Finding Offices In London

[JGJ]

Hi I am starting up a business that is predominately sales and would really appreciate some advice with finding economical offices in London

I have run in to a situation I did not anticipate until I started looking for offices. It is becoming hurdle with needs to be overcome at the moment.

It seems I have two options Serviced Offices, or Lease

1. Serviced offices
I have found from viewing the serviced offices in the City of London or the West End they are in the Region of £450 (min) to £750 per desk (the norm). I am hiring four sales people ASAP with myself. As there will be a high volume of calls made per day I have found that one of the many “extras” added on Serviced offices you really get stung on the phone calls more and it seems that my outgoings would be very high. I am being cautious with my first year projected sales figures and don’t want to push my budget and risk financial problems in six months time.

2. Leased Property
First I am finding it difficult to find suitable offices to Lease for less then 600 sq ft. I find a leasehold property will be more cost effective as I can install my own phone system and save close to £10k
.

I have thus far interviewed a few people but without any “concrete” offices it seems to be turning off a lot of high quality applicants. I have spent over £1,000 on job sites to get the right person but am really stuck on trying to find somewhere to work from. If I find somewhere to lease I have been informed a lease will take about 2 months to turnover plus have to put down six months deposit, and furnish completely. If I go into service office before a lease goes through it’s hard to pay £700 per desk upfront for people I have not yet employed but then it’s hard to just pay for one desk if I am going to expand. If anyone has been through this situation, and I am sure many have I would truly appreciate any advice.

 

[weddingcrafter]

Have you thought about an office share?

I worked for a compnay in the City a few years back who had a bit of extra capacity in their offices and who sub-let to other companies - usually start-ups with about the same number of people as yourself.

You would need to network hard to find something, but it might be worth asking around.

Alison

 

[JGJ]

Yes I know of an office share available now. It's not really an option for me if it is open plan but a separate office sublet could be ok.

 

[DuaneJackson]

Have a chat to Workspace Group - www.workspacegroup.co.uk - they have lots of offices available all over London and are very good landlords.

 

[ImageStudioz]

Try www.gumtree.com

im sure you could find somthing on there office share wise

 

[sherry_d]

you can also try citibase.co.uk and mlsbusinesscentres.com

If you need 5 desks i am sure you can really negotiate.

I am moving into a serviced office in London Victoria and my exprience is you can negotiate everything. they would rather have someone in there rather than empty.

I have looked at a lot of places in the last few months in Central London and towards the west end but i was just looking for a two persons office. You will will be looking at spending around £2500 for a 5person office. Do you also need the office to have a reception area. you can get cheaper serviced officed minus the reception and telephone answering

You can e-mail me thru my profile and i can tell you some of the places you may check out and a few bargaining tips

 

[PeteA]

I have a friend who has an office in N1

He is moving out in Sept, give me a shout if you want more info

Pete

 

[JGJ]

Thanks for the help and adive.

I have looked into a lot of serviced offices and i agree 2500 for 5 people in a serviced office is the norm. So that is 30,000 PA.

This is a bit expensive but I could probably justify if it weren't for the standard BT rate phone that most of them offer. Plus most of our calls with be to mobile phones. Even the places that have VOIP are charging more than any VIOP provider out there.

I have bugeted 15k+ PA for phone calls with standard BT charges. I can reduce that to about 5-7K PA if i use my own phone system in a conventional office.


I think conventional is the way to go if i am going to be conservative with my first year budget.

I am seeing another place today so with some luck it will be suitable.

Thanks again,
Jason

 

[peterh]

Jason,

I have just moved into a serviced office and had the same problems as you with the phones. What we found to be the best solution in the end was to take 1 phone (this is a normally a requirement) and we then got our own BT phone line installed to the office as well. From this we have setup our own broadband and our own VOIP phones which run over our broadband connection dramatically reducing the cost of making calls.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Peter

 

[JGJ]

Peter,

That sounds like a good idea. I did ask about using my own phone line at each place but they all told me that i have to use theirs. I saw some good conventional office space yesterday and I am looking at an office share next week that has its own entrance so i think things will be sorted soon. :smile:

Regards,
Jason

 

[[email protected]]

Hi.

Your best best might be to look at offices/area that doesnt have a flash postcode to start, we deal with many people like yourself who are just starting up.

We advertise serviced offices throughout the UK.

I hope you find it useful.

Best wishes


Tom
Abacus Real Estate (01483 200750)
www.serviced-offices.biz/?refid=319