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Year: 2020

Better business continuity with virtual offices

Posted on by aleks

Our virtual offices in London and Manchester are the perfect way to improve business continuity if you want to be able to work from home or from any other remote location at short notice.

We offer virtual office addresses that match our serviced offices in Manchester and London, giving you a physical contact address on the Isle of Dogs adjacent to Canary Wharf, or on Exchange Quay or Clippers Quay in Salford Quays, adjacent to the MediaCityUK development.

However, you don’t have to work on-site from our physical serviced offices. Instead, you can work from home, a local hotdesking facility, or anywhere else that gives you what you need to get the job done.

If all you need is an internet connection, you could be in your bedroom, home office or local coffee shop, yet contactable using professional details like a central London or Salford Quays postal address and geographic landline telephone number.

Go virtual for better business continuity

Virtual offices are convenient if you don’t need physical space to run your business from, but they can also enable better business continuity if you only need to work remotely some of the time.

For example, if transport disruption leaves you unable to make the morning commute to our serviced offices in Manchester and London, you can seamlessly transition to working from a virtual office until your travel route is restored.

Your business gains greater flexibility and resilience in the face of all kinds of disruptions, and if you employ a workforce, you make it easier for them to keep working too.

Here when you need us

Working from virtual offices in London and Manchester doesn’t mean you can’t have access to physical facilities on-site too – whether that means serviced office space for staff who need to be there in person, or meeting rooms you book as and when you need them.

In addition to our serviced offices, we have meeting rooms in Manchester and London, again matching the postal addresses of our virtual offices, so if you occasionally need to meet with important clients, suppliers, investors or you need a professional place for recruitment days, we’re here.

Just let us know ahead of time and subject to availability, we can book a meeting room in London or Manchester at our well-appointed office buildings.

Again, it’s about allowing you to work the way you need or want to, but with the best business continuity whether that’s in the face of disruption, or just across different ways of working.

Find out more

Flexible working practices are allowing businesses to do more with the resources at their disposal, whether your company is just you or a sizeable remote workforce, while ensuring the transition from working on-site, to working from home or at distance, is as seamless as possible.

To find out more about our virtual offices in London and Manchester, contact the Serviced Office Company today and we can help you to improve your business’s flexibility and resilience while maintaining a professional public image.

Flexible workplaces unlock competitive advantage for SMEs

Posted on by aleks

If you’re a small business that makes use of flexible workplaces like serviced offices, meeting rooms for hire and virtual offices, you could be sitting on a competitive advantage just waiting to be unlocked.

According to the Small Report, an analysis of UK SMEs published in February 2020 by Small Business Britain, flexible workplaces are one thing start-up companies should be shouting about.

The report includes a checklist of opportunities for small businesses to tap into, and makes flexible workplaces an item in their own right.

“Showcase your good work,” the checklist advises. “As a small business, you are likely creating a flexible workplace for yourself and others and looking after your staff and the local community.

“Start telling others about the great work you do and make this a competitive advantage.”

How flexible workspace supports staff

A flexible workspace like our serviced offices in London and Manchester provides several ways to support the wellbeing of your employees.

We provide kitchen facilities so staff can get refreshments throughout the day, as well as breakout rooms where they can relax in comfort while away from their desks.

Our meeting rooms in Manchester and London can be booked as and when you need them, giving staff some private space for meetings, interviews and training sessions.

And as your business grows, you can scale up your workspace too by expanding into available office space in the same building.

This all means your employees benefit from comfortably furnished, brightly decorated office interiors with all of the space and equipment they need to get their job done to a high standard.

Greet your supply chain in flexible meeting rooms

Our flexible meeting rooms for hire in Manchester and London are not only for internal meetings; they can also be used to host visitors from your external supply chain, including suppliers and customers alike.

They give you a private place to negotiate future arrangements and sign contracts, or just to catch up on progress with your key clients whose custom is crucial to the ongoing growth of your organisation.

You don’t face continuing running costs for this space. It’s just there when you need it, subject to availability, and when you book a meeting room in advance we can make sure it’s all set up and ready for your event to begin on time.

What else do you need?

If you have clear ideas about what your small business needs from your workspace in order to thrive, we want to hear them so we can let you know if our serviced offices in London and Manchester already cater to your needs, or if we can do so easily in the future.

We are proud of all the SMEs who have used our serviced offices as a way to get off the ground while keeping premises overheads to a minimum, and we look forward to supporting many more of Britain’s small businesses in their early stages in the years to come.

That’s not to say you have to be a new start-up to benefit from the flexible workspace of serviced offices; many of our tenants stay for the long term and continue to enjoy the advantages of all the on-site amenities we provide.

