There are many reasons why companies find themselves needing temporary office space. One of the most urgent needs for temporary office space occurs when a company is hit by a disaster, whether natural or man-made. The company cannot afford to just close up while they recover or search for new office space, so they look to business centres that have furnished offices that can be moved into within a few hours rather than a few days. So within mere hours, a company can be back to work and doing what it does. This is especially true if employees work on laptop computers and their files are stored on a remote cloud server.
But there are other reasons why some companies seek out temporary office space, so lets explore them here.
Some companies must wait to take possession of their new office space because it is not yet ready. It often happens that a company will plan the end of its current lease to coincide with the date they are to take possession of new offices. Sometimes construction delays or other technical problems prevent them from taking possession for a few weeks or a few months, yet the company must vacate their current offices. It will look for a temporary office space, preferably a furnished serviced office, so it can avoid expensive office start-up costs and avoid a second move. The company simply puts its current office furniture into storage or may be purchasing new office furniture for new offices.
There are also companies that are new to town and are seeking to set up a local presence. They need temporary office space to operate from until they can find a permanent office for their business. Because they do not have to sign a long-term lease, they can stay for a few months or even a few years until they find the right place. When One Satellite Radio first came to Canada, they rented temporary team space for their 30 employees for a year and a half. Other smaller companies who wanted temporary office space at Telsec have stayed for years and have even stopped looking for other permanent office space. They have established 1 Yonge Street as their business address and their customers know that address as their corporate headquarters.
Then there are companies who need temporary office space as an overflow office to accommodate extra employees, or even to use for a special project away from the regular office. These companies choose serviced offices at a business centre so they can avoid purchasing furniture, office equipment, photocopiers, fax machines and other services they would need to get set up in a traditional raw office space. They also do not need to worry about setting up phone lines and Internet service for a short period of time – and most importantly, the phones and Internet are usually up and working within an hour anyway. One such temporary office space client was an executive that worked for another company which was located on another floor of the building (while his floor and office were being renovated). He liked his office and view so much that he had his company negotiate a long-term price on the office so that he would not have to move back into his old office.
So as you can see, there are plenty of reasons for companies to seek temporary office space. Why not tell us about the time you needed temporary office space?