A lease generally requires a commitment of 3 to 5 years. The longer you sign for the larger the potential rent free period you can negotiate with the Landlord. However, rent-free periods are generally only available in times of economic uncertainty or if the space has been vacant for a while. Therefore, the fact that you can get a rent-free period should be a trigger for you to review your plan to rent office space on a lease basis carefully.

Serviced office space is offered from a 3 month period to a 2 year period. You choose what works best for your company.

If you are not in a lease currently the upfront costs must be considered, a little like moving out of home for the first time. You will possibly have an agent find you the space and they will charge you a fee, you will have to engage a lawyer for the lease negotiations, you will be required to pay a deposit unless your business has a lot of cash in the bank or a strong balance sheet. You will be required to pay your rent quarterly in advance, pay your own business rates and purchase or lease all of the necessary equipment and furniture for your new leased space. You also have considerations such as IT and telecoms contracts, security, cleaning, health and safety and maintenance.

Serviced office space is a simple Licence which does not involve any legal costs. Rent is paid monthly in advance and includes IT, telecoms, utility bills, business rates, security and cleaning. The best part? The office also comes with furniture. The centre also benefits break out areas, kitchen areas with free bean to cup coffee machines, meeting and conference space , shower facilities and secure bike storage.

You can look at sharing space with another company, either a supplier or client who you are closely aligned with culturally and commercially. This works well for some companies.

Co-working space. This covers a multitude of options but most commonly, an open area shared with many other people or companies. You choose a desk , sit down and work at for the day.

Serviced offices. This flexible office space option has been around since the late 70s. Barrister’s chambers, however, are the original serviced office and have been around much longer; Barristers are self-employed but rent an office in a building that has a Clerk to assist them, all costs are equally shared out amongst the barristers each month. This is, in essence, the serviced office concept. The only real difference is that where the Chambers are not for profit, the majority of serviced office operators are. The non-profit organisations are called innovation centres and are run by either local councils or Universities.

When looking for serviced offices, you will be applying the same principles you used when searching for leased office space. So the key things will be size, office environment and external environment, location, term and price but now you can consider other things such as flexibility to expand and contract, availability of free meeting rooms, availability of chargeable meeting rooms, staff facilities, client benefits, other products available, quality of customer service, quality of property management, networking opportunities, resilience of IT services/infrastructure.

As the serviced office operator manages your entire office environment you need to dig a little deeper than the five areas you would have for a lease. Ask to speak to some of their clients for references, ask them when the last major property incident was and how it affected their current clients, ask when the last major communications infrastructure failure was and why, find out what their average length of stay is. If you are using a broker ask them what the reputation of this operator is within their industry. Purchasing a serviced office is no different to purchasing any other service it is about the quality of delivery! Remember it is a service which you are purchasing not a property deal because they are looking after your whole office environment. If you are ISO compliant the operator should have a document which answers all of your necessary questions. If you are not ISO compliant this list of questions is quite a good one to ask for!

Serviced office operators move clients in and out of their space all of the time. Therefore, they are good at it! This is a definite plus over leased space. You don’t move in and find that the water is not on, the internet isn’t working or your furniture hasn’t arrived etc. You literally move your computers in, set them up and you are back in business.

So, that means minimum interruption to your business. So finally we haven’t talked about the price! Serviced offices normally price their space by the desk. However, just to let you know a little secret, it all comes back to sq ft! Some operators give a lot of space per desk and some don’t. Some centres allow you to add another desk to your office at no cost – some don’t. Different areas of the country vary in price , as do different areas of London.

Due to a Licence being shorter in length than a lease, serviced offices, as a rule, do not give rent free periods. However, they will from time to time offer deals, a bit like Black Friday! These deals will be things like one month free, a fixed renewal price or ramping up pricing over the course of the agreement.

Remember though, that getting the best price does not ensure you get the best service. Great negotiation is about a win-win outcome for both parties.

However, the pricing is only part of the equation, you need to look at everything to make your decision. If you find an office with a cheap desk rate there will be a reason.

• They have lots of space to sell and is cheap- why?
• What happens on renewal, will your price jump up dramatically?
• Is the office environment well looked after?
• Will it look tired and worn in six months?
• The staff that you met , will they still be there in three months?
• Is their IT infrastructure resilient?

So, in summary, if your business strategy is bulletproof and there is no possibility of it not being achieved, leased offices are for you. If there is the remotest chance that your strategy will need to be adjusted, then flexible office space in the form of serviced offices is the right solution for you.