The unseen effects of bright and airy office space

Posted on by aleks

Our serviced office spaces are designed to be bright and spacious, with plenty of natural light wherever possible and enough room to comfortably move around.

This has obvious aesthetic appeal – you spend your work days in a pleasant, comfortable environment complete with shared meeting rooms, kitchen facilities and breakout rooms for relaxation.

But there’s more to it than meets the eye. Research published in Italy last summer looked at the effects of the interior design of office space on occupants’ circadian rhythm, which governs the sleep cycle and other factors like daytime alertness.

The study first looked at the optimal conditions for working under artificial lights and then introduced natural daylight to see if this had a further effect on occupants’ melatonin levels, using a measure called Equivalent Melanopic Lux or EML.

A helping hand for daylight

According to the results, natural daylight provides a higher level of indoor illuminance, which helps to increase EML.

But the article conceded that at certain times of the year and when the weather is overcast, natural light alone is unable to deliver the levels of light needed and artificial lights must be used to assist.

In these circumstances, bright office interiors have another advantage – their brighter walls reflect more of the light from both natural and artificial sources, keeping office interiors well lit with less energy consumed.

That means white walls and other reflective surfaces are not only visually pleasing, they also sustain the circadian rhythms of employees and reduce energy bills in the workplace too.

Comfort from colour

If a plain white office doesn’t sound appealing, don’t worry – the study also looked at the effect of colour, which you can find on accent walls and furniture throughout our shared office spaces and meeting rooms.

The research found that coloured panels with high surface reflectance could further boost EML by nearly 10% in offices with a grey interior and by more than 1% in white offices.

According to the research, colours with shorter wavelengths – such as the blue-green end of the spectrum – are especially effective at achieving this.

We believe strongly in the benefits of having some colour around the workplace, as you’ll see in many of our meeting rooms and serviced offices.

You can also add your own branding and decor to the office space you occupy, giving you free rein to include any colours you choose to help boost employee wellbeing and productivity.

Best practice for EML

The International WELL Building Institute’s WELL Standard sets out minimum recommended EML levels for the workplace, including:

  • At least 200 EML at over 75% of workstations between 9am and 1pm.
  • Minimum 150 EML at all workstations using electric lights.
  • Break rooms with at least 250 EML via daylight and/or artificial lights.

Employees can improve their own circadian rhythm further by avoiding bright lights as bedtime approaches – the WELL Standard recommends no brighter than 50 EML in living environments, including bathrooms and bedrooms, at night-time.

By getting bright light in the daytime and reducing EML levels in the evenings, the natural circadian rhythm stays on track, helping employees to get enough sleep and arrive refreshed and ready for work the next day, every day.

What do clients love about Serviced Office Company?

Posted on by aleks

Our serviced offices and meeting rooms in Manchester, MediaCityUK and London have seen plenty of tenants over the years and have served as virtual offices for even more.

So what is it that keeps customers coming back year after year, meeting after meeting? We publish testimonials to our website so you can see for yourself and the answer is… everything!

Here we’ve picked out some of the benefits our clients mention time and time again in their positive feedback.

Location

We work hard to bring your serviced offices in London and Manchester’s most desirable locations, from Canary Wharf to Salford Quays and MediaCityUK.

So it’s always great when a happy customer praises our convenient yet highly sought-after locations.

This is especially true for virtual office customers, who might otherwise find it impossible to get a professional-looking postcode or geographic telephone number in the areas we serve.

Ease of Access

Our locations are not just about looking good on paper – they’re also easy to access via public transport and road alike.

Serviced offices in London at Davenport House are minutes from the nearest DLR station, while our serviced offices in Manchester are well served by Metrolink and other public transport.

All of our office buildings and meeting rooms are close to water, with many rooms offering a direct view out and plenty of natural daylight, so your working day doesn’t feel like you’re trapped within four walls.

Meeting Rooms

Our meeting rooms in Manchester and London are more than just an add-on for our serviced office tenants – we put just as much care and attention into keeping them well appointed.

Again, client testimonials often praise the efforts we go to, especially those who have booked one of our delicious business lunches.

If you want a private place to hold a meeting with all the facilities you need – whether it’s a buffet lunch or audiovisual equipment – give us a call.

Staff

We pride ourselves on the professionalism of our employees, so it’s always great when our tenants take pride in our level of service too.

Whether you’re a serviced office tenant or you make use of our virtual office service, you’ll get to know our reception team well – and so will your employees, customers and other visitors.

Our seamless service means that our professionalism will always reflect positively on your business too and we hear time and time again from clients who are impressed by how well we meet their needs and how quickly we can respond to requests.

Flexibility

Flexibility is at the core of providing good serviced office space and we meet our clients’ needs in so many different ways in this area.

Virtual offices in Manchester and London mean you can have a professional address and telephone number without even working on-site from our offices.

