Not that long ago, starting a business and hiring employees meant renting an office space and buying furniture. However, as technology has progressed, we find ourselves in a different situation. Today, we are often dealing with clients far away and may even have employees that we’ve never met face-to-face. In this environment, an executive suite may be the best choice for small businesses. They offer lower overhead, a professional image and the ability to change as your business changes.
Lower Overhead
Office space can become expensive through traditional leases. Long-term, multi-year contracts are the norm. Deposits for the rental and various utilities can add up quickly. Then you have to furnish it, pay those utilities monthly and usually have to pay for other things like cleaning. Sometimes we can only find choices that are too much square footage or not enough. One ends up costing us money unnecessarily and the other costs us frustration. An executive suite solves many of those issues. Typically, leases can be found for 1 year or less and things like utilities are included. This helps keep your costs down and predictable.
Professional Image
Having client meetings at a coffee shop may be ok sometimes, but there are times when you need quiet, privacy or both. The awkwardness of inviting them to your home for meetings is really far from ideal too. An executive suite gives you an actual location and typically access to conference or meeting rooms if the situation dictates it.
Additionally, sometimes the address can add prestige and credibility, even to clients who are not in your city but still check your business out online. Whether valid or not, there can be a bias against PO boxes from potential customers. Some potential customers may fear that a business without a physical address will disappear.
Even if you aren’t a fan of Google, we have to acknowledge it is the big fish. Your customers will often find you by way of Google. Trying to control how your business appears on the search engine involved getting verified. The Google verification process often involves sending you a postcard to your physical address. Also, the physical address changes how you show up when people search for businesses based on areas or “near me”. They will not allow a PO box as the address for those results.
The Ability to Change
As we mentioned earlier, traditional rentals usually involve longer-term, multi-year leases. That can seem ok, but what if things change? What if your business grows and needs more space? Or maybe shifts to needing more offices and less storage? It could even turn out that you decide your business should be in another city. Either way, the executive suite offers you more flexibility than the traditional building lease. Often you can expand to add more suites if you need them relatively easily.
First Street Executive Suites can help you establish an office in Fort Myers. You can have a prestigious business address in downtown Fort Myers. Take a virtual tour of your new office and start seeing the possibilities. Contact us for questions and details of the different packages.