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Office Space satellite offices

Why Build a Satellite Office in a Coworking Space?

Setting up a satellite office is a major decision; there are many aspects to consider. With the rise of coworking spaces, these buildings may be the perfect location for you. Read on.

 

Not only is it often a costly one, but creating a satellite office can require:

 

  • A rigorous hiring process
  • The creation and transportation of a crew of employees to the new location
  • The legwork of scouting for a good location
  • Beginning negotiations on a lease, and getting started on stocking up on all the necessities of a basic office

 

Sometimes, the need to be present in a specific state or area is transient rather than permanent, making new offices far too expensive to justify (while still requiring a physical presence, often through frequent back-and-forth transport across state lines).

 

What is a Satellite Office?

A satellite office is an office located in a different location than the company’s main corporate location. They are used for many different reasons including:

 

  • Expanding into new markets
  • Opening a new branch
  • To increase sales across many locations
  • To benefit employees in terms of locations offered, commute, etc
  • Create more local presence

 

While we live in a time of telecommunication and an increased reliance on outsourcing and cooperation between large companies and freelance contractors, it’s important not to understate the value of physical presence.

 

Satellite offices are necessary for expanding companies, especially when they choose to double or triple their operation by expanding to a new and underserved market. Yet for most startups and SMEs, the cost of doing so is simply prohibitive. This cuts into the potential of many companies, who feel constantly outdone by the better-funded competition.

 

But the ability to move into pre-made and managed flexible office spaces eliminates many of these problems. Coworking spaces have grown rapidly in the past few years, expanding across major cities all over the globe, giving smaller companies the chance to set up a physical presence across state lines and national borders in ways previously unimaginable, at a far lower cost.

 

There are a variety of reasons to start a building satellite office in coworking spaces:

 

1. It’s Much More Cost-Effective

Setting up a satellite office can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, yet necessary for many growing businesses wishing to take advantage of potential markets, partnerships, and opportunities only afforded to those physically present within certain locations across the country – or across the world.

 

Satellite offices are still easier than planning a mass migration – which is often a logistic nightmare – but they require the acquisition of an office, and the obligatory setup that follows.

 

Shared office buildings for a satellite office are far less expensive, and allow companies to not only reduce costs, but cut entire items off their list of potential costs, from cleaning services to utility costs, the acquisition and installation of new gear, and the upfront cost of a year-long lease.

 

2. Better Productivity for Satellite Office Workers

Studies and polls show that coworking spaces are boons for productivity, in comparison to traditional office spaces.

 

The lax environment, melded work culture, availability of amenities, and focus on providing a welcoming atmosphere. This is combined with the perks of interacting with workers from different industries focused on different projects. In turn, this helps in providing a further benefit to worker creativity, leading to better results.

 

Shared spaces allow companies (and satellite workers) to approach work in a new way – instead of enforcing their own office culture, the workers set the pace among themselves.

 

They become comfortable with their environment, which in turn helps them perform better.

 

 

3. A Chance at Cooperation

Having workers from different companies working under one roof might, in the eyes of some, further a more competitive and hostile environment – but the opposite has been true.

 

Regardless of what they’re working on or who they’re working for – and plenty happen to work for themselves – many who choose to come to coworking spaces to work tend to be more open to cooperation and socializing.

 

They enjoy broadening their horizons and sharing ideas in a way that is productive for everybody involved.

 

Fostering connections between people is something companies have learned not only to appreciate, but to take advantage of. All companies in these spaces enable the cooperation of workers through:

 

  • Scheduled social events
  • Networking events
  • Training programs, and more

 

And all this has born fruit in the form of better results for the companies involved.

 

4. Coworking is a Growing Phenomenon

The numbers speak for themselves. Previously centralized in developed countries – particularly the US – coworking is becoming a global phenomenon.

 

By 2022, up to five million estimated workers will be working in coworking offices.

 

As the lines between life and work further blur, and as workers seek ways to minimize burnout, our idea of the workspace is constantly in flux.

 

It is undergoing rapid shifts as companies scramble to find ways to address the pressing questions brought about by:

 

  • Digitalization
  • Continuous urban sprawl
  • High real estate costs
  • Automation

 

With all that in mind, a fleeting look into a potential future grant us a vision of the world with a new way of thinking surrounding how and why we work, especially when it comes to the smaller, locally-based satellite office.

