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Advantages of Serviced Offices for Small Businesses and Startups

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The advantages of serviced offices for small businesses and new startups make for an easy way to get professional working conditions while your company is still getting off the ground.

Serviced offices scale with you, so whether you’re looking for your very first physical workplace, or you have a business that is becoming more established and you want to expand, the Serviced Office Company can help you get the premises you need.

Let’s look in more detail at the benefits of serviced offices for startups and small businesses, including those with a hybrid and home-based workforce.

A Place of Your Own

The significance of having a dedicated, professionally furnished workplace should not be overlooked. An office with ergonomic furniture, high-speed internet and quiet surroundings can all help to boost your productivity.

Our serviced offices in Telford, Manchester and London are all designed to offer this, with as few distractions as possible, so you can get as much done as possible during your day.

This is one of the biggest benefits of serviced offices for small businesses, as it can put employees in more of a work-focused mindset, and gives you a professional background for Zoom and Teams calls.

The Tech You Need

Speaking of Teams calls, our serviced offices for startups and SMEs all come with fast broadband and non-BT telecoms as standard.

When you need a private side room to host a presentation or training session, we have meeting rooms for hire on-site, giving you the space you need as and when you need it, without paying to maintain a room that you do not need permanently.

Our meeting rooms are equipped with audiovisual technology and conference telephones, giving you all the tech you need to deliver an engaging, eye-catching and interactive seminar.

Room to Grow

Perhaps most importantly, serviced offices for startups and small businesses give you the room you need to expand as your company goes from strength to strength.

You can do this in a number of ways:

  • By moving to a larger office (or taking a second office) in the same premises
  • By opening a new branch in a different location (e.g. Telford, Manchester or London)
  • By having a virtual office in Manchester, Telford or London

Our virtual offices give you direct contact details at any of our locations, without you having a physical presence on-site. Instead, we forward any communication over to you for attention, allowing you to reply from wherever you are.

Flexible and Affordable

Serviced offices for small businesses and startups are designed to adapt with you as your company grows – and they’re priced to be affordable for any successful startup as it scales.

If you’d like to learn more about the flexibility of serviced offices for new startups and growing SMEs, contact us today to schedule an in-person tour of any of our serviced office buildings.

With multiple premises in Manchester and London, and our recently opened, fully refurbished offices in Telford, we can give your SME a physical presence in the north-west, south-east or Midlands. Where will you go next?

The Impact of Location When Choosing Your Serviced Office

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At the Serviced Office Company, we provide serviced office space in Telford, London and Manchester, three very different parts of the country. But what’s the difference?

While all of our premises are furnished to a high standard, there are reasons why one location might suit your business more than others.

In this article we’ll look at the impact of location when choosing your serviced office, and how to choose between our serviced offices in London, Manchester and Telford if you’re still not sure.

Local Markets

Different towns and cities develop a reputation for specific products or services. For example, across our various serviced office locations:

  • London is known as a financial centre and capital city of the UK
  • Manchester is famous for textiles, sport and nightlife culture
  • Telford has matured to become home to global IT firms

These are just a few examples. Each local market is complex and diverse, and no matter what sector your business operates in, there’s bound to be a place for it.

Customer Base

Our three locations serve different parts of the country with sizeable customer bases on their doorsteps:

  • London is home to 8.8 million people, with 9.3 million more across the south-east
  • Telford is close to the UK’s second city, Birmingham, with 4.3 million residents
  • Greater Manchester is home to 2.9 million, with 7.4 million in the north-west total

Neighbouring regions just add to the opportunity. For example, our serviced offices in Telford put you at the heart of the West Midlands, a region with around six million inhabitants, and close to the border of Wales and a further three million potential customers.

Transport Links

If you want to cast your net further afield in order to build your customer base, transport links can be an important element in allowing you to do so.

Transport can be a different proposition depending on your location:

  • London has excellent urban transport, and our serviced offices in London are close to the Canary Wharf Underground Station, on Jubilee Line in Zone 2
  • Telford is on the M54 with good access to the M5 and M6 via Birmingham (our serviced offices in Telford are just 4 minutes’ drive from the M54)
  • Manchester is on the M62 for access to Liverpool, Leeds and Hull, with easy routes to Sheffield, the West Midlands and north to Scotland

Rail and air travel can also be factored into your decision. For example, the Telford to Birmingham train can take just 40 minutes, and Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston (or vice versa) takes about 2 hours 20 minutes.

