When you are trying to find office space for your business the costs mount up quickly. It is therefore very understandable for you to find yourself wanting to save money by renting just the bare bones of a space and doing it up and sorting utilities as you go. However, while this approach can be attractive and offer you savings, it is not always the best idea. Read on for our guide to why DIY doesn’t always pay when it comes to the workplace.
Commercial use property is always more expensive
It is no secret that office space is priced at a premium, with rents especially steep in London, despite a recent exodus of some businesses over rising economic uncertainty. Renting office space, it is normal therefore to find that the price of the lease significantly outstrips the price of renting a residential unit in an equivalent location. Knowing this it can make sense to want to do up your office yourself and handle all utilities contracts single handedly to make a small saving.
Your time is probably worth more than the potential saving
Sorting rolling monthly utilities, internet, measuring your new office space and working out how to get your office furniture in and arranged and set up can take a surprising level of time and effort to plan. If any one of these or similar tasks is not properly worked through then you can lose valuable work time when you should be getting your office up and running.
For an example of this, if the energy is not connected on the day you move in due to a misunderstanding with the previous tenant then no work can get done that day. Similarly, if office equipment fails to arrive this can cost valuable time, and the danger of not having internet when you move in will largely reduce the efficiency of almost all modern businesses.
What would a good managed solution be?
While there is no perfect solution to this, and moving office always involves some stress and planning, it is possible to avoid most of this additional stress. If you move into Serviced Offices in the City of London from Be Offices, you can rest assured of a fully furnished and connected office ready for you to start on the day you move in, at reasonable rates.
While it may be possible to get all of the services provided by companies like these carried out yourself, due to economies of scale it is likely cheaper for a specialised service to rent you a fully prepared office than for you to prepare one, and it will certainly be faster. And business, time is money.
Moving to a furnished office will also help you dispose of excess company property from your previous office more efficiently too. An office moving day is a good time to consider whether or not you need the items the company has acquired such as spare coffee machines. If there are practical items or tools the company owns that will not be needed when you move into your new furnished offices consider offering them to employees or putting them up on a site such as Gumtree.
