Depending on whether you’re based in a thriving city hub like Leeds or a countryside location like the Cotswolds – there are likely to be lots of options available to you when choosing new office space.
What criteria do you use to narrow down the hundreds of different options to just one perfect new office?
For most business owners, there are three key priorities. These are location, price and size – all three of which are tremendously important. Your office needs to be the right size both for now and to accommodate future growth, it needs to fit your budget and not cost the earth, and it needs to be in a convenient location for clients, customers and employees.
But what about the culture?
For many businesses, serviced offices are the most cost-effective and convenient route to take, as all the services, staff and facilities they need to hit the ground running are already in place. For freelancers, startups and small businesses, co-working spaces are the ideal solution.
For business owners searching for either of these options – shared workspace or co-working spaces – there is another absolutely crucial factor to consider alongside price, location and size. This is the culture of business.
Each and every organisation has a code of practice, a personality or an ethos – even if it’s only an unspoken set of principles. This not only governs the way your business runs on a day-to-day basis, but also the image it presents to the world – it’s what defines you as a company.
The type of business you run is also important, as you’ll want to work alongside other like-minded businesses in the same or similar sector. For example, a professional law firm working alongside young creative companies in a co-working space simply wouldn’t be the right fit, nor would a more ‘casual’ company in a building full of accountants and lawyers. You don’t want to feel out of place, because this is something your clients and customers will pick up on too. You need to find a natural and comfortable ‘home’ for your business.
How to avoid a culture clash
It’s very important to find a working space that aligns with your company’s culture. As we wrote in our blog titled ‘Does co-working and flexibility increase productivity’, the right fit, especially in a co-working space, can improve productivity and enable your business to thrive and grow. Get it wrong and you’ll feel uncomfortable in the workspace from the very first day, and you could find yourself looking for a new office or co-working space sooner than you think. To avoid a culture clash, add culture of business to price, location and size on your list of priorities and make sure to do some research on the culture of the space. Crucially, you need to spend some time on the premises, to really get a feel for it.
So, what to look for in terms of culture? Obviously, every business will have different needs, but there are bound to be some spaces that offer a healthy balance of cultures. For example, facilities like Carrwood Park that are all set up for businesses to get going from day one have a highly professional ethos – after all, they provide organisations with the offices and meeting rooms they need to impress clients and establish a credible professional image themselves.
Crucially though, they also have informal spaces for more relaxed meetings and work sessions, as well as breakout spaces in which to take a well-earned break. It is this balance of professional and informal that suits businesses so well – and it could be that this culture of business is the perfect fit for your company too.
For more advice on finding the right office space, subscribe to the Carrwood Park blog. For a better insight into the culture and ethos at Carrwood, download our brochure.
If you are looking for quality, friendly and professional offices, Leeds based Carrwood Park provides the perfect office solutions for companies and individuals looking to capitalise on the many benefits these types of offices provide.