Even if you don’t expect to travel for work, you might want to think about your time outside of work and which parts of the country you’ll want (or need) to reach most easily by road or rail.

How to Choose

If you’re still not sure how to choose between our serviced offices in London, Telford and Manchester, why not take a tour?

We’re happy to arrange an in-person visit to any of our premises – just contact us to schedule or click ‘Book A Tour’ wherever you see it on our website.

You’ll also find lots of photos and 3D virtual tours on our serviced offices location pages, so you can get a feel for each option before you book a visit in person.

How to be Mindful at Work

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Mindfulness is a concept that dates back around 4,000 years and has its roots in Eastern religion. But in the Western world, mindfulness in the workplace is a relatively recent idea.

The American professor Jon Kabat-Zinn is credited with introducing mindfulness into Western medicine, when he launched the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

Nearly half a century later, mindfulness at work has become a common technique to manage stress levels, complete deadlines on time, and generally to make the office a happier place to be.

What are the basics of mindfulness at work?

The basic principles of mindfulness in the workplace are about allowing your mind to operate in its natural state, free from distractions and mental blocks.

Paradoxically, mindfulness at work is not about keeping your mind busy, but about allowing yourself time to do nothing until the background noise and stress fade away.

By doing this, you improve your productivity and focus, allowing you to complete your workload during your active hours, even while giving you time to take breaks.

Top tips for mindfulness in the workplace

Remember, mindfulness is about giving your mind time to relax, to process stress and anxiety, and to focus on a particular task more effectively.

Some ways you can do this include:

Food and drink

Food and drink are essential fuel for your body and your brain, so give yourself time to take tea and coffee breaks (or fruit juice or water, if you prefer) and take proper meal breaks away from your desk.

Mindfulness means shutting out distractions when you take a break. Don’t allow your lunchtime to be interrupted by a phone call. You can call them back after lunch.

Plans and deadlines

Instead of seeing deadlines as an enemy, start to see them as a tool to help you plan your workload and schedule your priorities each day.

Set realistic, bite-sized goals, and allow yourself to enjoy the feeling of reward that comes from completing them, even if they’re only one small step towards finishing a bigger project.

Prioritise the present

You can’t change the past and to a large extent, you can only influence the future once it arrives, so prioritise your actions in the present.

Obviously that still means scheduling meetings and so on for a future date, but it also means resisting the urge to overthink things that haven’t happened yet. Focus on the here and now, rather than unlikely future problems, and your anxiety levels will be much lower.

Find your perfect mindful workplace

Serviced Office Company’s serviced offices in Telford, Manchester and London are a great starting point when creating a mindful workplace, with plenty of natural light, kitchen facilities, chillout rooms and the option to add your own decor or colour scheme.

With meeting rooms for hire on-site, plus flexible virtual office and hotdesking facilities, we make it as stress-free as possible to grow your business the way you want to.

If you’d like to know more, contact Serviced Office Company today, and we’ll be happy to schedule a tour of any of our serviced office buildings in person.

A Comprehensive Guide to Our Serviced Offices in Manchester

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In our quest to offer the best serviced office space Manchester businesses could ask for, we’ve created not one, but two Manchester offices to a very high spec.

This comprehensive guide will run through the features of our Manchester serviced offices, meeting rooms, virtual offices and hotdesking facilities.

If you’d like to know more, just ask. We welcome all enquiries and we can arrange an in-person tour of our serviced office space in Manchester, so you can see it for yourself.

Where are our serviced offices in Manchester?

We have two serviced office buildings in Manchester: Imperial Court on Exchange Quay, and Clippers House on Clippers Quay.

Imperial Court

Located at 2 Exchange Quay, M5 3EB, Imperial Court offers a prime Manchester postcode within 15 minutes’ drive of the M60 and just two minutes’ walk from the Exchange Quay Metrolink tram stop.

Clippers House

A short distance to the west, Clippers House is six minutes from the Exchange Quay tram stop. Its M50 3XP postcode puts it in the same area as Salford Quays and MediaCityUK, making it a perfect location for digital, tech and entertainment startups.

What services are available in our Manchester serviced offices?

Both our Manchester serviced offices offer our full range of services:

Serviced Office Space

Fully furnished and ready to go, with ergonomic office furniture and non-BT business telecoms. We welcome your ideas about decoration if you want to add your own branding and colour scheme to your space!

Meeting Rooms for Hire

When you need a private space for a meeting, interview or training session, we have meeting rooms for hire on-site. Just check availability and book a room of the right size, and we’ll make sure it’s ready for your time slot.

