For years now, business start-ups and indeed growing businesses have often complained about the feeling of isolation in their office space. The traditional attitude amongst office space providers was that small businesses and start-ups simply need office space that was cheap.
What we are now finding is that entrepreneurs, freelancers and small business owners are wanting more than just ‘space’. We increasingly see that the feeling of being part of a ‘community’ now ranks as one of the top reasons for choosing a place to locate your business. My advice would be take the time to see different office space and make sure you spend time in the space to get a ‘feel’ for what it is like. Some of the questions to ask managers of the office space may include, how do you get businesses interacting? Are there any monthly events or weekly events that allow businesses to network, what support do you give your members?
Remember the price you pay for your workspace is important, just make sure that will be happy to spend most of your waking hours in the place.
As well as getting the right community feel, take time to find out whether your co working space provides and benefits or services to assist with your growth. We see more and more businesses demanding ‘services’ that can assist in their growth. These services may include funding advice, tax advice, help with setting up legal structures. One such office space that puts a big emphasis on services to its members is our worx (www.ourworx.com). Founder, Wayne Morris says, when I first started out in business, I was very much on my own. I did not have any contacts and pretty much everything I learned including finding the right accountant and legal services was done by trial and error. At Ourworx, we want to take the hassle out of finding the right contacts and help to set up and grow your business as well as giving our members beautiful spaces to work in. We therefore give every member access to our database of business support and contacts that will help your business grow.
So there you have it, don’t just go for cheap office space, find out what else your office space provider will do. Remember your business needs all the help it can get to reach its goals. Having access to services may mean you get there that little bit quicker.
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