Whether you’re a freelancer, remote worker, or self-employed entrepreneur, working from home is a great way to save on the often stifling costs of an office in London. However, a home office can sometimes blur the line between work and home life too significantly. What was once a living room becomes an extension to your home office, what was once a coffee table becomes a desk, and what was once a dressing gown becomes a uniform.
Fortunately, serviced offices provide a feasible solution that doesn’t involve contracting years of your life away to a landlord that will charge you mind-boggling tenant fees. Here is how you can take the office out of your home with the help of a serviced office, and why it’s better for your business that you do so.
Serviced offices are readily available and highly affordable
The UK serviced office industry is growing and could be worth £126 billion by 2025, with similar growth in major business capitals around the world.
Providers are aplenty too with options in major cities in the UK, US and Europe, like Easy Offices who have numerous serviced offices in London, or Instant Offices in New York. These serviced office providers are making sure that home office workers and small business owners are not only finding the best spaces, but what they need at the most affordable prices. It’s a competitive market so costs have to be accessible to small businesses, as well as more established and big brands.
Your home office is making you overwork
Research from the RSA has found that working from home can lead to longer hours, less holiday and social isolation. Serviced offices can not only boost your business, they may save your sanity too. The main concern many freelancers and entrepreneurs have about working from home is that they won’t be productive enough. In reality, the opposite is often true. With no physical difference between the office and home, and no specific working hours set, there is a danger of overworking.
According to an article written in Entrepreneur, not overworking is “by far a bigger challenge than staying motivated.” If work pops into your mind late at night, it’s all too easy to go into the other room and work into the early hours.
Working, even part-time, from a serviced office in London could help draw a clearer line between work and home. Having a physical office or desk means that when you do stop working, you actually leave work behind. Many serviced offices in London have 24-hour access so you can still work to the schedule you usually work to from home.
They’re less of a commitment than permanent offices
The number of people working from home has risen exponentially in recent years, in 2014 the Office for National statistics announced record numbers of remote workers. It’s no surprise that as working from home has become more popular as commercial property rents have skyrocketed in recent years.
A 2015 report from Knight Frank found that the cost of renting an office in London went up by around 11% in the first six months of 2015, more than any other major city in the same period. In Shoreditch, a hub popular with startups and entrepreneurs, rents went up by 26% from 2007 to 2015. Similar inflations have been found in growing tech hubs like Silicon Valley in San Francisco and Austin, Texas, as booming industries move fast and grow quickly, forcing rents up even quicker.
However, serviced offices aren’t always so reasonably priced. UK provider Easy Offices suggest seeking “expert advice when choosing a London serviced office for your business, not only to help you find the best deals, but also to help you avoid the pitfalls that await the unwary.” This applies to anyone moving out of their home office. Like consulting an estate agent before moving house, a serviced office provider can give you a better idea of costs and areas that would suit you, and your budget.
Serviced offices can be an alternative for business meetings
Business meetings provide another conundrum for entrepreneurs working from home. Obviously the living room won’t do. Another possibility is a coffee shop. Although coffee shops can work well for business meetings, you’re only ever one screaming baby away from a ruined pitch. Work Webb, a company specialising in shared work spaces in the US, argue that meetings in coffee shops can be both unpredictable and unprofessional.
Alternatively, some London serviced offices include meeting rooms and business lounges. These rooms come equipped with everything you’ll find at a good coffee shop, free wifi, a comfortable but professional seating arrangement and lots and lots of caffeine. Some meeting rooms in London are available to rent by the day, meaning you can still work from home the majority of the time.
