The Importance Of The Correct Office Space

Your office space can have a direct and measurable impact on you and your team’s productivity, efficiency, and well-being, as well as your business's profit margins, material costs and overheads. Additionally, your office space sends a message to clients, customers, potential partners, and employees about your ethos, values, and priorities. It is the physical embodiment of your company that talks before you do.

That’s why a working environment optimised to meet your needs, business requirements, budget and working style can make all the difference. However, with 283 million square feet of office space in London alone, how do you ensure that you choose the correct one for you and your team?

Types Of Office Spaces

Office spaces vary in size, shape and purpose, from the traditional to the most flexible. Each offers a unique package of facilities, services, perks and prices that must be considered before closing. With many businesses moving away from conventional offices post-lockdown, favouring the increasingly popular remote and hybrid models, deciding between them can take more work, particularly when competing with large-scale businesses trading expensive overheads for flexible office options. To choose wisely for your business, you need to understand each office’s pros and cons and whether they meet your and your team's requirements.

Co-working Office Spaces

Co-working office spaces are the most flexible option; choose between low-cost day passes and affordable rolling monthly memberships that fit your budget and time commitment. Typically, this office space is best suited to remote workers, freelancers and small businesses of between one to four employees who can’t tie themselves to costly overheads and a set work week.

These office spaces can be identified by their open floor plan consisting of hot desks, fixed desks and break-out spaces that prioritise collaboration and communication. Facilities, services and tools are communal and provide basic amenities like a desk, Wi-Fi, printers and refreshments. They’re a neutral ground ideal for networking and meeting people from various industries. Sometimes they are part of a larger serviced office, which has private suites and spaces available.

Serviced Offices

Serviced offices are the next step up in formality; the leases for these workspaces are longer-term and more expensive, ranging from three to 24 months, and tend to be larger in size, offering more value for money with their high-quality facilities.

These offices can accommodate anywhere between one to 200 people in their fully furnished, private office suites. Popular with small businesses and start-ups, there is likely a co-working space somewhere in the building.

Most of it will comprise more formal meeting rooms with integrated phone lines and providers already in place. There will likely be a receptionist to greet you and a team of maintenance staff, as well. Facilities might include complimentary tea and coffee-making, stocked kitchens, plush lounges, storage, showers, and downtime spaces. Some feature gyms and on-site cafes, too. They are modern and stylish, effortlessly blending casual and professional spaces that reflect an up-to-date business reputation.

Managed Offices

Managed office spaces are private, and customisable business suites rented entirely by one company. These spaces are the preferred option for small companies and start-ups whose size range from 25 to 500 employees. The low-risk licence contracts you’d sign would last between two to five years and come with some basic features for the increased price.

As part of the price you pay, you’ll find that IT and maintenance services and utilities are all included in your rent. These self-contained spaces are a blank canvas, with some basic structure created by the fitted furniture; you’re free to customise rooms to reflect your brand changing everything from light fixtures to wall paint. On-site private facilities might include break-out rooms, too, and a staff kitchen for your employees.

Plug & Play

Managed offices and Plug and Place workspaces are similar; they’re fully fitted offices with some freedom to customise the space, with two significant differences:

● Services are only sometimes included, so general maintenance, cleaning and receptionists fall to you.

● Typically it is a lease of three to five years.

Some describe them as halfway between serviced and conventional offices, offering a hybrid option to business owners. There are zero set-up costs, they’re economical and come complete with facilities such as desks, meeting and conference rooms, toilets, Wi-Fi, storage space, private kitchens, vending machines and up-to-date technology.

Conventional Offices

Conventional office spaces are the most traditional and well-recognised office spaces. They’re rented directly from the landlord, typically by much larger corporate firms and have tenant agreements lasting for five to 10 years.

These spaces are expensive, private and fully customisable from the sign outside to the foyer to the office. All management, maintenance, utilities and telecom bills fall to you, creating significant overheads for your business. Your brand identity can appear throughout the building and provide scope for large-scale installation of industry-specific equipment. It is the most formal office space possible, incurring expensive set-up costs and requiring lengthy rental agreement discussions.

Why Choose Flexible Office Space

Flexible office space has four critical advantages, perfect for small businesses and new start-ups.

Flexible Leases

Their short-term rolling monthly or annual lease contracts are easily paused, stopped and cancelled, allowing you to adapt to the needs of your business. Whether that’s a reduced budget, staffing increase or the need for a particular facility, this is a considerable advantage for any business, particularly in times of such economic uncertainty.

Size Agility

Flexible office spaces come in all shapes and sizes, capable of catering to the impact of customer and market expectations on your business. Their short-term flexible leases allow your business to grow, shrink and diversify without incurring surprise costs.

Reduced set-up costs

A flex office space is usually fully fitted with telecoms, furniture and furnishings. There is little to no room to adapt or make significant changes in line with your brand, but it does speed up the moving-in process and considerably lowers set-up costs!

Enhanced services and facilities

Often found in highly sought after locations, with a vast range of facilities, amenities and fully-serviced spaces on offer, businesses enjoy the benefit of having everything at their fingertips for a small extra cost, without having to worry about managing or paying for any of it.

Finding The Perfect Office Has Never Been Easier With Spacepool

Spacepool has everything you need to short-list, view, and secure the perfect space such as our variety of office space in London for you and your company. Our process is centralised, secure and stress-free, with direct lines to our list of high-quality office spaces and vetted hosts.

To find the perfect flexible office space, use our optimised filter to search based on location, workspace type, location, budget and facilities. We promise there are no persistent call agents to contend with, just a dedicated team whose mission is to help you grow and develop your business.

Time is money, and our efficient and streamlined service is free; start looking today to find flexible office spaces you and your team will love.