired facilities
Businesses in serviced offices often find themselves paying for facilities and services they don’t use. It’s unusual to find a serviced office where you can opt out of facilities you won’t need, only paying for what you actually require.
Lack of control over your environment
You have very little control in terms of décor or facilities. For example, you can’t display your logo prominently on the exterior of the building. Sometimes you can’t even choose your own furniture. This isn’t great for fostering your company’s brand.
They restrict your ability to grow – physically
When successful small businesses start to grow, they take on increasing numbers of staff and require more office space. Pretty simple. Unfortunately, most serviced offices come in one size – big or small – unless you’re lucky enough to have an empty office right next to yours.
It just doesn’t feel like home
Attracting top talent and retaining it, along with growing the people you’ve already hired, is vital to a growing business. Your staff will be asking themselves whether yours is a company with a future they can get behind, so what sort of message does a temporary office send to them?
The benefits of renting directly with a landlord
Apart from the security and permanence it provides for your company, renting directly with a landlord gives you one standout benefit: flexibility. In other words, room to grow.
You can personalise the space and, perhaps more importantly, the bill. You’ll have the ability to brand your office, to select the furniture, facilities and fittings that suit you, and you’ll only pay for what you really need.
Pearl & Coutts supports growing businesses, so here’s a few ways we help our clients by providing flexible business space:
Total control over your overheads
Renting directly from a landlord ensures you have far greater and more detailed control of your overheads. Serviced offices simply can’t allow for providing you that much control – otherwise there wouldn’t be much point to them, they wouldn’t be ‘serviced’ anymore.
It’s your space – a blank canvas
If you’re a business owner looking to move into the next phase of growth, you’ve already learned a lot about how your company works, what qualities you want to cultivate in your staff and what kind of personality you want your company to put forward. Having a headquarters that’s totally bespoke to your requirements is where a specialist commercial property landlord can come in very useful indeed.
Caters for special requirements and niche markets
If you’re in a niche market like digital or tech, you probably have some special requirements for your business premises. That can include certain internet needs, space for tools, fittings for flat-screens, or even a ‘thinking zone’. Serviced offices are general purpose by definition, they’re catch-all solutions that don’t cater for special requirements. Commercial landlords do.
The landlord wants to keep you happy
Okay, we’re pulling back the curtain a bit here. Serviced office companies can afford to follow a static ‘rinse-and-repeat’ model because demand for them is consistently high – there are always new micro-businesses looking for the cheapest solution. A commercial property landlord (like us!), on the other hand, cares more about keeping your business. They will actively support you throughout your growth, working with you to keep the terms of the lease flexible and the service top-notch.
Pearl & Coutts are here to help
Shameless plug time! Helping your business prosper is good business for all concerned – it’s a virtuous cycle. We offer all sizes of office, so we can help support your company as it grows and migrates from small to medium to large offices. Not only can we offer you more unique spaces to suit your company’s personality, but we can provide flexible premises that can be customised to whatever you require.
