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Natural office space preferred by 4 in 5 people

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New research published by Lund University in Sweden reveals that more than four out of five people have a preference for natural office space and biophilic office interiors.

Biophilic office space incorporates elements of nature, ranging from natural materials and natural daylight, to indoor planting to soften the space.

In September we looked at some of the principles of biophilic office interiors, including large windows that connect you with the natural environment outside, and the use of pot plants to bring nature indoors.

Peter O’Reilly in Lund University’s Department of Psychology surveyed nearly 200 people to learn more about their preferences before starting work in a new office environment.

Using a combination of questionnaires, he found that 81.4% of office workers across both genders prefer their workspace to incorporate natural features of the type found in biophilic office design.

Gender and biophilic office space

One unexpected result from Mr O’Reilly’s research was the discovery that female respondents were more likely to prefer biophilic office interiors than their male counterparts.

This had not formed part of his initial predictions – although he noted that it reflected previous research done on the subject.

In his conclusion, Mr O’Reilly wrote: “Future office-based professionals appear to exhibit a priori office workspace design preferences consistent with research identifying good psycho-environmental design.”

The study seems to back up what was already known about biophilic office interiors and their effects on employees’ state of mind, with further implications in terms of reducing stress and boosting productivity.

Get access to biophilic serviced office space

As we have said before, biophilic serviced office space does not have to go to extremes – some careful use of indoor planting and natural materials can be an excellent starting point.

In our serviced offices in London and Manchester, we combine this with good use of natural light and the surrounding environment.

Wherever possible, our serviced offices and meeting rooms have large windows, and our buildings are located close to water, whether it’s the London Docklands or Salford Quays.

Combined with ergonomically designed office furniture from brand name suppliers, we do everything we can to provide you with a comfortable workplace that nurtures your productivity and mental wellbeing throughout each working day.

Proud to provide green serviced office space

Of course for many people it’s not just a case of wanting a sense of nature in the workplace, it’s also about choosing premises that are environmentally friendly so you can be as productive as possible with good peace of mind.

We are proud that our green serviced office space includes Ecotricity green energy, carbon emissions offsetting and excellent access via public transport, as well as secure on-site bike racks and shower facilities if you need to clean up after your morning commute.

Our carpets and our furniture, including our ergonomic office chairs, are made of recycled materials where possible, and we use energy efficient heating and cooling, as well as water-saving devices to make the most effective use of all resources.

Serviced offices in Manchester give female entrepreneurs opportunity

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Following research published to coincide with International Women’s Day, we take a look at how serviced offices in Manchester give female entrepreneurs a range of opportunities from safer scalability, to greater networking opportunities with business peers.

The Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship was conducted by NatWest’s deputy CEO of commercial and private banking Alison Rose and commissioned by HM Treasury to identify the economic opportunities of providing more support to female entrepreneurs.

Some of Manchester and the north-west’s leading figures from business and politics contributed evidence and opinions to the review, including Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

It found that women are significantly less likely than men to start their own business venture – and are outnumbered by a ratio of two to one, with an average business size half that of their male counterparts.

By closing the entrepreneur gender gap, the review estimates the UK economy could be boosted to the tune of £250 billion, roughly four years’ worth of normal economic growth.

What stops women entrepreneurs?

The Rose Review found that women tend to be more risk averse and have fewer existing business connections than their male counterparts, leading to less networking and slower growth.

While 29% of male entrepreneurs scale their business up to over £1 million turnover, for women this figure is just 13%.

However, both sexes are equally successful at keeping their business ventures afloat, and a healthy 73% of entrepreneurs of either gender have been trading for over 3.5 years.

How can serviced offices in Manchester help?

By using serviced offices in Manchester, your new venture benefits from a fully furnished, well equipped workspace with room to grow – safely, as you can scale up to larger offices as and when you are ready.

We even offer virtual offices in Manchester, so you can have a professional business address even if you still currently work from home, removing the challenge of putting across a professional image if you can’t find suitable childcare arrangements or can’t commute for some other reason.

Our serviced office space in Manchester is a real melting pot, with breakout spaces, kitchen facilities and communal areas that encourage networking between the entrepreneurs who use our premises on a daily basis.

