Naturally, running a startup and attempting to steer it towards sustained profitability entails being careful about money; you have probably grown accustomed to the ‘bootstrapping’ life. However, for various reasons, it would be risky to completely forgo renting an office for your business.
While there are many different options for office space, which of them you choose and when very much depends on where you anticipate your fledgeling firm going in the years ahead.
Should you simply work from home?
It makes economic sense; after all, most start-ups are formed in home offices, as Tech.co attests. However, for all of the initially apparent cost advantages of this route, they might not make up for certain drawbacks of home office life – or at least, not in the long term.
For example, with family or roommates close by, you could easily become distracted, while your home might not strike clients as the most professional place for them to meet face to face with you.
How a virtual office offers ‘ad hoc’ space
If financial concerns are preventing you from shifting your business operations out of your home for now, you might worry about the lingering impact this could have on the professionalism of your firm’s image. Fortunately, though, renting a virtual office could help you to relieve that worry.
With a virtual office, you could get a commercial office address from a workspace provider like BE Offices, and then book an office or room for meetings as and when you need it.
Expecting meteoric growth? Consider a co-working space
For your business, there could be a big question mark over exactly how large a workspace you should hire. After all, if you have a lot of faith in your company, you might expect it to grow quickly. It would be theoretically sensible, then, to rent an office large enough for your firm to ‘grow into’.
However, in an article for Hacker Noon, Heidi Zak, co-founder of underwear company ThirdLove, warns that “choosing a large space early on is usually a waste of money.” Even if you’re financially flourishing, she says “there’s always portions of your business that could use the cash”.
Hence, it can pay to hold off a move until you have maxed out the capabilities of your current premises. Once you have, you could look into getting a co-working space, where your start-up can enjoy the benefits of a professional working environment that other businesses use.
You just never know whether any of the other businesspeople you come across in that space could become your next big investor or client; there are many exciting possibilities!
When to give your company its own office space
As advised in an American Express article, getting a dedicated office space for your company could be a good idea once your staff numbers have reached 10 or more people. You could consider a serviced office; look for financially appealing deals, like free provision of local and national telephone calls. Such savings can appreciably add up over time.