Categories
Office Space

Traditional Office vs. Shared Office: Which is Right for You?

When looking for office rental space, there are different options to choose from including traditional office space vs. shared, or co-working space. But, which one is right for you?

 

Shared offices (or coworking spaces) are growing at a rapid pace, filling an important niche that traditional office spaces can’t, and offering a service that is quite obviously in dire demand. The forecasted growth for coworking spaces appears to be huge, and there are plenty of other markets overseas where coworking has only just begun to catch on.

 

However, that doesn’t mean that the coworking model will replace the traditional private office. Rather, it’s important to recognize the two as very different, and both equally necessary. Yet when looking for a space to grow your own enterprise, it’s important to ask yourself to choose, and pick your best option. Whether that’s a coworking space/shared office or a traditional office depends on a number of different factors.

 

1. Needs and Commitment

 

The first thing to consider is how far you are willing to commit to your enterprise. While it’s important to believe in your work, not all teams or projects need to last for years. If what you need is a space to work with a small team in a collaborative effort for no longer than a few months, a shared office is your best bet.

 

The economics are very important here – upfront, as well as in the immediate future, a shared office or coworking space will often be far more economical than a traditional office in the same neighborhood. But if you’re in it for the long haul and already have a small business that has become relatively stable with solid prospects for the next five years, then it may be worth looking into a space of your own.

 

While the benefits of coworking spaces are overwhelming for small businesses, they’re also mostly short-term – if this is something you have the means to invest in and the intention to commit towards, then looking for affordable and valuable office space can be helpful.

 

      • If, however, your business is little more than an idea, then a traditional office may simply be too much. Most office spaces lease for no fewer than three years, which can be both costly and difficult to justify on an unproven business.
      • Shared offices and coworking spaces usually let you make use of their space on a monthly basis. Much like a gym membership, you can choose whether to renew every month. While some coworking spaces do call for slightly longer commitments, of upwards of three months, they’re often the exception.

 

2. Options for Amenities and Utilities

 

A traditional office space may or may not come with its own furniture, but you aren’t likely to find any workstations, printers, or other equipment already installed by the time you first lease the space.

 

That means investing significantly in setting up your own office, getting the backbone of the operation going, not to mention the layout, branding, design, decoration, and art. For larger companies with an established clientele, a bigger team, and serious capital, all of these initial investments might not be too difficult to swing and can net some significant potential for growth.

 

However, if you’re still a young company or are in the process of building your business, these are all costs you can do without. Coworking spaces come prepared with several amenities, workstations, and utilities.

 

Workers can bring their laptops and share communal equipment such as printers and coffee machines. Furniture often accommodates a large variety of different work arrangements, from workers who prefer their own space, to small groups sitting around a coffee table, to large teams tackling a new project in a big meeting or conference room.

 

3. Creating and Preserving Workplace Culture

 

One of the benefits of having your own office space is that you control the design and layout of the office, and as manager, you can control the office culture. Office culture accounts for a number of things, including:

 

      • How your workers behave
      • What is and isn’t appropriate
      • How morale is boosted at work

 

Consider your office’s culture the culmination of its personality, the sum of everyone working together, displaying their strengths independently yet also contributing to a greater total.

 

Office culture can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing. When managed properly, a workspace can develop a positive culture that greatly impacts worker productivity by keeping workers happy and motivated. When managed poorly, an office culture can contribute towards acts of bullying, intimidation, burnout, and a high turnover.

 

Coworking spaces generally have a positive workspace culture, as it’s their purpose to attract many companies and independent workers, yet this might not always mesh or vibe with your organization.

 

 

4. Learning from Coworking

 

At the end of the day, even though the coworking model won’t replace private offices entirely, its popularity still serves to help inform many office managers and business owners on how better to design their offices in order to take advantage of the factors in coworking spaces that promote productivity and worker contentment.

 

There’s a lot to learn from the design of these spaces, from approaching the office as a more worker-centric environment that doesn’t focus on hierarchies or management control, to providing a greater degree of freedom on where and when to work, as well as how and where to take breaks.

 

From a variety of amenities to a more lax and open environment to help encourage communication and cooperation, these spaces help workers:

 

      • Better flex their creative muscles
      • Mingle with others
      • Still find quiet spaces to withdraw when it’s time to call upon an inner focus and concentrate on the task at hand

 

So, Shared or Traditional Office Space?

Shared offices do their best to be appealing spaces to work in. To heavily advertise their function as a communal space for work and cooperation, they generalize and try to home in on a non-specific, community-driven work culture.

 

Private offices have the luxury of developing their own work culture, but companies must be wary of developing a culture that promotes gatekeeping or ranking.

 

A lack of inclusivity can push newcomers away and keep them from fully unleashing their potential, simply because they aren’t interested in going through a harsh welcoming period before finally being a part of something bigger.

 

In coworking spaces, workers immediately feel welcomed into a larger group, and can start immediately working with others to develop new projects and discover new ideas. An environment that encourages newer employees to open up and be enthusiastic about their work is far healthier than a toxic environment.

 

Common Questions About Office Rentals

1. What is the difference between traditional and shared offices?

Traditional private offices typically have a longer lease term, usually no less than three years while our shared offices can be rented on a monthly basis.

2. Which type of office is best for you?

This depends on many factors including: economical and financial factors, needs and commitment, necessary amenities and utilities, workplace culture and more.

3. Does The Collection offer both types of office?

Yes, we offer monthly-lease terms along with traditional creative offices.

The Collection offers a variety of both monthly office rentals and traditional office space. If you are looking for a place to grow your business, contact us today!