Meeting rooms can be booked on an ad hoc basis, and serviced office tenants have the opportunity to expand as your business grows (subject to available space).

So if you’re looking to grow your operation in an environment that gives you everything you need, add your name to the list of very happy Serviced Office Company customers today.

WLTM: The importance of meeting rooms in business

Posted on by aleks

We live in a digital world and for some people in business, that means a virtual world. But meeting rooms still play an important role in bringing people together too.

It all depends on what works best for you. Google was born in a garage in 1998 but now has offices all over the world.

Some jobs can be done from anywhere, and for those people we offer virtual offices, giving you a professional-looking address and telephone number while you work from wherever you want.

But if you need to meet investors, suppliers or customers face-to-face, a formal meeting room can help you to put forward a professional image in person.

Our meeting rooms in Manchester and London are designed to do just that, in the business-like surroundings of our serviced offices and equipped well with ergonomic office furniture and other facilities.

Do meeting rooms matter?

In short, yes they do. A famous quote attributed to Apple innovator Steve Jobs says: “There’s a temptation, in our networked age, to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions.”

Whether this is wholly true is up for debate, an ever increasing number of entrepreneurs are making a success of working via virtual offices from anywhere with an internet connection.

Research by Great Business Schools found that 70% of young professionals in the USA did not believe it is necessary to physically go into the office anymore and 83% work remotely for at least some of the time.

But this is only one side of the story, and it’s not a question of whether physical meeting rooms are necessary – it’s a question of whether or not they are preferable.

The value of meeting rooms

The same study found that 95% of people believe face-to-face meetings are essential to maintain business relationships over the long term.

In-person meetings were especially popular for negotiations, with 93% preferring to meet face-to-face when negotiating with people of other cultural backgrounds or who speak a different first language, and 82% choosing physical meeting rooms to negotiate important contracts.

On average, 84% of people said they prefer physical meetings – even if they don’t believe they are essential to conducting business.

The research also revealed that most communication in business meetings is non-verbal (55%) with 38% of information inferred from inflection and only 7% from the actual choice of words used.

It’s a list that goes on and on, and it’s remarkable to see how many of the statistics are up around the 80-90% range or even higher, really highlighting how meeting rooms are still rated highly by the vast majority of people in business.

With our serviced meeting rooms in London and Manchester available to hire on an ad hoc basis, as well as our virtual offices in both cities for when you work remotely, you can have the best of both worlds – the flexibility of a digital career and the professionalism of an in-person meeting room when you need it.

Serviced offices help you avoid a sedentary work day

Posted on by aleks

There’s plenty of advice about keeping good posture while sitting at a desk all day, but serviced offices help you to avoid becoming too sedentary by giving you plenty of opportunity to move around throughout the day.

In recent weeks we’ve looked at the option to cycle to work or arrive on public transport, both of which help to keep you more mobile than simply sitting behind the wheel of a car on your morning and evening commute.

But you’re likely to spend about ten times longer at work than you spend on your commute, so anything you can do to keep mobile in the workplace can have a big impact too.

Our on-site facilities in our serviced offices in Manchester and London give you a choice of different ways to get up and stretch your legs, as well as some much-needed thinking time away from your computer screen.

Get refreshed

One of the most obvious options is to visit the kitchen facilities for a snack or drink – which has the added benefit of giving you extra energy or hydration when you need it most.

With on-site kitchen areas in our serviced offices in London and Manchester, refreshments are right there when you need them, even if it’s just an excuse to take a screen break and stand up for a while.

All of our supplied office furniture is ergonomically designed by recognised brand names in the business, but as comfortable as you might be at your desk, it’s always good to change position once in a while.

To enable this, we also provide informal breakout rooms where you can again take a few minutes away from your screen to enjoy a comfy seat and perhaps catch up with some of your fellow entrepreneurs from elsewhere in our serviced office space.

Keep in touch

Our breakout rooms are not only for relaxing; they are also equipped with telephones in case you want to place an important call to a client in a more comfortable environment.

We also have serviced meeting rooms available in all of our locations, again equipped with ergonomically designed office furniture, so if you’re meeting face-to-face with clients, candidates or investors, you can do it in comfortable surroundings.

They say a change is as good as a break, and this is certainly true when spending a stretch of time in one position, so we encourage all of our patrons to make full use of all of our facilities and relax those muscles throughout the course of the working day.

Doing so can avoid aches and pains, which in turn can help you feel fresher and less tired towards the end of the work day, especially if you remember to stay hydrated too.

With the new year underway, we know many people will be aiming for a healthier lifestyle, and you might be surprised by the impact it can have just by getting away from your desk for a few short periods to recharge your mental and physical batteries.