Putting Manchester’s female entrepreneurs on the map

Choose our serviced offices in Manchester for an M5 postcode or our adjacent serviced offices in MediaCity for an M50 postcode ideal for media start-ups and creative firms.

Either option puts you firmly on the map with an Exchange Quay or Clippers Quay address and a workplace reached easily by public transport from the city centre – including just a few stops along the Metrolink line – or by car from the ring road.

We are hugely proud of the start-ups who choose to work from our serviced offices in Manchester to support their networking ambitions and reduce the risks of scalability.

No matter whether they are led by women or by men, we look forward to helping many more entrepreneurs take their first steps along a new and ambitious career path.

MediaCity serviced offices are your gateway to Greater Manchester

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One of the big attractions of our MediaCity serviced offices is how close they are to the Metrolink line running through Salford Quays – and with recent changes to how Greater Manchester tram tickets are priced, our serviced offices in MediaCity are even more of a gateway to locations right across the city.

Since January, Metrolink ticket prices have been based not on making a specific journey from one stop to another, but instead on zones, including a small central Zone 1 in the city, Zone 2 which includes the surrounding area, and Zones 3 and 4 for the outer suburbs and terminal towns.

MediaCity – including our serviced offices on Clippers Quay and also our nearby Exchange Quay serviced offices in Salford Quays – all falls within Zone 2, which means a Zone 1+2 Metrolink ticket will cover trips into the city and back out as far as several valuable destinations:

  • Stretford and Old Trafford
  • Chorlton and St Werburgh’s Road
  • Barlow Moor Road
  • Bowker Vale on the Bury line
  • Newton Heath and Moston
  • Edge Lane on the Ashton line

Zone 2 includes the entire Eccles line beyond MediaCity, as well as all of Salford Quays, and crucially that not only means clear ticket prices for many of your own journeys across the city, but also for anyone paying you a visit via the city centre.

A record-breaking network

The changes to ticket pricing follow record-breaking pre-Christmas passenger numbers across the Metrolink network, which served nearly four million journeys in November alone.

On average each year, more than 42.5 million journeys are made on Metrolink, and in 2018 reliability stood at 99.3% on the UK’s largest light rail system.

In 2020 the new Trafford Park Line is due to open, further increasing services through Trafford Park, Europe’s largest trading estate.

This will give even greater access to over 1,300 businesses in the area, with a combined workforce of more than 35,000 people, as well as out as far as the intu Trafford Centre.

As the opening of the new line approaches, 27 brand new trams will join the current fleet of 120 vehicles, allowing the network to cope with demand during peak times.

We expect to see demand for office space in Trafford Park to increase as the new services come online – making our serviced office space in Salford Quays a great way to get ahead of the competition.

Both our Exchange Quay offices and Clippers Quay offices are just a short walk from their nearest tram stop, so you won’t have to brave the Mancunian weather for long or wait more than a few minutes to start your commute home at the end of a long day.

Metrolink has become a major achievement in Greater Manchester’s public transport mix – from Altrincham, Didsbury and Manchester Airport right through the city centre to Bury, Rochdale and Ashton-under-Lyne – and our serviced office space in MediaCity and Salford Quays puts you right at the heart of this network.

Canary Wharf offices: Sustainability on your doorstep

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Our Canary Wharf offices put you in a prime location on the Isle of Dogs, adjacent to the Jubilee Line and to the main Canary Wharf estate – and that automatically gives your business some great environmental credentials you can shout about to your customers.

For example, Canary Wharf Group has an ongoing commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle single-use plastic packaging, so if you pick up a snack and a drink on your way to work via Canary Wharf tube station, you can do your bit by recycling your plastic packaging too.

There are also safe drinking water stations around Canary Wharf where you can refill water bottles, further reducing the number of disposable single-use bottles that get thrown away on-site.

By implementing these measures, Canary Wharf Group has already achieved:

  • Over 40,000 water bottles refilled.
  • Around 15,000 water bottles recycled.
  • Nearly 3.5 million coffee cups recycled.

You can even earn rewards for recycling plastic packaging purchased at Canary Wharf – just install the Helpful app to start scanning your packaging and earning credits for putting it in a suitable on-site recycling bin.

How our Canary Wharf serviced offices help you to be eco-friendly

Our own Canary Wharf serviced offices give small businesses a great way to be more eco-friendly by combining your own private office space with shared facilities and meeting rooms.