Categories
Office Space

Why Do Companies Use Shared Rental Work Spaces?

It’s no longer just freelancers and small businesses that use shared rental work spaces anymore – they are actually quite popular; but why?

 

With steady growth leading experts to estimate that approximately 3.8 million people will be making use of shared work spaces in the world by 2020, from just 1.18 million in 2017, it’s become clear that coworking is supplying a demand that was previously left untapped, and unrecognized.

 

As it becomes more and more prohibitively expensive to lease and manage office spaces in the world’s largest and most competitive cities, entrepreneurs and businesses alike are forced to find alternative work spaces. Coworking spaces have also grown to meet a new demand for flexibility in an age of eternal uncertainty – as businesses and individuals seek to take greater risks and chase after bigger ideas for the sake of innovation, it becomes more and more important to cut down on costs and minimize commitment.

 

Shared spaces save on space and allow a larger number of individuals and groups to account for the costs, giving startups and other professionals the opportunity to set up and work in some of the world’s most competitive and exciting cities at a much lower cost, without the pitfalls of working from home or virtually. But what constitutes a rental workspace, and how is it superior to working out of a coffee shop, or leasing a cheaper office further away from the city center?

 

What are Shared Rental Work Spaces?

At its simplest, a rental work space is an office that consists of multiple professionals and companies, rather than just one company. As such, they function on a fundamentally different model from traditional office spaces, particularly in terms of pricing and freedom.

 

While a landlord may lease an empty office space to a business for several years, with the permission to redesign the office as they see fit, these work spaces are furnished and designed by the owners, with spaces leased to individuals and companies on a monthly basis. Like a monthly membership or subscription, companies are free to simply leave and opt out of their monthly renewal or continue.

 

Work spaces come with a variety of amenities rolled into the monthly price, including wired or wireless high-speed Internet, break rooms, comfortable seating, secluded meeting or conference rooms, a kitchen, and more. Some spaces encourage companies to bring their own equipment, while supplying equipment that is usually communal, such as:

 

      • Printers
      • Conference equipment
      • Monitors
      • Televisions

 

As such, the workspaces feature a much lower overhead, as well as an attractive monthly fee versus a several-year-long commitment to a hefty and expensive lease. For smaller companies and freelancers, this makes for a much better alternative to seeking out a private office in a large city.

 

Because shared workspaces are inviting to a variety of different professionals, they have also opened the door to a completely new way of working together, encouraging cooperation and networking within the office. But for whom?

Who Uses Them?

Rental work spaces are ideal for partnerships, businesses, and individuals that lack the capital to afford a private office and could benefit from networking and potentially cooperating with other professionals in a variety of different fields. Coworking spaces are very popular among sole proprietors and smaller teams, but function equally well for:

 

      • Smaller companies
      • New start-ups
      • Temporary partnerships
      • Entrepreneurs
      • Freelancers

 

Aside from smaller firms and partnerships, coworking spaces are ideal for temporary teams, for professionals who need a shared space to work for just a few months on a project, before disbanding. While common among film crews, this type of setup is now growing in popularity in other industries as well, especially with the growth of virtual workspaces and rental spaces.

 

Larger corporations can also make use of coworking spaces by utilizing them for satellite offices in regions far away from their usual private offices, saving on the costs of preparing an office for every physical location. While established businesses profit from having a branded space to receive clients, this is not always necessary.

 

When to Transition from Shared Work Spaces to a Private Office?

It’s still critical not to forget that the private office isn’t going out of style – it’s simply coexisting with a brand-new model for work rooms. Companies that can afford to invest in their own private office space are not going to wholesale give up on that luxury for a coworking space potentially shared with competitors.

 

However, it is very likely that they are already profiting from the benefits of a coworking space through the work they outsource to freelance professionals and other smaller companies, as well as entire departments and satellite offices set up in different states and cities.

 

If you’re thinking of choosing between a private office and a coworking space, it helps to keep in mind the pros and cons. Shared work spaces, as previously mentioned, provide the space for collaboration, improve productivity in many cases, help keep workers happier, and boast much lower costs than traditional offices. However, there are cases where the cons of coworking overshadow its benefits.

 

If you have an established business with serious capital, then the need for networking and collaborating on projects with other companies or professionals may not be that high. Meanwhile, you may also want to control your own work environment, improving productivity in your own way by catering to your workers, rather than being at the mercy of how busy a coworking space may be at any given day.

Choosing The Space That is Best for You

Your clients may also be expecting a certain level of business, meaning that having your own office and signage could be important to sending the message that you’re an established and growing business looking for larger long-term profitable relationships.

 

      • Through your own office, you maintain complete control over:
      • Ergonomics
      • Furnishings
      • Break room choices
      • Lighting
      • Design, and much more

 

You can match your business’ tone with your choices in design and layout, rather than having to mesh with other companies as well. A private office is also a safer office, especially if you’re working with client information that is best kept confidential.

 

Private office space is not ideal for every business, especially in this day and age. But there may come a time when you outgrow a cowork space. Ideally, you can put the benefits of both to use, working with professionals out of nearby coworking spaces while providing a private space for your own crew.

 

Luckily, The Collection offers both. Whether you are looking for shared workspace, or your own traditional office, call us today!

 


Read More:

Creating a Positive Work Environment With Coworking

Categories
Work Environment

How to Reduce Employee Burnout and Chronic Workplace Stress

Employee burnout and workplace stress are constantly plaguing businesses, and it’s affecting your productivity and your bottom line as an employer – but there are ways to reduce them including renting a coworking space.

 

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