Business owners currently looking for leasehold office space have a tricky decision on their hands. Do they continue to look at longer term leases or move to a more flexible solution? Some of our clients have already decided it’s not worth waiting any longer to see what plays out and have taken workspace. Many others are now seriously considering this type of space due to its flexibility. We have documented in a previous blog about the huge rise in serviced office space across the UK with the industry set to be worth up to 126billion in the next 10 years.

It’s no surprise that flexible workspaces are popping up everywhere, due to their affordability, flexibility, networking ability and locations.  It’s fair to say there is no worse time for businesses to commit to long term office leases. No one can predict the impact of Brexit on property values across the country, so purchasing or leasing office space is risky business. As we have experienced in past recessions we have to maintain a lean business plan making as much profit as possible and riding the wave.  Tying businesses into 5 – 10 year leasing deals makes no commercial sense at all.

Experts are predicting the UK to develop relationships globally, outside of the EU when we finally leave– will such relationships require businesses to adapt their global footprint?

It’s clear we all need to think more flexibly about location, accessibility, business growth, overheads and workspace requirements. The main reason for the rise of co-working spaces and serviced offices is because there is less commitment involved.  You can often break a contract with 4 week’s notice without any penalties.  The traditional model is restricting business growth, strategy and has been called old fashioned. Along with increased lease rates this solution is no longer attractive.

Along with the 9-5 model, the hours people are working and level of freedom and flexibility needed to keep people motivated, balance work and life means serviced offices are a great support mechanism for this. The latest generation of millennials see flexible working options as a must-have. It seems the Brexit vote is the catalyst to further speed this process.

The current climate makes strategic business planning difficult. Having the choice and ability to flex workspace is key as businesses move with the times.  Often scaling up and down on a regular basis. Forward-thinking businesses want to position themselves to flexibly ride out the current storm and see light at the end of the tunnel when the economy is more stable

 “While it seems that no one knows the long term implications of Brexit it’s fair to say that the uncertainty and the lack of a clear plan (or at least the communication of one) has caused a fair bit of chaos. Add to the mix, ever evolving technologies and ‘disruptive’ companies, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for companies to plan for the next 5 to 10 years which used to be the norm. Companies, now more than ever, need to be agile and able to adapt quickly to market conditions, trends and new technologies. A flexible workspace solution is just one of the ways that companies can mitigate risk in an uncertain time. It will allow them to adapt quickly to evolving market conditions, whether that be upscaling or downscaling. Occupancy rates in serviced and managed offices have been increasing faster post referendum so the evidence suggests companies are taking a more flexible approach to their workspace needs pre Brexit” said Lee Grodent, MD Loc8 Commercial.

If you are looking for office space pre Brexit and want to discuss how a flexible office solution could be the ideal solution then please do give our consultants a call on 020 3031 8563.

The post A flexible approach pre Brexit appeared first on Loc8 Commercial Blog.

During the downturn in 2008 many businesses looked for more flexible solutions for their office space. With long leases coming under significant pressure from serviced office providers able to offer flexibility in uncertain times, many businesses opted for short term solutions.

It meant that there was an explosion in growth in the serviced office sector that bucked the trend and saw the start of consolidation in the serviced office market. The clear winners during this period were the clients of serviced office providers. With more choice from the new centres and refurbishments, clients could choose their ideal office space solution.

But with office availability in many areas of London coming under pressure in recent years, the post Brexit economy still faces limited choice and serviced office providers are set to see demand continue to rise in the long term.

So what are the hidden benefits of serviced office space? Well more than you would think…

The Power of Your Network

One of the key benefits of any serviced office business centre is the ready-made network of businesses. Co-working locations are built around the network of people who use them and so are serviced office business centres. Many have regular networking events around breakfast or lunch times and also in the evening.

Transparent Pricing

One of the most significant benefits of a serviced office location is the ability to budget every month. Allowing you to fully understand the costs you can expect when you get the regular invoice.  Generally with all those additional costs included like security and utilities, it’s easy to see how serviced offices are a popular choice.

Luxury without the Financial Commitment

Affording your first office space shouldn’t mean you have to compromise on quality. Whilst there is an abundance of budget office space in key locations, many serviced office providers provide high-end office space that’s remarkable value for money when you consider the many added benefits.

Your clients will be impressed with the quality of the beverage kitchens, break-out spaces and meeting rooms at your disposal from providers like Landmark PLC, BE Offices and Leo. These companies have invested in luxury interiors with many unique and interesting features so you don’t have to. The impact they have on your clients can be huge and the benefit to your business can be considerable.

Secretarial Support on hand

Many business centres can offer a number of support options like printing and copying and even binding for that important business report.

But they also offer secretarial support to get typing completed, saving you and your team hours of additional time. This can be a highly useful benefit that can get lost amongst all the many others when you sign up for your new office space. So ask your centre manager for more details. It’s not just about answering your calls and greeting your visitors!

