Benefits of Working in a Serviced Office Space

Changes all around us, including economic factors, are compelling businesses to re-evaluate the way they do business and develop alternative approaches to work.

Over the past decade, serviced office space, broadly categorized into coworking spaces and business centers, are rapidly upsurging.

Unlike a traditional office, a serviced office does away with all the inconvenience of setting up and maintaining an office along with additional benefits of economic feasibility, networking opportunities, better workplace connectivity, latest technology, and a more ‘green’ workplace.

A recently published article by Business Times, aptly notes that “flexible working both meets the needs of employees and improves companies’ capacity to serve customers…and, in doing so, it secures competitive advantage.”

Today, about half a million people are working in coworking spaces globally. According to Deskmag’s most recent Global Coworking Survey (2015-16), the number of coworking spaces continues to increase and in the last year they have grown by 36%, which puts the number of business centres and  coworking spaces worldwide at around 7,800.

Here are the top reasons for the incessant popularity of the shared office spaces and why should you be using them too:

1) Serviced offices are cost effective.

In a business centre or a serviced office space, “Pay for Just What You Use” is the mantra, which certainly costs you much lesser than a traditional office space.

Apart from the physical space, services and facilities like printers, copiers, fax machine, etc. you can even get conference rooms on per hour basis for all those important meetings. Costs for anything other than what you use would not have to be incurred, thus helping you in managing your finances accordingly.

2) Flexible letting periods.

Contrary to popular beliefs, a business centre allows long term letting as well. There are no lock-in periods and in most cases, you can book your office space from any number of days to years, according to your requirements. Rather, should you wish to book an office space for a long period, you also gain from considerably lower rates.

Hence, you can negotiate for a better price like you would in a conventional lease, yet enjoy all the other benefits of working in a business centre.

3) Serviced office spaces are customizable.

Your office reflects your professional identity – for both customers and employees. A good business centre allows apposite alterations and allows you to personalise your space. You’re allowed to choose and change the interiors to suit your personal taste and your brand identity.

4) No hidden costs.

All renowned business centres bring transparency to the table from the start. Given all your costs become variable in a serviced office, it allows you better control over your total office spend. Further, with increasing use of technology, serviced office providers are also offering support services in the form of online wallets, dashboards and CRM tools to keep a close watch over your office expenses.

Most importantly, the very business model of business centres helps users to know their office expenses before they incur them, allowing better budgeting and cost control.

5) Adjustable working hours.

One of the most fundamental benefits of working in a serviced office is the flexibility it offers in terms of office access. Although during non-office hours the support services may be limited, but for the most part, users have complete flexibility in choosing their working hours.

6) Used by startups and MNCs

Serviced offices cater to a wide spectrum of businesses and organizations, from a multinational company or a governmental organization to a startup or a freelancer. While startups and freelancers benefit from the flexible and cost-effective solution that the serviced offices provide, the big firms are able to do away with the hassles of running and maintaining an office.

A serviced office can be an archetypal solution if your business requires you (and your team) to travel places. For any organization foraying into new markets too, serviced offices can help test the waters before making big investment leaps.