Which Office Option to Select?

Which Office option is best for you? When setting up a new Office one has several options to choose from, ranging from moving into a rented office, owning an office, taking space in a Business Centre, sharing space with a friend or taking up a virtual office.

Here is a quick checklist of things to look for:

Size of your Business:-

Growth Plan of your Business:-

• If the team size is more than 15 and not likely to change over a long period of time (say 2 to 3 years) it makes sense to take an office on rent. If the time horizon for the stable team is longer it makes sense to take a bare shell office and furnish it. If the time horizon is even longer (7 years plus) and funds are available, it makes sense to purchase the office.
• For companies in the growth mode or start up mode it makes a lot of sense to take space in a Business Centre. Locking up capital on items which depreciate a lot like furniture and equipment when you know that in the future you may or may not need these items is not wise. Taking space in a Business Centre saves a lot of these up front costs as well as protects your capital. Plus if the Business Centre Provides good office support and reception services one can get going much faster. Some business centres like Golden Square, have very flexible contracts making it easy to take on more space as the team grows or reduce space when required.

Nature of your Business:-

• Does your team need to interact closely on an hour to hour basis? If so you need a dedicated office space where all the team members need to work from. If not you could actually consider having a virtual office in a Business Centre and use meeting rooms or conference rooms for team meetings.
• Does your customer have to visit your office often? Is it important that the office makes the right impression on him? This might vary depending on the nature of your business, for instance if you are a builder and your customer has to invest his life savings in a project you are coming up with it makes sense to have a plush office which looks permanent and impressive. For a lot of other businesses what matters is an efficient and neat office.
• What kind of office space makes your team more productive? Look at the atmosphere and the culture of the office space or business centre. What is the focus on? Will your team feel comfortable, are they well taken care of? Will they be getting the proper support so that they can be more productive?

Intangibles to consider while evaluating between Rented office Vs. Business Centre

• Energy and Time spent on non core activities like office facilities.
• Time spent in training staff related to office facilities.
• Time spent in fighting facilities related hassles, phone not working, A/ C not working etc.
• Network Support, Some Business Centres including Golden Square actively connect customers to good quality vendors as well as to customers.

To sum up, look at the total cost and needs of your business before coming to a conclusion on which office option suits your business. Use a spreadsheet to capture all costs, add some value to intangible benefits and then come to your own conclusions.