 

As more and more industries and jobs are using automation, companies, and ventures will go out of their way to either find:

 

  1. Workers who are willing to put their health and safety on the line for meager pay,
  2. Or, workers who put the time and effort into honing their individual abilities to come up with smarter and more efficient ways to contribute to their respective employers and partners.

 

It’s not just a matter of putting in the hours or devoting yourself to the leg work. You can’t clock in and expect to do well. There will be days when you’re feeling unproductive, and the need to recharge your ideas becomes critical.

 

Conclusion

Coworking offices are a prototype of this new working environment, where professionals gather to share ideas, inspire one another, create a welcoming and personable environment that remains conducive to productivity and creativity. Take advantage of this trend for your satellite office, it is not just a smart business move, but an eventuality.

 

The work culture of tomorrow has to emphasize creativity and adaptability, and flexible office spaces maximize both by bringing people together from various backgrounds to work on a variety of projects and potentially meld ideas in ways previously unexplored. There’s no way to know what exactly the future has in store for us, but coworking is a definite part of it.

 


Read More:

What to Consider When Choosing Your New Office Space

Categories
Work Environment

The Value of an In Person Meeting (And How to Have Them Today)

By now, we’ve adapted to virtual meetings and remote work routines, but that does not mean an in person meeting lost its value. Read more details below including how to safely have them during the pandemic.

 

Despite quarantines and harsh restrictions, in person meetings haven’t become a relic of the past. Far from it, it seems like many businesses have come to further recognize and respect the importance of in person meetings as the pandemic rages on, especially for identifying and onboarding new talent, landing important clients, and communicating effectively with team members on critical projects.

 

There are elements to a conversation that are often lost when communicating through purely virtual means, and try as we might, there is still no good replacement for a face-to-face meeting.

 

That being said, in person meetings can and should be made limited and more efficient as long as we continue to live in a world with the coronavirus. By leveraging better hygiene concepts, important technologies, and simple meeting rules, we can massively curb the dangers of in person meetings and make them safe, even during a pandemic.

 

Why In Person Meetings Remain Important in a Pandemic World

 

Non-verbal cues, expressive faces, and the engagement of being in a physical location with others as opposed to simply being rendered as pixels on a small screen can have a significant impact on the quality and nature of a meeting, whether it’s a brainstorming session between team members or an important client.

 

While virtual meetings have helped thousands of businesses continue to function and even remain productive in the midst of a historic health crisis, they have also served to highlight their own distinct limitations, and how face-to-face communication can serve to be more effective at building relationships or simply communicating nuance.

 

Fewer Things Are Lost in Translation

 

The first and most immediate benefit to an in person meeting is the little things we tend to miss when confined strictly to a screen. Facial cues and body language, subtle changes in pitch, simple expressions, and the ability to immediately discern or at least ask for context to any and every statement. These things are diminished or even lost in the limited scope of a video conference, much less an email thread, where the only non-verbal forms of expression available to most of us are emojis.

 

All the things we take for granted in face-to-face communication help to provide a much clearer understanding of what the other person is saying and thinking, and help us avoid miscommunication or awkward misunderstandings, at times fuelled by a lack of provided context, as one party doesn’t want to ask the other to repeat themselves or explain what they meant.

 

No Lag, Fewer Technical Issues

 

Another important benefit to an in person meeting is the lack of a technological barrier between persons. Technology can be a barrier, after all. A barrier of entry for those unwilling or struggling to learn how to communicate with new software and technology, and a barrier created by technical issues which can slow or delay important conversations and frustrate both parties.

 

Audio and video issues, constant lag, connectivity problems, and dropped calls are just a few potential issues that often arise when working with telecommunication tools, and troubleshooting these issues can take precious time on either side of the conversation, and distract from the important points, derailing meetings during critical junctures, or causing important information to get lost amidst technical problems.

 

In Person Meetings Build Stronger Relationships

 

It is proven that we tend to build stronger relationships, inspire more trust, and leave longer lasting impressions through in person meetings versus virtual ones. People are still naturally inclined to feel closer and more engaged to someone sitting opposite them at a desk, rather than a person who exists merely on a screen.

 

Virtual technology is critical at enabling communication across large distances and can serve as the perfect tool to help long-distance teams collaborate and meet with international clients, but there is nothing that can substitute a first-time face-to-face meeting as a means to build trust and create a solid foundation for a strong business relationship.

