Written by The Brew – an official Blu Sky partner.
A successful business needs to constantly challenge its income vs expenditure. Any escalating costs should be identified and questioned as quickly as possible. Should printing really be that high? Why do energy companies charge such an extortionate amount? Do staff really need that many “business lunches”?
Many costs are difficult to control, especially when relying on employees to initiate shrewd and responsible budgeting. This is particularly prevalent when there are clear and ambitious expansion plans which could involve larger offices and larger operating costs.
Fortunately, there is an appealing option which provides a quick win for reducing expenditure and therefore increasing profit margin…… move to a co-working office which offers strong value-for-money and excellent service.
There are a number of ways this can help your bottom-line and strengthen long-term business objectives. Here are our top five financial challenges and how they are tackled by moving to the right shared office space.
Rising rent costs
Location location location! Whether you are spending money on a residential property, an investment or a business, location could make or break its success. Even if you have an online business, many customers will want to know where you operate from and will develop a perception of your business as a result. This is why so many ambitious companies come to London, and why so many are keen to grow in the vibrant area of Shoreditch.
But as the area becomes increasingly popular, the rental costs increase. So, it’s important to find hidden gems that buck the rising rent trend. The Brew Eagle House on City Road, London focuses on affordability, which means you can get all the perks and benefits you’d expect from a high-quality coworking space but without the costly price tag.
Escape those hidden extras
How often do you agree a price and then discover a plethora of hidden extras that blows the budget?
Many commercial rental properties, and even co-working offices, upsell essentials that you that you might expect to be included such as use of meeting rooms. So, when searching for a new office space don’t just look at the rate card rental cost – check what extras are included within the price as this could make a huge difference to your bottom line.
Free tea can make all the difference
If you’re a freelancer or a business start-up, you might be weighing up the pros and cons of hotdesking compared with working at home. The Brew offers hotdesking in London from just £99/month. For a freelancer, they may feel that working from home is the cheaper option, but throw in free teas and coffees and no additional broadband or utility bills and suddenly that price becomes incredibly appealing.
Even as a larger business, these free extras can make a shared office a much more attractive and cost-effective proposition. Organising and buying refreshments and toilet roll is time consuming and costly – if the Community Managers of the shared office are stocking these for you it will make your bank balance much better and will save you a lot of time so you can focus on the proactive elements of your business.
Sometimes, to reduce costs, businesses ask staff to bring in their own tea and coffee – suddenly there’s 10 different boxes of teas bags and passive-aggressive notes on who owns what milk! So, it’s no exaggeration to say that free tea, coffee and milk helps facilitate good staff morale!
Staffing costs
Your business is growing, and you need to invest in staff. But what is your staffing policy? Which people should you invest in first? The more staff you have the more likely you are to need someone to provide support on daily enquiries and issues for example the printer going haywire. Or there may be initiatives you’d like to launch for your team such as staff parties and wellness course. Or maybe, you have suppliers to deal with and orders to place. You may even feel you need a Receptionist, Office Manager or Facilities Manager to deal with all of these issues, but this adds to your staffing costs.
Or,
The Community Team in a co-working environment, like The Brew, can take all this hassle off your hands. They manage the office – dealing with all the suppliers and facilities, they can greet your guests on arrival and even run free workshops that your team can enjoy and learn from.
Consultants and advisers are costly
Whether you are a freelancer or a business, there will come a time when staff have a question that can’t be asked internally. So, what are the options:
- Google it? You may get a ‘how to guide’ but getting honest feedback about someone’s knowledge and experience can be difficult to assess just online
- Online forum? Can take a while to get a response, or you could be inundated which will take a long time to sift through. Also, you may not want to publicise your query all over the internet
- Book on a course? It can be a time-consuming option to address one small issue
- Hire a consultancy? Costly.
However, in a co-working environment your team are surrounded by other businesses with lots of experience. Speak to the community manager, or visit the breakout areas and you’ll find a wealth of free advice from others. What is more, you can return the favour and use your own expertise to help others.
Summary
Moving offices can sometimes feel like a huge upheaval. But the time spent short-term finding the right office space can pay huge dividends in the future. If your business can maximise on the savings mentioned above then you can be saving a lot of time and money, even within the first 12 months…..think how that could transform your business.
About The Brew by rent24
The Brew by rent24 provides coworking spaces and private offices in London for teams of 1-100 people. The Brew boasts free meeting rooms, superfast internet, excellent community managers and a friendly atmosphere as standard.
We also offer social events, educational business seminars designed to enhance business growth and a curation of wellness workshops and content to support work/life balance and mentally healthy workplaces.
We recently announced exciting expansion plans that are powered by global coworking provider, rent24. As a result, Brew members now have access to over 50 coworking spaces around the world, including Berlin, Amsterdam, Chicago, Moscow, New York and Tel Aviv. And that’s just for starters, as there’ll be more than 185 global locations worldwide by 2020.
Check out www.thebrew.co.uk for more on our coworking offerings or stay up-to-date with the latest in small business news by following us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
