|
Easy
As 1-2-3
Business
Centres can make opening an office as easy as 1-2-3.
1-
Facilities
Avoid leasing commitments, office design, partitioning, decorating, real
estate search and negotiations.
2
- Staff
Avoid the hassles and overhead involved in hiring, training, and supervising
staff.
Telephone
answering services, word processing, fax services, mail forwarding, bulk
mailouts, fax broadcasting, order-taking, and a network of professionals
are available to serve you.
3
- Equipment
Avoid
investing unnecessary capital in expensive office furniture and equipment.
Business
Centres often offer fully furnished offices plus equipment and services
are on a pay-for-use basis.
Some
Advantages of Being In A Business Centre
 Business
Centres provides you access to the infrastructure and resources of a large
business, without the overhead, long-term obligations and capital start-up
costs. The flexibility of such services allows you to be more agile and
to respond to new opportunities at a moment's notice. This is vital since
the most successful businesses are those which identify and quickly adapt
to changing customer needs.
Lower Capital Investment
You no longer need to invest precious capital in furniture and expensive
equipment. Business Centres traditional provide the furniture, fax, photocopier,
as well as access to computers, laser printers, etc.
Reduced
Staff
The days of recruiting, training, and supervising your staff are gone
with reception and secretarial professionals to support you. Employment
contracts, absenteeism, holidays, vacation pay, government remittances,
and severance packages can be a thing of the past. You and your colleagues
can be more effective while having the security of knowing that professionals
are handling your phone calls while you are away from the office.
Low Cost
You can now have a fully furnished office for less than the price of a
secretary. Other plans are available for under $100 a month. At most Business
Centres, you only pay for the services that you need.
Efficient
Layout
Landlords normally only lease offices for a minimum 5-year term and 500
square feet and up. Now you can rent an office starting at 100 square
feet. Through an efficient layout, and by sharing reception, meeting,
kitchen, and other facilities, you actually require less space than you
would in a traditional office.
Hassle-Free
Set-Up
No lengthy leases, time consuming negotiations, design consultants and
decorators, and dealing with a myriad of suppliers. All this costs you
precious time and money. With a Business Centre manager taking care of
things for you, everything is in place for you to move in and get started
on your business.
Flexible
Lease Terms
From 1 hour to several years, Business Centres offers you the ultimate
in leasing flexibility allowing you to adapt quickly to changing market
conditions.
Telephone
Answering, Mail Handling & Identity Plans
 Maintain
your independence while enhancing your image with one of our identity
plans. These services can compliment any business, whether you work from
home, at clients' sites, or travel the globe. Since most Business Centre
are much more than a "mailbox" or "answering service", your service package
can vary as your needs change.
Benefits
Packages
You can be eligible for medical, dental and other group benefits packages
which as an individual could cost you much more!
One-Stop-Shopping
Business Centres usually offers one-stop shop-ping for all your business
needs from secretarial support, translation, proposal and technical writing
to graphic and web page design.
Networking
In a shared office environment, you gain the advantage of developing a
larger network of business contacts. While this happens informally, some
Business Centres also organizes various events and actively encourages
clients to work together.
Association
& Contact Management
Business Centres often provide a full range of services to assist you
in managing membership and contact lists, to mailouts, accounting, deposits
and secretarial support.
Strategic
Alliances
Most Business Centres welcome and encourage strategic alliances with like-minded
individuals and organizations.
Technology
Business Centres often provide consulting and professional services in
use of the Internet, multimedia and other technological solutions, helping
you to stay one step ahead of the competition.
Referral
Bonus
Many Business Centres rewards its clients for referring colleagues and
clients to us with a referral credit. A typical referral bonus involves
getting up to 50% off on month's fees (if your referral signs a 1 year
contract for services). Maximums usually apply.
Consultants
Network
Business Centres often have a database of consultants with a broad range
of skills and experience. This means that if you are looking for contact
opportunities or like-minded professionals to partner with on projects,
Business Centres can make your job easier.
Preferred
Suppliers
A lot of Business Centres have or are in the process of printing a list
of preferred suppliers. This gives you easy access to a variety of professional
services, as well as a means for additional promotion.
Newsletter
One of the best ways to promote your company is by educating your potential
clients. Some Business Centres produce a newsletter and most welcomes
articles from their clients. Centretown Corporate Services, a Business
Centre located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada even print a "Good News Bulletin".
A bulletin dedicated to keeping clients informed of new clients and other
information which may affect their businesses.
Things
to Look Out For in A Business Centre
Business
centres are becoming more common, but buyer beware - here are a few things
to look out for...............
Location
- are they conveniently located near your clients and suppliers?
Stability
- how many years have they been in business; how stable is the clientele;
what is the vacancy rate? Are they part of a large chain of business centres?
If so, be careful because if other centres aren't doing well, then they
may drain their financial resources. Also, they may have corporate policies
which make them less flexible.
Atmosphere
- do they provide an environment which will make you feel comfortable
and where you can be productive?
Staff
- are they friendly and are they all fluently bilingual?
Support
- what other services are available?
Price
& flexibility of services - will they put together a customized package
to meet your needs? Are they trying to sell you something you don't need?
Telephone
lines - can you install your existing telephone number? Can/will they
connect your calls to your home or other office?
Summary
of the Advantages of Being in a Business Centre
- lower
start-up costs - no need for capital to be tied up in furniture and
equipment
- fewer
or no staff - reception services are included in the basic office rental
- state
of the art equipment with no equipment leases
- business
and realty taxes are included in the rent
- building
operating costs, escalations, and daily cleaning are included
- easy expansion
into new markets
|
