The most vital part of productivity is having a workplace that is compatible with all of your needs. Regardless of the nature of your business, you need a proper place to accomplish all of your work. The amount of time you spend at your workplace almost makes it feel like a home away from home. It could contribute to the fact that a lack of a proper workplace can make you feel a bit lost.
Up until now, companies of various sizes have had to invest huge sums of money in order to lease an office. The amount is even more excessive if the place is to be bought or built. Unfortunately, these costs cannot be avoided. To run your business, you need a proper workplace and enough space to contain your workforce and all the other elements of your business. The ones who do not have the resources to rent a space end up working from their home. However, the problem with doing this is that it seems a tad unprofessional and illegitimate to the clients, especially in times past.
The internet era changed it all. The status quo experienced a paradigm shift. It made it possible to conduct meetings or interactions over large distances all over the world. Collaborations or meeting could be done online. People did not have to travel great distances to be able to sit face to face and discuss. The new world of possibilities opened up that made working from home for the whole day or some portion of the time, as well as telecommuting to work quite possible. These options are available in most of the organisations and are opted for by several employees. In fact, the statistics state that approximately 65% of the businesses provide their employees with the alternative to work remotely.
As the younger generation takes over the workplace, the rules and regulations that the workplace follows go through an evolution as well. The methods of getting work done and boosting productivity in the workplace are changing to reflect their personalities. Millennials seem to be more comfortable with working in an open space that promotes a coworking environment. They also prefer flexibility in their work schedule, and a number of businesses are adopting these styles to maintain low turnover. This is usually observed in start-ups.
So how does all of this influence your business? It indicates a need to find a brand new solution for the problem evident in the workplace. As an increasing number of employees choose to work remotely for any given amount of time, the traditional office space is rendered useless. So the amount of money you seem to invest in renting the place out and various other amenities are rendered useless. Then what is the alternative the businesses can choose instead of renting out a place? The solution to your dilemma is on-demand workspaces, leverage and space to conduct meetings or coworking. Let’s explore the decent of the traditional office space and everything it offers, as a consequence of the rising popularity of coworking office spaces that bring along a lot of perks. This article reflects on all of the aspects of using a workplace on demand, and if it is the right fit for your business. It’ll make the decision easier if you should switch to it from your traditional setup.
Office space with a traditional setup
Ever since the start of business, there has been an equal and correlated need for an office space. It has been the perfect compatible solution until date. It has witnessed great accomplishments within its walls. However, all of it was true prior to the evolution of technology into what it is today and ever-developing at that. The digital age has changed the game for every business involved. The internet opened the business up to how big the world is and the endless possibilities it offers. On the other hand, it made the world smaller as well by bringing everyone closer. The expanse of the world has become a workplace that you can access. There is no longer a need to be restricted to cubicles and traditional office spaces.
The traditional office space indicates the workspace owned by a single business in real estate. It is going out of style for a variety of reasons as the times are changing. To begin with, the internet and various other devices available to individuals and businesses alike have made working on several tasks from remote locations an easy gig. Secondly, the younger generation is already well acquainted with most of the technology that is needed to accomplish most of the work, so there isn’t much of a learning curve when it comes to an understanding and putting this technology to use.
E-commerce has redefined the world of retailing and built a whole different world that rendered physical stores in order to provide customers with their product obsolete. They can easily store their entire stock of products in a warehouse and just pick one up when the order comes in and send it to the customer. It is an incredibly economical solution that saves business owners a whole lot of money that would otherwise be spent on renting a store as well as furnishing to make it look presentable and attractive to your customers.
There is also the additional cost that you have to contend with that includes finding the perfect office space, furnishing it, and all the maintenance that goes into running a traditional office. You have to invest increasing amounts of time in looking for a place, pay a certain amount on a monthly basis, regardless of whether you rent it or buy the property. Buying various utilities and setting them up, as well as being responsible for taking care of the security of your place and all the items within can be extremely taxing and hard on your pockets. It is especially true if you are a start-up or an owner of an SMB, which requires the use of the premises for a limited amount of time. Traditional offices, moreover, are located in the busiest sections of the city that add to the stress of commuting and also takes a toll on your health by adding to the exertion and the pollution that is involved with travelling long distances.