 

But rather than simply discuss why in person meetings can help us forge stronger bonds with one another, it’s even more important to discuss how we can afford to host them safely.

 

Find the Right Venue

 

This is where a coworking space comes into play. Coworking spaces present themselves as the perfect neutral venue for team members, executives, clients, and managers to meet in a safe environment, collaborate and communicate in a safe and concise manner, and leave.

 

Coworking spaces are also ideal for the onboarding process, providing the perfect setting to help integrate and guide new hires into finding their place within the company and team hierarchy, before continuing through the coworking space or working remotely, depending on their and the team’s strengths and capacity.

 

 

Observe Proper Precautions and Social Distancing Measures

 

Aside from choosing a safe workspace designed for collaboration, companies and teams can further reduce the risk of infection when meeting in person by picking spaces with private rooms large enough to accommodate everyone attending with the appropriate distance between one another, while mandating masks and always observing safe social distances (including on the way in and out of the room).

 

Consider Natural Ventilation

 

The CDC recommends that offices keep their windows open and allow for as much natural air flow within the office as possible (provided the weather and climate permit it). Keeping a window open might seem like a relatively simple measure but could further limit the risk of any potential transmission during a meeting.

 

Amplify Everyone’s Voices

 

Studies confirm that raising one’s voice is more likely to transmit the virus – this is simply because the louder we yell, the further our spit droplets travel through the air.

 

Providing microphones for everyone and renting a room and table that can safely accommodate everyone at the meeting can help a group maintain a safe and reasonable social distance while reducing the droplets in the air.

 

A relatively simple sound setup with a few speakers in each corner of the room and a mic for each meeting member can eliminate the need for any sort of yelling or screaming to get heard across the room.

 

Keep Meetings Short and To-The-Point

 

The coronavirus could be yet another motivator to keep meetings short and concise. Excessively long meetings may defeat the purpose of getting together to organize and have historically been little more than a huge financial drain on productivity.

 

In person meetings may not be as simple to organize as before, but when leveraged, can provide an opportunity to improve relationships and foster a greater sense of trust and cooperation than through any virtual means, which is critically important for many businesses worried about cohesion and feelings of isolation within team members.

Categories
Office Space

What to Consider When Choosing Your New Office Space

While all of us are still in the middle of a pandemic, there are certain factors to consider when choosing a new office space. Read everything you need to know below.

 

Workspaces exist to serve numerous purposes: to be a place for productivity and cooperation, to provide the right stimuli for creativity, to foster positive working relationships between colleagues, and to improve and maintain the mental and physical wellbeing of a company’s most crucial and important asset – the worker.

 

Yet there are significant financial considerations and constraints for small-to-medium enterprises seeking a place of their own. Commercial real estate is not cheap, and the financial commitment behind creating a space for your own company and vision is tremendous and requires capital many companies do not have right now.

 

The need for flexible workspaces and low commitment, high-quality workspaces is higher than ever, especially as some employees look towards a future where work-from-anywhere policies become the norm and wish for a company culture that embraces flexibility in an uncertain market. When looking for workspaces in a post-pandemic world, flexibility should be the first critical condition.

 

Choose Workspaces with Flexible Leases

 

Small and medium businesses struggling to turn things around after a difficult year might not even be considering the costs of having their own office space, let alone the time and capital needed to fully outfit and adapt the space to the company’s identity.

 

Existing purely virtually has its drawbacks as well. Many employees are struggling to remain productive from home, are feeling alone and isolated from their company, and want to reap the benefits of working face-to-face with others, from the learning experiences provided by a real living workspace to the important social aspect and camaraderie that every company needs to keep its spirit and culture alive.

 

Rather than getting a full space of their own, smaller companies (and larger ones looking to spread out across a greater region or bring their employees back into workspaces without breaking social distancing nor risking huge commutes) should embrace flexible workspaces that offer fully furnished, sanitized, and prepared offices for short-term leases, cutting out the huge financial commitment while giving businesses the chance to leverage the benefits of a fully outfitted workspace.

 

Rather than a full floor plan, consider a few smaller private spaces for your business within an agile piece of commercial real estate, such as a coworking space or flex space. No year-long leases, no time and capital spent developing a digital infrastructure, no need to tackle issues like property upkeep and cleaning.