Hot-Desking Facilities

If you just need a desk on an ad hoc basis, our hot-desking facilities in Manchester offer the flexibility to work just the days you need. Ask for more details about how to book a desk when you need one.

Virtual Offices

Our virtual offices give you professional contact details at our serviced office buildings in Manchester, but allow you to work from home (or anywhere else you choose). We handle your correspondence and forward any messages over to you for attention.

What facilities do our Manchester serviced offices provide?

If you take residence in our serviced offices in Manchester, you can expect access to the following at no additional cost:

  • 24-hour access
  • 24-hour security
  • Bespoke furnishings
  • Bike racks
  • Breakout spaces
  • Car parking
  • Customer service
  • Direct telephone numbers
  • Eco-friendly spaces
  • Fast broadband
  • Hot drinks
  • Kitchen facilities
  • Plasma TVs
  • Projection screens
  • Showers and changing rooms

We’re fully transparent about our fees. The facilities listed here are included in your payment for your office space, and there are affordable fees to hire a meeting room or hot-desking facilities when you need them.

Find out more

If you want to know more about any of the services and facilities we offer at our Manchester serviced offices, or to arrange an in-person tour of our premises to see if they’re suitable for you, get in touch with Serviced Office Company today on 0207 510 9400.

What to Know When Renting a Meeting Room

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We often mention our meeting rooms for hire, but if you’re new to renting serviced office space in London, Manchester or Telford, you might not have experience of booking meeting rooms on-demand.

In this guide we’ll look at some of the basics you need to know when renting a meeting room in any of our serviced office buildings.

The bottom line is that we have made the process as simple and straightforward as possible, so you can easily check availability of meeting rooms in your building and book a space when you need one, without leaving your desk.

How does meeting room rental work?

We have meeting rooms for hire in all our serviced office premises in Telford, Manchester and London, so that when you need a private space for confidential conversations, you don’t need to leave the building.

Renting a meeting room only when you need one is more cost-effective than paying to maintain a separate space that you only occasionally use.

And because our meeting room rental includes extras like the latest digital audiovisual equipment, ergonomic furniture, conference telephones and refreshments, all you have to worry about is what you’re going to say during your meeting.

Reasons for renting a meeting room

There are plenty of purposes for meeting room rental and (within reason) you’re welcome to use the space however you wish.

Some of the most common reasons for booking our meeting rooms for hire include:

  • Job interviews / exit interviews
  • Client/stakeholder meetings
  • Employee training and seminars

If you have a specific use in mind and want to run it by us, you’re very welcome to ask. We’ll do our best to accommodate requests to set up the room in a slightly different way.

How to book a meeting room

When you’re ready to book a meeting room, you can call us from the phone on your desk to check availability and to reserve the room for your own use at the relevant time.

Rooms range in size from two-person meeting rooms for hire when you just need a quiet or private space to talk, up to 60-person conference rooms for rent on-site.

The exact availability of our rental meeting rooms will vary depending on your location – so contact customer services if you’re not sure what’s available in your building.

Meetings of all kinds are an important part of day-to-day business. That’s why we aim to make our meeting room booking process as straightforward as possible, to save time when you need to reserve a room.

Book a meeting room today

If you want to book a meeting room with Serviced Office Company, just give us a call to check availability.

Our rental meeting rooms include plasma screens, projectors and full audiovisual technology, and again just ask if you want to check if we provide a specific type of tech.

We’re proud of our meeting rooms for hire, which are finished to the same high standards as our serviced offices in Telford, London and Manchester – and we look forward to welcoming you for your upcoming meeting.

A Comprehensive Guide to Our Serviced Offices in Canary Wharf

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If you’re looking for Canary Wharf office space, look no further than our serviced offices and hot desking facilities in London’s commercial epicentre.

Our serviced offices in Canary Wharf are purpose-made business units with access to great on-site amenities and that all-important E14 postcode.

With two fantastic locations to choose from, we’ve got you covered when looking for flexible office rental in Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs.

Millharbour Court

Millharbour Court is Serviced Office Company’s newest office space in London. Our purpose-built Business Centre opened on Watergate Walk in the summer of 2020 and is a perfect fit for post-pandemic flexible business practices.

As well as providing much-needed serviced offices in Canary Wharf, Millharbour Court offers some of the newest hot desking facilities in London, ideal if you need some ad hoc office space from time to time.

With access to a private outdoor terrace, there’s also plenty of fresh air – allowing you to meet with clients, stakeholders and job applicants outside if you prefer.

