According to research done by commercial property managers and corporate real estate executives, North American offices averaged 151 square feet per worker in 2017. That’s down from 176 square feet in 2012 and 225 square feet in 2010. The rule of thumb for creative open space that startup and small technology companies seek has been decreasing from 200 to 250 square feet to as low as 100 to 150 square feet of “usable” office space per person. Virtual offices, co-working spaces and modern work space solutions are providing flexibility and lower occupancy costs to most companies. Especially for small businesses, the flexibility that companies such as Wework or Regus provide are very important. You can grow your space if you need to or downsize as needed with no long term commitments. As we have discussed more and more companies are allowing employees to work remotely, from home, several days a week so the office needs go down to having a business address to receive courier deliveries and packages, some mail and have a conference room available for in person meetings. Having a receptionist to greet clients coming to a meeting or route calls if needed to cell phones or external numbers or extensions may complement the virtual office service. Having just an office suite in on these locations where you can keep the physical assets your business requires, have a receptionist to receive packages or courier service and mail on your behalf and have access to meeting rooms and lounges is all a small business needs now a days. All employees can work from home or anywhere in the world. Conference calls and video conferencing, email and other electronic messaging services along with good smartphones, laptops and tablets is all employees need to operate in most cases. Even call answering services are declining in use since most people operate via a direct line that rings on their cell phone. When social interaction is needed because of the type of work, business or personal preference of employees, one can work from home some days and use a co-working environment on one of these centers other days of the week, avoiding the isolation working from home can bring sometimes. Not only that but the synergy that is created by interacting with other professionals can bring new business or ideas that can end in major developments and projects for the business.
Another beauty of these work space solutions is that membership in these organizations allows you to use/rent office space, lounges or meeting rooms basically in almost any major City in the World and most Cities in the United States.
A flexible low cost solution that offers offices almost anywhere in the world with services tailored to any specific need and the ability to have one physical location and business address or virtual office address as the business may require is the perfect solution for a small business and now being used for enterprises and large businesses as well, especially when opening a presence in a new City.
This is another important plan for the Mobile Business. In our company we use Fedex as a courier service and we rent office space through Regus. When the receptionist at my office location received a courier package I can direct her to send to Fedex to any Fedex location worldwide. In the United States we use the Fedex Kinkos office centers in the City where we are traveling or passing by and pick up the package at our convenience. Of course our emphasis is a paperless office so couriers and hard copies of documents are send by courier only in especial occasions but even then there is a solution to get the document anywhere in the world. Alternatively is confidentiality is not an issue somebody at the office or even the receptionist can scan and email the document instead of rerouting or re-sending.