 

Find a Workspace That Attracts the Best

 

Hiring fresh talent is a critical part of success for any growing business that recognizes the importance of its workforce. As such, being able to attract talent and keep it around is vital.

 

A coworking space would help smaller companies afford to spend more on their best talent and invite them into a company that has already begun to adopt and embrace flexible working conditions, a blend between the virtual and the physical.

 

Coworking spaces are always short-term solutions but can work as a long-term plan by shifting locations and teams around to suit the company’s needs and goals and give employees the freedom to work from flexible spaces near their own residence or continue to work from home as well.

 

Coworking spaces are also often outfitted with the best amenities to attract the greatest freelance and single contractor talents, giving them not only the best space in town to work at, but giving companies the chance to collaborate and work alongside great talent outside of the company, forging partnerships and business relationships that could last for years to come, and providing unique local networking opportunities.

 

Another plus is that these spaces help small companies spend more time working together, and less time worrying about coffee and snack supplies, interior design and decoration, and workplace ergonomics. These spaces take care of all that and much more.

 

 

A Workspace That Prioritizes Health and Safety

 

Even with vaccines entering the picture in countries all around the world, concerns surrounding the virus haven’t completely abated, and the social impact of the coronavirus is sure to be felt for years to come. Some might not feel comfortable returning to the way things were and will seek out workspaces that prioritize de-densification, and allow employees to keep their own space and distance from one another.

 

Basic hygiene concepts, such as more frequent surface cleaning and better-quality HVAC solutions, will be important moving forward. Some might want to make the most of outdoor working spaces, especially during the warmer months, and want to work in spaces that sacrifice the open office floor plan for private offices and better integration of natural light, air, and plant life into the everyday office setting.

 

Many coworking spaces have had to radically adapt to the coronavirus by prioritizing clean and well-ventilated spaces, separated rather than open, with larger common spaces meant to host small groups that keep socially distant, and roving cleaning crews that ensure that the most-used surfaces are sterilized multiple times a day.

 

Consider Multiple Workplaces for Convenience

 

By saving considerable time and capital when choosing a coworking space, small-to-medium businesses and large enterprises alike can benefit from having multiple workspaces connected to one another virtually. This allows different teams in different neighborhoods, cities, regions, states, and even countries to collaborate both physically and virtually through coworking satellite offices and telecommunications tools like Slack, Meets, and Zoom.

 

The hub-and-spoke workspace model has been growing in interest for years and might help provide a solution against the time loss caused by long commutes.

 

Going Back to Work During the Pandemic

 

Not everyone has had the luxury of continuing to be productive during the pandemic. Many have struggled to stay focused while working from home and feel the need to collaborate and communicate with their team members on more than just a virtual level in order to function properly. But we cannot just go back to the way things were, not in the near future, and definitely not now. While it does feel like we may be getting a handle on the pandemic, we are still in the middle of it, and smart, safe concepts are needed to keep ourselves healthy while we work together.

 

Coworking spaces could play a central role in this process, providing companies the chance to rent clean workspaces for small teams in private and ventilated offices, while working virtually with teams in other locations around the country.

 


Read More:

How to Stay Productive in a New Working World

Categories
Business Trends

How to Inspire Your Employees to Become Creatives

What does it mean to become creatives? This is a question to seriously think about, especially during a time where creativity is needed now more than ever. Read below for details.

 

As we collectively reach nearly a year of working under the circumstances of a pandemic, many of us have had to reinvent boundaries and find ways to halt or slow the inevitable melding of home life and work life and struggle to find ways to remain productive or even creative.

 

Some of us have been faced with crippling social isolation for months, while others have lost friends and loved ones to an unrelenting and uncaring virus that no one was equipped for.

 

As we continue to brave each day, we are faced with new and recurring challenges at work, the boldest of which is the challenge to remain steadfast in our duties and uphold our responsibilities as workers and employers – and continue to deliver fully on the 30, 40, or even 60-hour weeks we spend on a collective vision.

 

It’s important for us to recognize that this pandemic has had a significant and understandable impact, one we need to learn not only to accept but adapt to. Some of us haven’t been able to face that issue, scared of falling behind and losing out on a precious work opportunity that not everyone is privileged to.

 

Employers must give their employees the courage to openly speak out about their personal struggles – and understand that these causally relate to their professional and creative struggles because, in a COVID-era, the personal and professional have too often become one and the same.