Flexibility to move locations

A serviced office provider with locations across London and the UK can provide a useful hidden benefit. But could provide a cost effective lifeline should you need to relocate. With exit fees and moving costs to consider a better and more cost effective solution would be to relocate to another business centre with the same provider.

The upheaval of moving offices can be difficult enough. Changing your business address on everything can be time consuming and expensive. So anything that makes the process of moving easier should be grasped with both hands.

There are many more hidden benefits of serviced office space in addition to these we’ve mentioned here. The ability to move in quickly with very little inconvenience is perhaps the most obvious benefit. But take a moment to consider all the others that take the headache out of new office space.

To talk to a member of our team for free impartial advice and to discuss the many hidden benefits of your next office space call 020 3031 8563

About the Author

Stephen Moore is a writer and marketing consultant supporting businesses in the commercial property sector. Find out more about Stephen at Google+.

The post The hidden benefits of a Serviced Office appeared first on Loc8 Commercial Blog.

When you think about it, service is what brings your customers back because they liked buying from you. So why would you not place it as a priority for the development of your business?

One of the first things to get cut during any economic uncertainty is training and the investment in people. Those businesses that continue to develop their teams and don’t cut training budgets find they come out of a downturn in a stronger position than their competitors. With the post Brexit mood looking like an economic slow-down could happen in the last quarter of 2016, businesses should start to look forward and plan accordingly.

The general view has suggested a slow-down could be a short term one. Good news then for the UK’s businesses looking for some positive signs amid the negative headlines.

A Smile is Priceless 

As you walk in to a serviced office reception for the first time one of the most important things that will happen will be the welcome you receive from the person at the desk. The single most important role in any business centre is probably the receptionist. They are generally the first and last person most people visiting or working there see and interact with. So why would you have anyone who wasn’t fully trained in the role? The short answer is you wouldn’t.

For most locations across the UK the receptionist can be the reason why clients leave or stay. Investment in front-line staff training could therefore be the difference between low or high occupancy rates. With many locations welcoming meeting room clients as well as their office clients, receptionists can be very busy. Maintaining that important smile can become difficult when people are placed under pressure. Retailers have long understood the importance of increasing staff numbers at busy times to cover the tills and fitting rooms. Answering customer queries at busy times is often given priority over other tasks.

The same is true of serviced office business centres in London and across the UK. There are peaks and troughs throughout the day. How someone see’s the service you provide could be down to something as simple as waiting for several minutes to sign in without being acknowledged. That’s why a smile is priceless. Receptionists can say a lot to waiting clients without uttering a single word.

The Power of a Warm Customer Service Welcome

Any business will tell you that assumptions are made in the first few minutes, when someone makes contact for the first time. Businesses are only as good as their people. Generally, we form an opinion about people that we meet from a business in a few seconds.  We have a view about the business based on that one individual. So the power of the warm welcome is vital to set the right first impression.

According to the Institute of Customer Service, customer service is at its lowest point since 2011, which means clients and customers are keener than ever to receive great customer service. With expectations high, many customers often feel disappointed when businesses they engage with just don’t understand their needs. So getting team members to be able to ask the right questions to provide the right service is more vital than ever before.

(Read the Institute of Customer Service article HERE)

A positive Brexit Outlook

As business confidence wobbles across many sectors, companies need to hold on to their current clients and customers by investing in training to help protect client retention. The quality of the service and how their calls are answered, can make all the difference when clients look for cost savings themselves.

The difference they see in costs between their current office space and a new location could be down to the quality of the staff. Business centre’s who continue to train their teams to a high standard could be less likely to see retention rates decrease as Brexit starts to bite.

About the Author

Stephen Moore is a writer and marketing consultant supporting businesses in the commercial property sector. Find out more about Stephen at Google+.

The post Why Customer Service is important to your business post Brexit? appeared first on Loc8 Commercial Blog.

With investors keen to remove their funds from exposure to weakening confidence in parts of the economy like property and the financial sector, the feeling has been one of an impending recession.

The serviced office sector has been quite resilient to the ups and downs in the economy having weathered the downturn on 2008 remarkably well. The move then to look for short term property solutions to reduce long term risk meant that serviced office operators saw the longest period of sustained growth in its fifty plus year history.

The flexible workspace market has seen a number of mergers recently with new acquisitions taking place almost every month. When combined with the expansion of many providers like Citibase and Club Workspace it’s clear the sector is ploughing on regardless of the current economic climate. In a recent interview with Landmark CEO Richard Gill, Green Kinnear co-founder, Douglas Green says the recent consolidation in the sector looks set to continue in the short term and he goes on to talk about the expansion plans of a number of leading providers.

It may be still too early to say what will happen over the next six months, despite some analysts from UBS saying London property prices could fall by as much as 20% this year. This has been revised up from their previous estimate of 15% but it should also be noted that even at the very highest UBS estimate, this expected decline is a far cry from the 44% drop between 2007 and 2009.

