Starting a business from home is a great way to cut costs and reduce the initial risks while you get things going. But eventually, it just won’t be practical to run a company from your house, especially if you are getting a lot of customers.
When it is just not possible to run things on your own anymore, you need to think about expanding. Ordinarily, that means hiring more staff and an office space for them to work in.
That is fine, but office space is expensive and a big jump in your operating costs could be the final nail in the coffin for your company if you can’t bring in enough revenue to pay for it.
So, what do you do for a proper work space? The good news is, working practices are changing and hiring a traditional office isn’t your only workplace option anymore.
These are the 3 best alternatives to hiring an office when you’re expanding your business.
1. Remote Workers
There are some jobs that require staff to be present in the office, but a lot of things can be done over email and files can easily be shared using the cloud. That means there are a lot of roles that can be done from home.
If you are hiring remote workers to do those jobs, you don’t need the extra space to house everybody. You can continue working from home yourself and your staff will do the same.
The other major benefit of using remote workers is that you are not limited by geography. Instead of only being able to hire people in the local area, you can get the best people from around the world. Check out more of our articles to find out where to source the best remote workers for your company.
2. Virtual Offices
Remote workers are great, but your business will still be registered to a residential address. That is not always an issue but it does look unprofessional to some people and it might put potential customers off.
The good news is, you can have the best of both worlds. Some sites offer a virtual office service.
You can register the business to an office address and have post sent there, which will then be passed on to you.
You don’t have to pay for the cost of hiring an office, but your customers will think that you are a big company with loads of staff operating out of a large office building.
3. Co-Working Spaces
If your business does require an office space that everybody can meet in from time to time, co-working spaces are the best solution. They are popping up all over the place at the minute, made famous by WeWork over the last several years.
You can hire these shared office spaces for short periods, usually using a subscription system. You might have to share with some other companies but you will get all of the same benefits of a normal office space for a fraction of the price. You also don’t have to pay for this working environment when you don’t need to use it.
There is no need to spend all of your money on an expensive office anymore. You can just use one of these cheaper alternatives instead in 2023 and beyond.
