Traditional offices are often expensive, inflexible and come with complex contracts, so what other options are available for small businesses? Discover four alternatives to traditional offices and find one that suits you.
Coworking Space
If you’re feeling lonely and missing human interaction, consider coworking spaces. Coworking spaces are a great way to network and find support from other businesses. You get to be in an environment where everyone is motivated to grow. They’re considerably more affordable than traditional offices but still offer similar benefits, sharing common areas like kitchens.
Workit Spaces has three Sydney-based coworking hubs in Alexandria. Being just outside the CBD, you’ll get more bang for your buck, but you’ll still have easy access from Redfern and Green Square train stations.
All locations offer a range of coworking options, including serviced offices, dedicated desks and day passes.
If you are running an online store, consider our eCommerce Business Solutions. On top of desks and offices, you’ll find storage, warehousing and logistics, all under one roof. You can receive pallets and containers at our loading dock and drop off packages at one of our shipping stations, with all major couriers picking up packages daily. There is also an onsite photography studio offering large cycloramas or product cycloramas.
Executive Suite
If your budget is a bit bigger, an executive suite might be a great option for you. Executive suites work in a similar kind of way to coworking spaces, except, they typically have a more corporate and private culture. You get your own small office space but share amenities such as reception areas and conference rooms.
Unlike traditional office spaces where leases are long and fixed, you get more flexibility with executive suites. Some even offer month-to-month contracts. Additionally, rather than paying for bills separately, you pay one price. The lower commitments and affordability make it a better option for small businesses that might be scaling up and down more often.
Virtual Office
Virtual offices are becoming more popular with demand steadily rising over the past few years. Essentially, a virtual office allows you to register your business with ASIC and Google Maps so that you don’t have to use your home address. You can get your mail sent to the location and sometimes get other benefits as well.
At Workit Spaces, our virtual offices come with a range of benefits. Send your mail to our hubs and we’ll keep it safe. We can receive packages and pallets as well, depending on the package you choose. As an added bonus, you’ll get four to 16 hours of access every month to our physical spaces, including desks, meeting rooms and studios.
A virtual office could be the perfect solution for small businesses requiring physical space sporadically. Perhaps you only need a space for meeting with clients or team meetings. Workit Spaces virtual offices are flexible so you can buy more hours of access if you need it (at a discounted rate, too).
Work From Home
Working from home will likely keep its place as one of the most popular alternatives to traditional offices even after the pandemic subsides. Not only will it help to keep you safe, working from home doesn’t cost you any extra money. In fact, in some cases, you can actually claim your housing expenses as a tax return if you’ve been working from home.
But working from home might not be the most ideal situation for everyone. If you don’t have a dedicated office space, setting one up or finding the space could be difficult. If you live with kids, pets or other people, it can prove very difficult to avoid distractions, or just the fridge! It can also be hard to get out of the work mindset in the evening or on the weekend if you are working from home.
Lack of face-to-face interaction is also a downside of working from home. Though instant messaging, video conferencing and other online tools have made communication easier, sometimes it’s just not the same.
What other alternatives to traditional offices are there?
If you are a solopreneur or run a small team you could also consider public spaces. This won’t be suitable for everyone, but it can be worth seeing what your community has to offer. There might just be a great spot at the community centre, café or even the pub!
With so many options available, you’ll just need to weigh up the options of what suits your needs best. Whether it’s coworking at a serviced office, dedicated desk, a corporate executive suite, virtual office or you just want to work from home, make sure you redesign the workplace and make it work for you.
