Finding the right office

Business centre, high street, rural?

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Hi all,

I am in the middle of searching for an office, so any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated. 

The two that most appeal to me are the business centre and the city centre, I fear having a rural office won't help grow my client base as quickly as I'd like.

Business centre

Positives: cheaper, purpose built office, parking, potential clients on your doorstep.

Negatives: location is tucked away so may need to spend more on advertising, fees and service charges.

City centre(ish)

Positives: heavy passing traffic and footfall.

Negatives: more expensive, lack of parking.

I have read some accountants have seen a more limited company clients by locating to a business centre, I would hope the office close to the city centre wouldn't put potential clients off, it would likely be a Victorian house that has been converted to offices.

Replies (45)

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By ___confused
16th Apr 2017 17:22

sorry for the formatting, cant work out how to fix it

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RLI
By lionofludesch
16th Apr 2017 17:47

It's a tough one.

To be honest, crawling into a city every day wouldn't suit me. Nor would crawling into a city to visit my accountant.

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By ___confused
16th Apr 2017 17:58

very true lionofludesch, we offer client visits, so hopefully that would solve some of the issues in coming to us.

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By tom123
16th Apr 2017 18:26

Our auditors offer visitor parking, as do all the previous ones I have worked with.

Just thinking ahead - after all if you end up doing all the client visits that is a fair bit of travelling time?

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Replying to tom123:
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By ___confused
16th Apr 2017 18:42

Yeah that is a fair point tom, with city parking you can get customer parking "permits", so it would be possible but a faff. There is also plenty of car parks, but of course you have to pay for those.

If the clients are local it shouldn't be too bad, but still something to seriously consider.

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By Jakarmi
16th Apr 2017 18:44

Are you currently based at home or in an office at the moment?

What is the competition in the potential areas? Are you lost in the crowd of accountants in the city? Does the Business Centre already have an accountant there?

Compare the parking issues for both and also travelling issues. Some clients have come to me for example as I'm local so if I got an office ten miles away for example through city centre traffic then perhaps there would be issues.

Home visits. Who is going to man the office when you are out on these? How will home visits affect your travelling time etc? The likelihood is that you are going to want to get clients to come to you to save your time so ideally the parking/travelling for your clients would be more important for me than thinking I can do home visits to cover the problem.

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Replying to Jakarmi:
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By ___confused
16th Apr 2017 19:16

Hello Jakarmi

At the moment I am working from home, but I don't like this arrangement.

There are plenty of accountants in the city, so I'd be keen to get a good location to stand a chance of winning more clients.

There seems to be a SEO war at the moment and I think I'd struggle to keep up with them.

The business centre does have sole practitioner which is a shame.

I was hoping as people walk/drive past they would remember for when they need an accountant.

I was expecting that most my clients would be local so travelling would be a quick 5miles journey, but perhaps this is unrealistic.

The more I think about this it could become very inefficient, I look at it as good customer service at the moment.

The city do provide customer permit parking, although this isn't great, as it is on street parking around the corner and they would need to get a permit from the office.

The majority of the time there will be someone else in the office, but there will be times when its empty.

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Replying to ___confused:
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By Jakarmi
16th Apr 2017 19:35

Hi Confused,

No worries. I'm in a similar situation. Worked from home for two years, rented an office from another business for six years then back home (sharing becaming tedious) and now looking to rent somewhere on my own as family distractions become difficult.

I've looked at offices in the city and local enterprise park but travelling and getting lost in the crowd doesn't appeal to me. I'd rather something in my village where there isn't any competition (with premises anyway) but finding the right thing is difficult.

I wouldn't bank on any business from the business centre. I would guess that if businesses there wanted an accountant on their doorstep then they'd be with the accountant that is there. You may get one or two perhaps.

I guess there are flaws to both of your options and if you're not totally happy then I'd advise to hang on for something else. I understand it is frustrating to not have the right thing available but I just have my fingers crossed that it will all work out in the end.

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Replying to Jakarmi:
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By ___confused
16th Apr 2017 20:33

Yeah not something to quickly jump into for sure, perhaps something more suitable will come along.

In my experience, there is a lack of good quality office space for smaller companies.

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By tom123
16th Apr 2017 19:22

I presume the 'business centre' is one of these easy in
type things (round my way they are called basepoint).

At least that way you would not be tied to massive leases - and would know your costs from day one.