The main point is that most of the businesses need a physical location to run at least a couple of elements of their work. There is a need to have a base from which one can entertain and interact with clients, investors, business partners, etc. there are also some cases in which it is necessary to provide an address that is non-residential for licensing and mail as well as to seem professional. There might also be a necessity to detach from the home environment and get into a workspace to focus on the tasks at for any amount of time without any form of distraction. Due to this, there has been a spike in demand for shared spaces as well as coworking options available in the market. These are a great alternative to the traditional format and brings with it great perks.
Workspace on demand
The alternative to traditional offices is known by several different names. Coworking office space, virtual offices, shared workspaces, workspace as a service, etc. all of this terminology refers to approximately the same thing. However, there are some aspects of it that differ from one another. These include services, features and amenities that can vary. The crux of the matter is that the office space is owned, maintained and furnished by a company that then chooses to rent out the spaces as and when it is needed.
These types of spaces are usually furnished with the basic necessities of running an office such as office supplies, desks, chairs, front desk, office equipment, bathrooms, kitchenettes, and a number of other amenities. This allows the offices to move and start working from the get go without wasting time in setting up a base from the ground up. The most profitable aspect of it is that you do not have to commit to a long term agreement and the responsibility of the overhead remains with the space owners. You can move in and leave on a pretty flexible basis and pay only for the things you use.
The work models differ on a certain basis. Coworking brings a specific sense of community to the table. It enables people who work for various businesses to come together under one roof and share a space. A shared workspace model operates on an open floor plan, with the difference being that a variety of businesses get to associate and maybe benefit from one another.
Workspace on rent, on the other hand, is a specific space that you can rent that involves only your company on the floor or space. At times it can involve a full location or a mere fraction of one. So you are not as involved with other companies as you would otherwise be. So you and your employees can have the run of the mill and work according to the rules and regulations you set and are comfortable with. It gives you a larger sense of autonomy on your workspace than you otherwise might have. It retains the flexibility that traditional offices do not allow, but it maintains the segregation that is an attractive element of traditional offices. It also attempts to rake in a wide set of amenities that can be modified according to the needs of your business.
So to sum it up, a coworking space is more often opted for by professionals who are into part-time gigs, freelancers, as well as several other groups who are small. On the other hand, workspace on demand might be a better option for your business once they are more established and that need more services and amenities, as well as a better sense of privacy.
There are a number of reasons why businesses are opting for coworking as well as a workspace on demand. These include,
- It being cost-effective, which can be a boon if you’re on a tight budget. It also affords the flexibility that can be a boon for your business.
- It works for freelancers that are growing in number.
- It affords larger businesses to test the waters by opening a branch in a new city without making a long term commitment by renting a place the traditional way.
- The younger generation is more comfortable with an environment that is a virtual workplace.
- It allows you the option of outsourcing any aspect of your business, such as your administrative responsibilities.
- These types of offices provide a number of different amenities as well as a completed service office.
- Renting a proper location leads to advantages such as having a proper mailing address and it also affords a space to have meetings in person, without renting these services even when you don’t use them like you would be forced to do in traditional offices.
- The freedom that virtual offices afford entrepreneurs is a huge advantage for them, as it enables innovation as well as collaborations with different firms which provides the same benefits that a physical office would.
However, there are a few businesses that might not be compatible with such workspaces. There are industries, like labour, that need a physical space to get their manufacturing done, which leads to a search for a bigger space than these offices provide. Companies that are well established tend to opt for a more permanent type of office space as they have a better idea of the direction their company is moving in and their growth rate. Hence, they can commit to a space for a longer period of time. However, on certain occasions, they do tend to rent out an alternative type of office spaces. There is also the possibility of the coworking space not having the amenities that are essential to the smooth functioning and growth of your business, which is one of the main reasons businesses choose to go for these type of offices in the first place.
Which of these spaces is compatible with your business?
You need to reflect on the pros and cons of these spaces while taking into consideration the needs of your business and the direction your business is going in. There is also the aspect of the amenities and services provided by the workspace and if it serves well enough to cater to your clients. You should also check to see if the kind of company you’re building can benefit from the sense of community that a coworking space affords and if it encourages creativity and inspires a sense of innovation. There are various different businesses that share spaces. You could choose to join one that you feel your business can flourish in and that your workforce will feel comfortable fitting into.
In case you are looking for flexibility and the freedom to customise according to the needs of your business, you can choose to opt for workspace on demand. You also don’t have to commit to a permanent space. Here are some of the businesses that can profit from the workspace on demand. These include consulting, self-employed workers, small to medium-sized businesses, e-commerce websites, start-ups, entrepreneurs and huge corporations as well as Fortune 1000 companies.
