It may seem like a silly question in some ways. Do you need to invest in premises for your business to survive? You can argue both ways. So many factors come into play when you are looking for the right place to set up, and sometimes it can depend on the prospects of your business. Can you afford to upgrade to a bigger premises? Or do you need to downgrade? The state of the business and the forecasts for the next 2, 3 or 4 years may mean the difference between operating in an office in a bustling tech village. Or operating out of your kitchen!
The Case For A Business Premises
If you are running a successful company, the benefits of investing in business premises are many. Firstly the benefits of the location can carry a particular business currency that will make potential partners sit up and take notice. For example, if you are operating in a thriving IT community in the trendier parts of London, such as Shoreditch. This will give you more sway as a business in comparison to running it from a residential address.
There is also a lot to be said for business camaraderie. Workplace communication is vital for many reasons, and there are infinite advantages to having your staff all congregate under one roof. From workplace meetings to the social aspects. Having business communication within the organisation helps to build up the firm from a staff standpoint. Workplace relationships will blossom and improve as a result.
The Case Against A Business Premises
The first, most obvious case for not investing in business premises, is the cost. By not having working premises this saves an infinite amount of hassle from the point of view of travelling to work, health and safety, building maintenance, etc. By saving so much money, you can place your investments into other avenues and grow your business a lot more.
While it is cheaper to run a business from home, there can be issues regarding presenting a good business front. A prime example of this is the business address. As the registered address will be of a residential property, this doesn’t give your business image a boost! The way to navigate around this is by paying dedicated companies to provide a professional business mailbox address for you. You can pay these firms monthly fees, and they can forward the mail to you. This also helps to keep your residential address discrete. If this is something that may be of interest to you, click here for more information.
As well as giving your business a professional image, it can be difficult to maintain when you’re running a fleet of staff blindly. By this I mean you are only relying on email contact. However away around this is to install a VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol) phone system. These systems can connect to remote workers ensuring you have consistent contact.
There are course many other factors that can be taken into account if you need to run your business from home or from a location. Staff, finances and the infancy of the business will determine many factors. There are pros and cons to both sides. So choose wisely.