These days the market is different from those unpredictable days of the so-called downturn. The banks exposure to commercial property debt is down from its £150bn peak in 2009, to around £85bn today.

With house prices stalling in the three months before the referendum, many experts have predicted a fall in prices in the months ahead, especially in London and Scotland. Markit chief economist Chris Williamson said, “This is the first time that prices have failed to rise in London since late 2012 in the quarter before the vote.” However, in July things are looking up. According to Knight Frank the negative outlook has failed to materialise, with London house sales up 38%, fueled by an influx of foreign investors attracted by the low pound.

This see-saw effect makes it very difficult to predict which way the property sector will go next, but all eyes are on the top property funds in the weeks ahead to see if current losses deepen or improve. With the appointment of Theresa May as the UK’s new Prime Minister this week, bureaucrats in Europe and the world financial markets are watching closely to see how she deals with the UK’s exit from the European Union.

Watch Theresa May’s full speech as Prime Minister below:

Video courtesy of ITV News

So watch this space to see what happens next. We will post updates as the situation develops.

About the Author

Stephen Moore is a writer and marketing consultant supporting businesses in the commercial property sector. Find out more about Stephen at Google+.

The post The Post Brexit implications for the Serviced Office Sector appeared first on Loc8 Commercial Blog.

With confusion growing, a large proportion of the electorate have yet to be swayed either way, something that is blamed on the negative campaigns about the benefits to business and the wider UK economy of EU membership. However, many polls are suggesting the vote could be swayed in favour of Brexit by the number of over 65’s who turn out to vote.

According to YouGov’s Stephan Shakespeare in an article published in The Times, his company’s online polls have corrected for this indecision and now represent a true snapshot of public opinion. He said “the deep human drive to avoid risk is likely to become increasingly powerful as we get closer to a real decision which cannot easily be changed once it is made.” The result, he says, is that “whatever the state of the polls today, it is impossible right now to predict the level of change in people’s views yet to come”.

This is by far one of the most important votes in recent memory, along with the Scottish Referendum in 2014, as the long term implications on the UK economy could either be positive or negative for future generations.

So what are the pro’s and con’s for UK businesses? We’ve looked at some of the main arguments on both sides.

Here are the pros:

• UK businesses and especially SME’s often see the EU trade regulations as unnecessary red tape especially in sectors like food and consumer goods. Leaving the EU would allow the UK Government to change these regulations, making it easier for businesses to sell their goods.
• The UK contributed over £13bn last year but received more than £4bn in support. By not paying £8bn to the EU it is believed that this saving of around 180 Euros per person in the UK would raise the prospect of tax reductions that could directly impact businesses regardless of size.
• Many believe the UK could have the same benefits as Iceland who are members of the European Economic Area (but not the EU) which comes without the confines of the red tape that is part of full membership.

And the cons:

• Some parts of the UK economy like farming could be hit hardest because of the loss of EU farming subsidies.
• There are several free grade agreements that the UK benefits from through its EU membership. Brexit would mean the country would have to negotiate agreements with these areas like Latin America for example.
• UK goods and services could be more expensive because of tariff changes that would be inevitable for businesses that trade in European countries outside the EU.
• The lack of import taxes within the EU helps UK businesses compete equally with other businesses across the continent. If the UK left there could be increased uncertainty which could have a negative impact on business growth in the future.

These pros and cons are responsible for so much uncertainty among UK businesses and voters, with many saying the campaigns for both sides of the European argument are not making it clear enough to make a decision on the big day.

The impact on the flexible workspace sector would be dependent on the challenges faced by SME’s and the large businesses that use serviced office space, managed space and flexible solutions. The sector has seen exceptional growth over the last few years with a growing number of workspace providers and increasing occupancy levels in areas that struggled during the down turn like Bristol, Manchester and the North East.

TAKE THE LOC8 COMMERCIAL SURVEY

To gauge the potential challenges faced by the growing sector we have put together a short survey to seek opinion from businesses across the UK. It takes under a minute to complete and we will publish the results from 23rd May.

CLICK TO TAKE THE SURVEY

About the Author

Stephen Moore is a writer and marketing consultant supporting businesses in the commercial property sector. Find out more about Stephen at Google+.

The post Will Brexit Affect your Business? appeared first on Loc8 Commercial Blog.

Here we ask UK business owners if they think Brexit will be good or bad for their businesses. We are particularly keen to hear the views of serviced office providers, flexible workspace providers and businesses who use these services.

TAKE THE SURVEY IN UNDER A MINUTE

Create your own user feedback survey

Thank you for your time. We will be publishing the results of the survey on 16th May on our social media channels and here on the blog.

The post Is Brexit Good For UK Businesses? Take the Survey appeared first on Loc8 Commercial Blog.