Millharbour Court is among the greenest Canary Wharf office space, and we’re proud that we were able to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating during the refurbishment in 2020.

Davenport House

The other SOC office rental Canary Wharf has to offer can be found just yards away at Davenport House on Pepper Street.

Again, we’re proud to offer some of the most stunning Canary Wharf office space at this location, with views over the open water of Millwall Docks to the neighbouring businesses on Oakland Quay and Baltimore Wharf.

Davenport House is more than just a flexible office rental in London’s most desirable postcode for businesses; our unbranded premises mean you can add your own logos and colour scheme, to really make your office space your own.

As our original serviced office in Canary Wharf, we have a lot of love for Davenport House, and we hope it will be a much-loved home for your business too.

What you get

If you choose either of our office rentals in Canary Wharf, you can expect a long list of on-site amenities, most of which are included in the price you pay upfront.

Kitchen areas, complimentary refreshments, washroom facilities and informal chillout rooms are all part of the package, so there’s always somewhere to go when you need a break from your desk or want to freshen up.

Both locations include meeting rooms for hire, so you don’t need to leave the building to find a private place for a confidential conversation.

And with optional virtual offices and hot desking facilities on-demand, you can operate a workforce as flexible as your business needs, while responding to the expectations of the most talented candidates in the post-pandemic era.

Find out more

We’d love to tell you more about our serviced offices in Canary Wharf, and to answer any questions you might have about the facilities at each location.

If you’d like to arrange an in-person visit to either (or both) premises, just ask. We’re a stone’s throw from the Crossharbour DLR station with links to Canary Wharf tube, Stratford and Bank – just get in touch and let us know when you’d like to come.

Networking Opportunities: Leveraging the Community Aspect of Serviced Offices

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A feature of serviced offices that is often overlooked is the potential for community networking with like-minded entrepreneurs from your local area, allowing you to build your professional connections organically over time.

In this guide to networking in serviced offices, we’ll look at some of the ways you can meet new people and connect with other organisations in your building, to help you take your own business to new heights.

Serviced Offices Networking Guide: An Introduction

It might not seem obvious that serviced offices allow you to network with other businesses, especially if your office has its own four walls, but when you work from serviced office space, you become part of a community of entrepreneurs.

This enables community networking – and in many cases, you’re all in a similar position, whether that’s starting up a new business, branching out from sole trading for the first time, or establishing a new branch office in a new location.

In this networking guide, we’ll look at how serviced offices can help entrepreneurs at every stage, helping you to establish your voice in your local business community.

Guide to Networking in Serviced Offices

So, once you’ve moved into your serviced office space, how do you start networking with others around you?

First of all, don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to your nearest neighbours. Don’t impose yourself if they’re busy, but a polite introduction can let them know that you’re open to networking opportunities and casual conversations alike.

Make good use of communal areas like kitchen facilities and chillout rooms. These are naturally less formal spaces, where you can introduce yourself in a relaxed atmosphere.

You could even ask if there’s anywhere good to get lunch or snacks – you never know if this will develop into an impromptu business lunch with a fellow serviced office space user.

Community Networking as an Individual

Community networking is even more valuable if you’re a sole trader, as you might not have anyone working around you on a typical day.

Serviced Office Company’s serviced offices in Telford, Manchester and London also offer hotdesking and coworking spaces, where you can meet fellow lone entrepreneurs on an ad hoc basis.

If you feel like your career is being held back by being a lone wolf, working from our hotdesking facilities in London, Telford and Manchester is a fantastic way to retain your independence, while also working in a professional setting with like-minded individuals.

Getting Started

It’s easy to get started – just book your coworking space or serviced office, and start saying hello to the people you meet on-site.

If you’d like to know more about any of our facilities, from hotdesking to private office space, get in touch with Serviced Office Company today. We love chatting about our fantastic premises (especially our recently refurbished serviced offices in Telford, our biggest site yet).

We can also arrange a tour so you can see everything in person, and get more of an idea of the great sense of community waiting for you in our serviced offices in Manchester, Telford and London – so give us a call or tap the ‘Arrange A Tour’ button to get started!

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Serviced Offices vs. Traditional Office Spaces: Which is Right for You?

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The age-old debate of serviced office vs. traditional office comes down to what’s best for your business, but we think there are plenty of good reasons why serviced office space might come out on top.

Obviously for some large companies, there are benefits to having your own privately owned or long-term leased office premises. But for many businesses big and small alike, the flexibility of serviced office space makes much more sense.