You can always move on.

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Replying to tom123:
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By ___confused
16th Apr 2017 20:39

No it is a business park for about 30 companies, not a shared/virtual office.

The basepoint type places don't appeal to me, they aren't that cheap all things considered. I guess you may have opportunities for networking and potential clients on your doorstep.

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boxfile
By spilly
16th Apr 2017 19:38

We've been based in several locations and have found parking to be the main factor for clients. They want to be able to pop in at anytime to drop stuff off, and maybe have a quick chat without having to keep a lookout for a traffic warden.
We are currently in a serviced office block, out in the business park area. We've not lost any clients by moving here, and have gained a couple that are based nearby as well.
The thing that swung this move for us was the much lower rent here as against the town centre. Accountants don't really get passing trade so really no need to have a prime location.

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
16th Apr 2017 19:53

I would think ease of access and parking for staff and visitors are key.

I moved into a Serviced office a while back now, I live in Co Durham which is semi rural and my office is in the town but I am right slap between Newcastle, Durham and Sunderland so my catchment of say 10 miles includes a lot of businesses. It's defiantly been good for me the Google map on website has improved referrals with over 50% of new leads coming from it.

I struggled working from home and things only started to move once I moved to a more professional set up in an office.

There is a few empty shops in the village I live which are available cheaply I am thinking of maybe buying something like in a few years time once more established as it will be good investment using a SIPP to buy it as my current pension is sadly lacking.

The service office is good if the management let you promote to the other tenants or do work shops etc

Good luck with what you do

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Replying to Glennzy:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
17th Apr 2017 15:32

Glennzy wrote:

There is a few empty shops in the village I live which are available cheaply I am thinking of maybe buying something like in a few years time once more established as it will be good investment using a SIPP to buy it as my current pension is sadly lacking.

Just be careful the SIPP fees/costs for a SIPP holding property do not eat away any tax advantage.

My employer dumped 9 shell commercial units we held into the joint control of four SIPPS which had the funds, the catch was that the annual SIPP fees/IFA costs, plus the fee each time a unit was say sold, ate away a fair part of the growth-a single SIPP may well be tenable, only one set of annual fees, but must admit not my favourite type of vehicle for lower cost commercial properties.

Was also not keen on SIPP provider trying to charge an additional fee as our solicitor was not on their list, further £500 mentioned though did back off when I lost my temper via IFA.

If you do decide to proceed it likely pays to examine the fee schedule very carefully. Also be aware the SIPP provider may say insist on a particular report on purchase you had not considered necessary. We got stuffed paying for a ground contamination report which we knew was not needed-we had sorted the planning on the entire site for 200 flats plus the commercial units in the first place, but checklist mentality intervened and despite the reports we had obtained to get the planning i, which had satisfied the planners, this was not acceptable to the SIPP, they wanted an extra bit of paper in the form they expected; another £1k down the drain.

Must admit I have been tempted to buy something myself but I think in my case it will be accumulate profits in the company then use its funds, especially as will now be taking lower dividends. (day job uses basic rate)

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RLI
By lionofludesch
16th Apr 2017 21:15

What city are we talking about, just out of interest ?

London, Lisburn, Brechin, St Davids ?

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Replying to lionofludesch:
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By ___confused
17th Apr 2017 08:15

Hampshire, maybe Southampton but nothing is decided yet.

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Replying to ___confused:
Mike Cooper HJS
By mike_uk_1983
19th Apr 2017 10:29

I work in a firm in Southampton. I think from what you are talking about maybe in the area you looking at for the Victorian converted town houses.

My comments would be that there is parking locally and most clients we deal with are happy to pay however we maybe aiming at a different market to you.

I dont think you will get any footfall from where you are based but maybe able to attract local business and reputation from location.

From out of town point of view Chandlers Ford/Eastleigh seems to be popular with the easy access from M3 and M27.

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Replying to mike_uk_1983:
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By ___confused
19th Apr 2017 17:09

A very valid point about clients being different.

Not sure where you are, I was looking at a couple of places. Sadly beaten to the one I really wanted along the A33.

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Replying to ___confused:
Mike Cooper HJS
By mike_uk_1983
19th Apr 2017 17:18

Trying to think where the offices are on the A33. I can only think of one.

I am up on Carlton Place just off London road and loads of houses converted to offices here as well as Oxford Street. these were the areas I was thinking of.