Communal meeting rooms, kitchen facilities and breakout rooms mean these shared spaces are not left standing empty but are there when you need them – making the most of heating, lighting and floor space.

Convenient nearby public transport links including Canary Wharf tube station allow you to manage your carbon footprint during your commute, as well as providing eco-friendly transport options for visitors coming to meetings on-site.

But we always strive to do more to offer some of the only truly environmentally friendly managed offices in the UK.

Taking the next step in eco-friendly offices

Office space can be equipped with ergonomic furniture and a great selection of facilities, without that meaning it cannot also maintain high environmentally friendly standards.

Some of our eco-friendly extras include…

  • Secure bike racks, showers and changing spaces for rainy/muddy morning commutes.
  • Best use of natural daylight and automatic light sensors to reduce artificial lighting use.
  • Energy-efficient building heating and cooling systems for eco-conscious comfort.
  • Recycled materials used throughout carpets, chairs and other furniture where appropriate.
  • On-site recycling facilities, Ecotricity green energy and Climate Care carbon offsetting.

We use technologies that cut down on unnecessary use of resources, including water, electricity, heating, cooling, lighting and general waste.

But that doesn’t mean you have to compromise on comfort – our serviced offices in Canary Wharf are furnished and decorated to a high standard, with heating and air conditioning when it is needed.

This all gives you a place to work from that is comfortable and well appointed, while supporting your environmental commitments, and all within easy reach of the eco-friendly initiatives taking place on the main Canary Wharf estate.

Find your place as north-west SME office space demand continues to rise

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It’s been a turbulent decade for businesses as a whole – so as we enter the last year of the 2010s, it’s a good time to take a look at the levels of demand for north-west SME office space.

Just before the end of 2018, a House of Commons Library Briefing Paper was published showing a range of business statistics for the UK as a whole, including business size and location.

Some of the headline figures include:

  • A 63% increase in the number of UK businesses between 2000 and 2018.
  • A total of 5.7 million UK businesses in the private sector in 2018.
  • Around three quarters have no employees (i.e. are self-employed individuals).
  • About 96% are micro businesses (i.e. fewer than 10 employees).
  • Over 99% are SMEs (i.e. fewer than 250 employees).

Not all of these are office-based – many self-employed individuals may work from home, on location or from rented workshops for more industrial roles – but it gives a good indicator of the relative sizes of businesses in general.

That makes over 5.4 million private sector businesses up and down the UK with less than 10 people working for them – but how does north-west SME workspace demand stack up against the other regions?

A growing north-west business community

We’re proud of the vibrant business community that exists in the north-west, as our serviced office space in Manchester sees a rich and diverse range of tenants who can share ideas in the communal spaces in our buildings.

So we’re not surprised that in 2018, the total number of businesses in the north-west continued to rise by 3% to reach 545,000.

This growth rate matches London – and we are equally proud of our well appointed serviced office space in London adjacent to Canary Wharf, helping to provide good quality workplaces for new and growing businesses in the capital.

Of the other UK regions, the south-west scored a 3% growth rate and the north-east, starting from a relatively low benchmark, grew an impressive 14% year-on-year to reach 163,000 enterprises in 2018.

Every other region achieved growth of 1% or less, including a fall in the number of businesses in six regions and in the UK total for the first time this century.

Why you should choose serviced office space in Manchester

If you’re setting up a new business or trying to grow your brand, it’s important to be based in a prosperous region, and in one with an established business community for networking opportunities.

Our north-west serviced office space ticks both of these boxes – with well over half a million private enterprises across the region and one of the fastest growth rates signalling a prosperous future as well.

For those in the south, our serviced office space in London puts you on the doorstep of Canary Wharf and in amongst over a million other businesses.

We choose our locations carefully – our serviced office space in MediaCity, for example, has been at the heart of massive growth and regeneration in recent years and given our tenants a real head start.

If you’re looking for new SME business premises for 2019, we would encourage you to think carefully too, and then choose our serviced offices in London and Manchester as the clear best option.

Serviced offices help self-employed businesses grow in the new year

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Serviced offices could give you the opportunity you need to grow your self-employed business in the new year, providing a place where you can hit the ground running during a crucial phase in the self-employed business calendar.

