The last blog, you might recall we wrote about what you’re really getting when you choose a serviced office. This post, we’re exploring four somewhat esoteric things you probably hadn’t yet considered when thinking about choosing a workspace for your business.
Office chats as productivity and revenue tool
You’ll Have Better Ideas – Think Workspace as Communication Tool
You might have heard that a few years ago, Yahoo revoked all its work from home privileges. People were shocked! Why? Because, according to their HR Chief, “some of the best decisions come from the hallway discussions.” And if you’ve spent any time at all incorporate, you’ll know that can absolutely be true.
It’s those moments when you bump into someone and have a chat about seemingly unrelated things that can ignite great ideas. Even Australia’s own Commonwealth Bank has eschewed too many closed-door offices in favour of open congregation and collaboration spaces.
And the research is with them on this. A review of space design usage done by Samsung and written up in Harvard Business Review showed that face-to-face interactions (ie: your daily collisions with others) were by far the most important activity in an office. Being in a space that’s designed to promote these activities creates positive outcomes.
But if you’re a solopreneur working from home, aside from talking to the dog, cat, spouse or kids, you’re probably not getting too much by way of insightful thought provocation during the day. Read: less positive outcomes.
According to the research, workspaces can favour exploration, engagement or energy or a mixture of all of those things. For example, if you want an improvement in productivity, you need to favour engagement (interaction).
Workspace as Productivity Helper
That’s not to say offices with doors that shut aren’t great – they are if you need quiet time/thinking space to get things done. Rather, it’s what you do in your breaks that are crucial to being more productive in your focus times.
Working within a larger space like a serviced office where everyone has their business / entrepreneurial ‘game hat’ on, is likely to get you into the right headspace for a good solid work session when the door is closed. But, just as importantly, it can provide you with opportunities to ‘bump into’ people and spark ideas that might solve problems and create new partnerships.
Workspace as Revenue Generator
In fact, the HBR workplace data showed if that salespeople can increase their interactions by 10%, sales are also likely to grow by about the same amount. Apparently, it’s all about bumping into people over coffee – not the scheduled catch up – just the “oh, hey – how’re things?” interactions you have on a daily basis. Yes, really.
Now as a business owner, you’re all about your sales revenue. So what are you waiting for, go bump into 10%, 20% or 50% more people and grow your revenue?
Workspace as Stress Minimiser
As a business owner who is likely in a growth phase, you’ve got enough stress on your plate, winning business, dealing with clients, suppliers (and/or staff), deadlines, etc. You don’t need the added extras of running out of toilet paper, coffee, the internet going down, cleaning the bathroom before the client visits weighing down your mind or your to-do list. With a space like a serviced office, that’s all taken care of for you.
Now I’d be willing to bet you’d not thought about those things as reasons to choose (or not) a workspace.
Of course, if you’re intrigued and you’d like to see how a serviced office space can fit your business and how ours can help meet all four of the considerations above, we’d love to chat. You can call us on 1300 318 680 or drop us a note.
