Serviced Offices allow small to medium sized businesses or businesses that are rapidly growing interstate to establish themselves quickly and cost effectively in a given location. Setting up a new office from scratch is a very costly exercise and in many cases simply cannot be justified.

Setup costs can include but are not limited to office wiring (electrics and power), desks and office equipment, fit-outs (partitions, doors and security features), lighting, emergency and fire-protection audits, airconditioning maintenance, rental bond, personal guarantees(making you personally liable for potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars), and possibly a bank bond also.

In addition to setup costs, there are significant ongoing costs also. There’s the monthly rent, body corporate fees, electricity, Internet, Telephony, cleaning, security, water, council rates, contents insurance, public liability insurance and council services. By the time you’ve established your new office you’ve shelled out enormous sums of money and time. For a small company with limited cashflow this is not a smart option and many businesses fail because they do not properly look at the costs of establishing an office.

This is where the fully serviced office comes in. Many savvy entrepreneurs utilize serviced offices. Small to medium or rapidly expanding inter-state companies can utilize existing shared infrastructure. Serviced or shared offices allow companies to share expenses amongst a number of different companies all working together in close proximity whilst still operating their own individual businesses.

There are very big differences between the types of services and pricing strategies of the various shared office service providers. Many service providers provide small entry fees and charge for all additional services required. Others provide packages which can provide most of the services you might require.

Chris Mosely is CEO of The Cluster which provides  Serviced Offices