Before Christmas, we looked at how virtual offices can help new businesses to get set up, while giving a legitimate, fully serviced professional address in a prime location for correspondence.

Virtual offices are good if you already have somewhere to work from, if you work from home, if you travel around a lot, or if your job doesn’t need its own premises at all.

But if you do need a place to work, serviced offices are the sensible next step to help grow a self-employed business in the new year, or at any time.

Why is the new year important for self-employed businesses?

A new calendar year is naturally a common time to think about making some changes – especially if you’re self-employed and want to grow your business as part of personal New Year’s resolutions relating to money.

The end of January also brings the self-assessment tax deadline, making it a good time to take stock of how your business is performing and what changes you can make to prosper more in the new year.

And in April, a new tax year begins – giving you a window of opportunity between New Year’s and the springtime to get your business affairs into better order.

How do serviced offices help grow self-employed businesses?

Virtual offices give you a front for your self-employed business, a professional address to trade from and legitimate contact details in a desirable postcode area.

Serviced offices give you all of this and back-office services too, with furnished office space ready to occupy immediately, supported by meeting rooms to hire and informal breakout spaces for chats and relaxation.

You’re no longer stuck holding professional meetings in the local coffee shop – although with plenty of amenities located close to our serviced offices in Manchester and London, you still have that option too!

Why choose serviced offices for my self-employed business?

If you’re looking for your first physical office space – whether you’ve used a virtual office until now, or simply traded from your home address – there’s plenty to recommend serviced offices for a self-employed business.

As well as getting all of the on-site facilities and the option of office space with an immediate start date, your new office simply gives you an environment conducive to productivity, and away from your home.

It’s often this separation of work from home life that helps self-employed individuals to strike a better balance, while shutting out the distractions you can face in a home office, from noisy neighbours to visits from the gas man.

This can make serviced offices the best first step for a self-employed business owner targeting bigger growth as the new year progresses – and there’s arguably no better time to make that move than when the calendar is still just one page old.

Virtual offices give your business a new home for the new year

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We all see articles with headlines like “new year, new you” urging you to give yourself a fashion makeover or get in shape as the new year gets underway – but virtual offices can achieve the same for your business with a minimum of effort and expense.

When you open a new virtual office, you get the benefits of a postal address in a prime location, without the inconvenience of having to physically move there.

That means you can continue to work from home, or wherever you currently go to get your work done.

Virtual offices give you the best of both worlds – contact details you can put on all of your business communications to put across the right professional image, but also the flexibility to choose where you actually want to be on a daily basis.

Virtual offices with physical meeting rooms

One problem with some virtual office services is that there is no physical space available if you ever need to meet a client at ‘your’ address in person.

With the Serviced Office Company however, we have physical meeting rooms available on-site that you can book as and when you need some space.

That means that although your virtual office address does not come with physical office space as standard, there are rooms that you can book if you do ever want to be able to welcome clients, investors or anyone else at the address on your letterhead or business card.

In this way, having a virtual office does not leave you without a way to meet people at your chosen location, as you can have a physical presence there at any time just by booking a room.

A new lease of life for your business

All of this means that you can have a virtual office in a desirable location, with the option of hiring some physical space there if and when you need to.

With the Serviced Office Company, that allows you to have a business address in Manchester, Salford Quays or a stone’s throw from Canary Wharf in London.

Your address will be a virtual office in the sense that you do not normally have physical rooms on the premises, but it is real in terms of being able to receive mail to your postal address, and so on.

And the availability of on-site meeting rooms makes it even more real when it comes to meeting important business contacts face to face.

So if you feel as though your business is being held back by trading from a residential address, a less desirable location, or just from somewhere that doesn’t look professional from the outside, a virtual office could be the answer to your needs to get the new year off to a more profitable start.

To find out more about our virtual offices, serviced office space and meeting rooms, email info@servicedofficecompany.co.uk or call us today on 0800 319 6600 to speak to a member of our team at any of our locations in London and Manchester.

How serviced offices help cities to help towns

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Our serviced offices in Manchester and London are a great way to get some professional work space in two of the most prosperous cities in the country – but how does this help people in nearby towns?