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
16th Apr 2017 21:51

I have an office in a converted barn behind my house so I think i have the best of both worlds.

I also use a co-working space on a local city partly for the Google effect and also for a place to go meet clients and get out of the 'office'.

What is the main reason for you moving into an office and how have you picked up clients so far?

High street location - lot of passing trade, are these the types of clients you want?

Business park - close to other business - potential clients and also plenty of parking.

If I were to move to an office I'd want to be near lots of potential customers. I did consider taking out office space in a local town and it was surrounded by small businesses and no accountants nearby.

Possibly something I'd consider in the future but not now when work very much fits around family (school runs etc) and I couldn't guarantee that there would always be someone in the office during normal working hours.

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Replying to Kent accountant:
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By ___confused
17th Apr 2017 08:08

I don't find working at home that productive and if I'm honest I think I will get more of the clients I'm aiming for if I had an office.

My clients are mainly small medium sized companies but do have some large clients i do work for.

When I lasted looked at it serviced offices weren't all that good value for money after everything was considered. Maybe I need to look again.

I do wonder about the Google effect and perception as most people will know it is a serviced offices.

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Logo
By marks
17th Apr 2017 01:22

We have an office in a business centre in a small town and have been there for about 4 years.

Pluses for us are
1. Plenty of parking at the business centre for visiting clients.
2. We have a monthly charge that covers rent, heat and light and use of meetings rooms.
3. We pay a separate monthly charge for telephone reception service, mailing service, teas and coffees provided at meetings, photocopying of documents done by reception when at meetings.
4. We are the only chartered accountants with an active office in our town so we pick up a lot of clients locally and are highly ranked for SEO locally which has been built up over 3 or 4 years.
5. We have a few clients in the business centre where we are based but we dont actively market to them, they have approached us

Negatives
1. Isnt really any. We have about 210 clients and are looking to grow to about 300 clients which we will do within the next 12-18 months as we usually get between 3 and 10 new clients a month (signed up 4 just last week and waiting to hear from another 1).

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Replying to marks:
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By ___confused
17th Apr 2017 08:12

That's some good client numbers.

Are you allowed to use the serviced office as your clients registered office? I didn't think they liked that.

How did you manage the SEO was I expensive?

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Replying to ___confused:
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By marks
17th Apr 2017 21:29

___confused wrote:

That's some good client numbers.

Are you allowed to use the serviced office as your clients registered office? I didn't think they liked that.

How did you manage the SEO was I expensive?

Yes we offer registered office service to Ltd Company clients and charge 120+VAT per year. Dont know off hand how many clients have taken it it but probably about 15.

SEO built up via few different activities; content on site, google adwords set up and optimised, keeping site fresh by adding 2 blogs and at least one newsletter each month and regular social media activity (at least 2 FB, tweet, linkedin posts each day). We have someone that does all our blogs, newsletters and social media posts.

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By Ken Howard
17th Apr 2017 11:22

I had a High Street office (shop front) which was brilliant for getting new business. It was at the end of the main shopping street, surrounded by estate agents, solicitors, etc. Got more new business than I could handle.

BUT.

It was a royal pain in the neck for the sheer amount of time wasters, charity collectors, drunks, freeloaders, and sales reps, who constantly came through the door. I was a one man band, so I had to fend them off which meant a lot of wasted time. The"shop front" seemed to send a message that I was some kind of drop in centre.

If I ever did it again, I'd make sure that we had a couple of strong-character-ed receptionists to deal with the tyre-kickers and that I'd have my office in a back room or upstairs, so the receptionists could "gate keep" for me.

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Replying to Ken Howard:
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By ___confused
17th Apr 2017 12:14

Luckily this is a converted house and has no "shop front" so hopefully there wouldn't be as many drop ins.

Excellent to hear about the increased business.

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By ___confused
17th Apr 2017 12:19

Update: I did a little investigation into a serviced office, there are plenty of parking spaces but it is often full and people double park.

Fees start from £5000 + vat per annum, this is for their smallest office which is taken at the moment and excludes broadband, calls etc.

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
17th Apr 2017 13:02

Is that more than you want to pay and is broadband and phones on top of that.?

A few of my local business centres are council backed so you get a few free months when you move in.

If it's a month to month contract you enter why not give it 6 months and see how it goes. If it does not work out you can always leave your address there and move back home.

