If you’re setting up a company, then is it better to do it at home, or should you find a flexible turnkey office solution like a serviced office? Will the serviced office offer convenience? Won’t working from home save more money?
Below we’ll look at each option and see how they compare. There must be a way to determine which one is really best.
Serviced Office – Gives a Professional Sheen to a Company
When you’re a small business trying to win that all-important first client, then first impressions are everything. If the client sees that you operate from a residential address and your main telephone line is a personal mobile phone, it can be a little off-putting.
On the other hand, seeing that you have an office in a prestigious downtown location — as many serviced office facilities are — with a dedicated business line always answered whether you’re there or not, gives you a veneer of respectability and success. It could just be the thing that pushes that new client to give you a call and set up the pitch you badly need!
Working from Home – Cuts Way Back on Overheads
When your home is the office, investment in your workspace can be absolutely minimal. Outside of a little furniture, a computer and some office paraphernalia like file storage and whatnot, what else is there to pay for? That leaves you with more money to use on your core products and services.
A lot of startups fall into financial traps by renting and fitting out a dedicated office space. Tying up so much capital in a place to work seems crazy when you have limited resources. That’s the beauty of starting from home, where you can minimise the risk while you build up the resources to perhaps rent an office space later.
Serviced Office – Makes Meeting and Collaborating Easier
Assuming you’re not a one-man-band in your startup operation, then working from home can get awkward. Bringing your coworkers together at your place can get crowded, plus it brings more people into your personal space, something that might be uncomfortable if you don’t know your collaborators so well. Not all businesses are started by best friends who’ve known each other for years.
If you have an office space sorted out, then meeting up to discuss work matters is much easier, and much less awkward. No one has to feel like they’re invading anyone’s space, and no one has to feel as though they’re a “guest” in their workspace. A serviced office puts you and your partners on more equal footing. It’s better for meeting with prospective customers, too!
Working from Home – Makes Work-Family Balance Easier
Starting a new business can really take up a huge amount of time. If you’re doing that in an office, then it means you’ll likely be away from home a lot. If you want to maintain any kind of work-life and work-family balance, then making home your headquarters is the easiest way to do that. All you have to do is close off the home office door and you’re back at home. What’s more, you can have lunch at home, see your kids when they get home from school, etc. Who doesn’t want that?
Verdict: On Balance, the Serviced Office Has More to Offer
It’s clear that we can’t say definitively that a serviced office is for everyone. If you’re working as a sole trader or one-man-band freelancer, it’s possible the scale would tip more in favour of working from home. However, if you’re working on building a company and a brand, then you need a real and professional base, and that’s the edge that the serviced office has.