 

This is the first step towards helping and inspiring your employees to become better creatives and find that spark that might have fizzled or gone out in the face of the pandemic. From there, it’s all about creating a better and more positive environment – even remotely.

 

Set the Right Environmental Factors

 

It’s a huge cliché to see your employee’s creative potentials as flowers waiting to bloom, but the simple fact of the matter is that environmental factors are really important – but not just at work.

 

As the pandemic has forced us to redefine the workplace and accept remote working concepts into our business, many have found themselves falling in love with the idea of working from home forever – while many others struggle to draw the line between work and home and try to compensate with ever longer hours, and an ever-greater threat of stress-related burnouts.

 

Building a stronger creative team starts with building the factors that nurture and support that team. Encourage stricter boundaries between work and home.

 

Help employees with flexible work schedules and nearby coworking spaces find safe and hygienic remote solutions to try and create a physical barrier between work and home, via a shorter, safer, more accessible commute to a coworking space.

 

Help those who can afford it create a home office and work with them to develop a schedule that allows them to balance and split their responsibilities to their work, and their responsibilities to family.

 

Encourage simple routines and rituals to begin and end the workday, cut short unnecessary or distracting meetings, and ask employees to identify their greatest daily blocks and distractions, and find ways to mitigate them within reason (there’s very little anyone can do about the needs of a new-born, but it’s important to explore other options where organization and flexibility can help forge better boundaries).

 

For employees who are at work, be sure to address both the physical and organizational factors that help forge creativity – such as:

 

      • Better natural light
      • A clean office space kept tidy and organized
      • Art that isn’t too distracting but provides places for the eyes to linger during brainstorming sessions
      • Private spaces where employees can withdraw to think alone or rest their eyes, or simply get away from the noise

 

When creating a supportive organizational environment, ensure that you aren’t encouraging or tolerating behavior that is potentially silencing other creative voices in the room, such as picking one idea before hearing the others, shutting someone down before they finish, or critiquing one person’s idea before everyone had a chance to present.

 

Cooperation is a more effective approach to creativity than competition, and creatives will generally thrive in a safe space that allows them to explore any and all possibilities without being crippled by self-doubt and constraints created by other people’s immediate reactionary opinions. Each idea can be refined and rejected once it has had time to develop. But shutting an idea down in its incubatory phase keeps it from getting to a point where it might have become the right one.

 

Provide Clear Guidance

 

The worst thing you can do as a manager or director is to simply give the command to “get creative.” It is your job to present guidance and provide limitations for the rest of the team to work around.

 

Talk about what pointers you have been given by the client and provide further direction by discussing the basics – such as deadline, budgetary constraints, and what you know isn’t in the books. And then exploring what else you know about the project, such as its origins and style, details about the client and their audience, and any other information you can provide to paint a better picture.

 

Give Everyone a Real Breather

 

True breaks are hard to come by in the pandemic age, but wherever possible, encourage creative employees to pursue meaningful breaks into nature – from something as simple as a brisk walk in the park to a weekend trip up into the mountains.

 

Studies have shown time and time again that we think much better when surrounded by open skies and the smells and sensations of nature, and a few hours spent among the trees will do far more for a creative type’s headspace than another weekend spent indoors.

 

Harnessing Creativity Demands Creativity

 

Finding ways to create a constructive and nurturing environment both physically and remotely will require a huge amount of creativity. Especially as most managers are constrained by very specific limitations that might keep them from helping their employees unleash their best creative potential.

 

To that end, you will have to accept that these limitations, wherever they cannot be overcome, will serve to impede or prevent some from being as creative as they could be.

 

Never Underestimate the Importance of Creativity in Success

 

Every conceivable business that offers a product or service needs creativity to help reiterate concepts, renew ideas, and adapt to a world that is evolving and changing faster than ever.

 

It’s the creative employees who came up with the concepts that helped save countless businesses during the early days of the pandemic, from developing unique ways to continue to provide a product or service while maintaining social distancing, to finding new ways to offer a face-to-face service remotely. And it is creatives who will continue to find ways to increase your value proposition and make your business the one that stands out above the rest.

 

The biggest value in creativity is its ability to find solutions to problems. That is the true definition behind every creative type – a problem solver who finds new ways to answer both old and evolving questions.

 

 

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