You may have read our article in November about how offices in Salford Quays have provided an employment boost for people in the surrounding areas.

Now research from the Centre for Cities has shown how prosperous cities nationwide help to raise employment rates and other amenities for local residents.

In its Talk of the Town report, the Centre for Cities points out that less than 10% of Britain’s land area is occupied by cities, but 60% of jobs and 55% of businesses are found within that area.

This not only highlights the economic potential provided by cities, which can serve as a melting pot for ideas, innovation and networking opportunities, but it also serves as a reminder that land in UK cities is at a premium.

And the benefits are not restricted to within city limits, either – more than a fifth of working individuals who live outside of cities have jobs based within cities.

We are proud to be able to help support this prosperity for both cities and the towns that surround them, by providing serviced offices in Manchester and London that allow fledgling firms to get off the ground in prime postcode areas, without being priced out of the market.

About our serviced offices in London and Manchester

We have premises providing serviced offices in London on the Isle of Dogs, and in Manchester with serviced offices in Salford Quays adjacent to MediaCity UK.

Tenants get high-quality furnished office space in prime London and Manchester locations, with the flexibility of meeting rooms to hire on-site on an ad hoc basis.

Alternatively if you just want a prime address but don’t need the physical office space, we provide virtual offices in London and Manchester too, allowing you to route phone calls and postal mail via a prime professional address whether you work from home, the local pub or coffee shop, or anywhere else for that matter.

The Talk of the Town report recommends a focus on improving skills in all parts of the country, while recognising the role cities play in their local economy and community.

We think serviced office space caters to both of these recommendations – providing affordable, scalable business premises for new and growing firms in desirable locations in Manchester and London.

Meanwhile, virtual offices in London and Manchester allow you to tap into the prestige of an address adjacent to Canary Wharf or MediaCity UK, while working from your home in a nearby town or even from a location further away.

To find out more about how our serviced offices and meeting rooms in Manchester and London can help you to set up or grow your business, get in touch today.

You can call the Serviced Office Company on 0800 319 6600 or email info@servicedofficecompany.co.uk with any general enquiries about our serviced offices, meeting rooms and virtual offices.

Virtual offices let you cancel the winter commute

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Virtual offices can be the answer to winter woes as the darker mornings and evenings start to bite at either end of the working day, leaving more and more of us trying to navigate urban streets and country roads in the dark.

Putting the clocks back may gain us an extra hour of daylight in the mornings, but it’s at the cost of a darker evening commute – so why put yourself through a commute at all, if you don’t have to?

Our virtual offices in London and Manchester give you all of the benefits of a static address in a desirable location, with postal forwarding and telephone call forwarding, but without the need to come into the office in person.

How do virtual offices work?

With our virtual offices in Manchester and London, you get a physical postal address at our premises, with your business name at the top, as well as a non-geographic telephone number for customers to use.

Everything is unbranded – except for your own brand – so if a client, supplier or anybody else writes or calls, the post will be forwarded on to you or the telephone call transferred immediately to your number.

All of this is without you being on the premises in person, so you are free to work from home and avoid that freezing, dark morning and evening commute, or even to work from wherever you happen to be if you travel a lot.

Virtual offices, real meeting rooms

Working from virtual offices still gives you the option of accessing our physical premises too – you can book meeting rooms in London and Manchester at the same address as your virtual office whenever you need somewhere to meet clients, candidates and potential investors.

And if you ever decide you want physical premises for your business, we also provide serviced office space at those same addresses, so you can seamlessly transition to a bricks-and-mortar business as you grow.

But in the meantime – or indefinitely, if you choose – virtual offices put you in control of where you spend your working day and can mean even on these short winter days, you can time your meetings to allow you to drive to and from our premises in daylight.

Reduced meeting room rates with virtual offices

Finally, on top of all of the other benefits of our virtual offices – lower overheads, transparent and professional services, and the flexibility to switch to on-site serviced offices if you wish – you also get reduced meeting room rates.

That means if you decide to hold a meeting, interview, sales pitch or any other in-person appointment in our meeting rooms in Manchester or London, as a virtual offices customer it will cost you less.

It’s just one more way we at the Serviced Office Company allow you to work flexibly from a prime business address, while making sure you hold on to more of the profits you make from your business activities – not just in the winter months, but all year round.