Financial Benefits to setting up in a Serviced Office in Edinburgh.

So, will a serviced office be cheaper than conventional office space for your business?

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) studied this question in 1997. The terms of conventional office leases were compared to those of the largest international serviced office provider, Regus. Standard office expenses, such as electricity, furniture, building services, provision of meeting rooms and telephones, were also built into the comparison, as well as the number of employees accommodated (up to 60) and the length of accommodation (up to three years).

The survey found that serviced offices can offer substantial short and medium term cost savings over conventional leases. In a high cost area such as London, for instance, a company of five people using a serviced office for three months would save 33% of the cost of a conventional office lease. If the company stayed, they would make a saving of 21% over six months and 11% over a year.

And if you’re looking at setting up office in a lower cost city centre like Birmingham, with a larger number of people and for longer time periods, you could save even more. Typical savings in a serviced office are 66% when accommodating 10 people for three months and 44% for a year.

But remember, serviced offices are very good for startups and fast growth companies where you can’t layout big cash sums at first. But if your company is going to grow to a significant size, you could find that serviced accommodation becomes expensive.

Keeping Within Your Budget

Costs for taking space at a serviced office in Edinburgh vary considerably depending on the location of the centre, ie city centre or out of town business park; the size of the office required and its physical location within the centre; together with the quality of the building and its décor. Costs are transparent and inclusive of all building, heating and lighting, reception, security, maintenance, redecoration, refurbishment and cleaning charges.

There have been a number of major surveys in recent years drawing cost comparisons between taking workspace on a conventional lease versus serviced office space in a business center.The Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply recently published its True Cost of the Flexible Office survey, which examined total occupancy costs in eight major UK towns and cities and revealed average savings of up to 50 per cent for those firms taking space in a serviced office.

For organisations considering moving to workspace in a serviced office, the bca advises that they should be sure to really compare ‘like with like’ when analysing the costs of prospective venues. Serviced offices make an accommodation charge, not rent. To make a real comparison, rental costs must include service charges, utilities, business rates, building insurance, cleaning and maintenance, receptionist, furniture and most significantly, telecoms, to generate a genuine cost comparison.

For clients there are no overheads – Edinburgh Office charge for the services they provide on a pay-as-you-go basis. This flexible approach ensures companies can be very competitive – as they have the control to tailor their costs with workloads without oppressive overheads.

Essentially, there is no fixed overhead in capital investment, or sharp depreciating cost investing in today’s technology that will effectively have to be written off within one to three years.