Let’s look at some of the relative merits of serviced office vs. traditional office space, and why you might choose one over the other.

Length of Lease

If you’re looking for the flexibility of a shorter lease, serviced office space is typically more accommodating. While many tenants do stay for years, serviced offices are designed to allow for shorter stays too.

This is ideal for many reasons. Maybe you’re exploring a new local market and want to test the waters before committing to a long-term lease. Or perhaps you’re expecting rapid growth and just need some small premises until things really take off.

Serviced Office Company also offer hotdesking facilities in London, Manchester and Telford, under the same roofs as our serviced offices – so if you just need a desk for a day, we’re open to ad hoc bookings.

Fully Furnished

Traditional office space is often an empty shell, but our serviced offices come fully furnished with designer brand-name ergonomic office furniture.

We have searched high and wide for the best office chairs, desks and other furnishings, so that when you walk through the door to your new office on day one, it’s comfortable and ready for you at no additional setup cost.

If you prefer to use your own furniture – maybe you have an old faithful office chair that you find most comfortable – that’s great too. It’s your office space, and we want you to feel at home.

High-Spec Tech

Our serviced office space comes complete with non-BT telecoms and high-speed broadband, again allowing you to start working from day one without negotiating any business broadband rates or bundled telecoms deals.

SOC’s meeting rooms in Manchester, London and Telford all include high-quality AV equipment so you can give presentations in style, and again support ultrafast broadband so remote workers can attend meetings virtually via conference call and/or webcam.

We pull out all the stops to give you the high-spec premises you might want in your dream premises, without any of the hassle of installing equipment and arranging contracts.

See For Yourself

This is just a snapshot of why serviced office space is more flexible, more comfortable and more feature-packed than taking out a long-term lease on an empty office building.

We welcome you to take a tour of our serviced offices in Telford, London and Manchester, to see our complete offering for yourself – just contact us or tap the ‘Arrange A Tour’ button to express your interest in one of our locations.

In the end, it’s your choice what type of premises will be best for your business – we can’t choose for you, but we can provide the very best serviced office space possible. The final decision is up to you.

The technology of serviced offices

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Serviced offices give you instant access to the facilities you need to start work, including cutting-edge technology that enables you to work smarter, communicate more effectively and ultimately boost your productivity.

When you move into a Serviced Office Company space or hire a meeting room on our premises, you’ll have a host of communication options and audiovisual equipment you can use in training sessions and presentations.

All of this is offered as standard in our serviced office spaces, to make it even easier for you to get to work on the day you move in.

What tech do serviced offices provide?

Let’s look at some of the technology you’ll find in our serviced office spaces:

High-speed broadband

Essential for digital businesses, we provide fast, reliable internet access in our serviced offices so that you don’t lose valuable time waiting for web pages to load. Ultrafast broadband is also ideal if you have a number of employees who will all need internet access – including video calls and streaming HD video – at the same time.

Non-BT telecoms

Many business customers prefer to get their telecoms from a supplier other than BT, and Serviced Office Company rooms are equipped with professional telecoms equipment so when you need to make a call – or set up a conference call – you’re ready to go.

AV tech in meeting rooms

We have meeting rooms for hire in London, Manchester and Telford, all of which are fitted out to the highest standard. That means if you need to make a presentation, display a slideshow or play a video, the equipment to do so is right there with no setup needed.

How does tech help businesses?

Our clients know that our serviced office spaces are designed to enable productive business throughout the working week, with 24-hour access if you want to continue work outside of the standard 9-5 weekday.

But cutting-edge technology in serviced offices goes beyond just increasing productivity. Intelligent design of office furniture makes your day more comfortable and can even help to reduce the risk of developing RSI and other aches and pains.

The tech we provide can also help your business to be more sustainable. Our serviced office spaces are fitted with water-saving devices, automatic light detectors and energy-efficient air conditioning systems, all of which supports your environmental commitments.

What if there’s a problem?

We know that not everybody gets on with technology – so if you encounter a problem with any part of the ICT and telecoms tech provided in your serviced office or meeting room, we’re here to help.

Our clients get full access to our technical support desk to respond to any IT-related queries and to manage the supplied equipment, saving your business time and money when you need help.

Technology should be a tool that enables productivity and efficiency, and not an obstacle to wrestle with day after day. That’s why we work hard to provide the best tech tools in all Serviced Office Company spaces.

Find out more

If you’d like to ask about any of our serviced office tech, or arrange a tour of one of our serviced offices in London, Manchester or Telford, get in touch today and we’ll be happy to help.