Statistically speaking, small businesses are defined as being companies with under 100 employees. But those numbers are not often broken down by the number of office staff or staff who may work in manufacturing, distribution or other areas of the business. So, where and how do you choose to have your office space?
Depending on the business model or type, you will probably find that in manufacturing, small businesses have less than 10% of the workforce in the office. Service industry companies, on the other hand, have a much higher percentage of their staff working in the office, likely because they’re closer to their clients.
Most manufacturing-based small businesses will try to keep the sales, marketing and administrative staff in office space that is within the manufacturing facility – to save on costs by having only one facility to maintain. Service-based small businesses that need to be closer to the customer, will locate their office space either where their customers are, or they will try to locate in a central downtown location.
It does not take too much thinking for a service-based small business to find office space downtown or close by. Service-based businesses not only want to be where their customers are located, but also where clients expect them to be. It is not always about the convenience of the location. It can be about the prestige of a location where a business has its office space. This is especially true for business-to-business (B3B) organizations who service larger downtown customers and clients.
Choosing where to set up an office space can be challenging for manufacturing-based industries. Getting the right office space is especially true for small businesses that have limited resources to put into administration. Sometimes keeping administration at its manufacturing plant is more economical than having smaller sales offices located closer to clients.
Many small businesses (whether manufacturing or service-based) with less than 20 office workers, will choose to have their business address and sales operations at an office business centre. This serviced office space solution is simply because they do not have to worry about the administration and capital costs involved in setting up their office space.
The serviced office industry has been booming over the past few decades because small business owners are learning the benefits of hassle-free office space. Small business owners do not want to worry about getting the right lease on raw office space and then figuring out how to furnish it and get the right equipment. Many small business owners want to have serviced office space so they can spend more time on growing their core business.