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Replying to Glennzy:
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By ___confused
17th Apr 2017 13:23

If I am honest, I thought it would be a little cheaper than that, yeah that excludes all extras such broadband and 'phones.

It is easy in easy out, so the flexibility is v appealing, but I wonder just how much it will end up costing with the additional costs.

In comparison I did see a self contained office in a business park for £10k per annum.

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By Tosie
17th Apr 2017 14:07

I had similar experiences to Ken Howard. Several chancers waving cash asking for mortgage accounts but did not want to change accountants. One elderly gentleman who clearly thought that we were lonely as he called most days for our view on financial markets. Best office that we had was a second floor office with a hairdressers underneath. Clients knew we were there but very few casual callers. In my opinion clients come from recommendations rather than seeing a sign although I agree decent premises generate decent clients. Good luck not an easy task.

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Replying to Tosie:
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By ___confused
17th Apr 2017 18:19

Definitely not an easy task for sure, I wonder how much difference would make having front elevation that isnt typically used for retail.

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Sarah Douglas - HouseTree Business Ltd
By sarah douglas
18th Apr 2017 08:40

Hi

I moved into a large unit - office business centre in Glagow suburbs behind Edrington whiskey head quarters . Which is great for clients knowing where is is.

there is accountant next door to us. Our offices are beside each other.

Personally I do not think it makes a difference.

One of the best things about a business centre is the social aspect

There are 62 units - offices and yes you do pick up a lot of business from the centre as businesses do like to be close .

Plenty of parking for clients.

Heating is included in rent so costs are fixed no surprises. They pay the water rates for the building. (Another saver).

management and caretaker-always there to look after the building and running of it .

I highly recommend it .

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Jennifer Adams
By Jennifer Adams
18th Apr 2017 14:06

In my March blog I considered the very same question for the same reasons as yourself see here:
https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/community/blogs/jaadams/moving-from-home...
and said" What puts me off from getting a separate town based office (apart from the additional cost, of course), is that I don't really want to have to get in the car to the nearest town which is 20 mins drive away, get stuck in traffic and possibly have to spend a fortune in parking."

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By Southwestbeancounter
18th Apr 2017 15:40

I worked from home for 12 years and then 17 years ago moved to a city centre office 7 miles away from where I had been living at the time. As others have said there are pros and cons of both. I eventually lost one client who lived two streets away from where I worked from home but the only reason he left was because he couldn't manage the four flights of stairs to my office as he had a bad back but he still stayed for 3-4 years after I relocated. The advantage of working from home is that if it snows etc. or you want to work on weekends everything is at your fingertips, the disadvantage I found was that clients never left me alone so I wouldn't go back to it given the choice. My home now is my sanctuary and very few clients know where I live and so I now get peace and quiet on weekends which I didn't get before. The disadvantages of working in the city centre is having to get to work each day and parking etc. although I don't live too far out so I often walk part way to save the parking. We have a public car park less than quarter of a mile away and no clients have left us because of our location (even if they live very close by to where we used to operate from) and most actually like us being in town as they can pop to see us when doing their shopping or going to the dentist etc. There are also park and ride services around so often clients use those. If you offer a good service clients are quite prepared to put themselves out a bit too.

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By David.dgwright.co.uk
19th Apr 2017 10:55

Out of town rural wins hands down for me. We are very rural, 5 miles from nearest town. Clients love ease of parking. Do you really want passing trade? could be anybody and possibly clients you don't wont. Work on referrals from current clients instead.
Go for twice the size you need now, you will fill it in no time!

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By neiljduncan
19th Apr 2017 11:10

I previously worked for a medium sized firm in a large town.
Limited parking, hard for clients (and me) to get in to.
The argument then was that you would pick up local business / clients walking past!
Do you really want somebody that walks past the door and chooses an accountant that way? We could not think of one decent client we picked up in 15 years purely because of the location. Depending on what size of business you and the potential city centre businesses are they may not be your type of client anyway.
10 years ago I left the firm, set up with somebody else in a rural business park. Best thing I ever did. Less than one mile from home (walked in today), views overlooking countryside, we picked up all the other businesses on site as clients and even loads of local small businesses as they cant be bothered travelling to the local town even though it is only 4 miles away!
They in turn recommend their mates - we have never spent a £ on advertising. I can't go out in the local village (1 mile away) without bumping into clients, which is actually quite good as they are all nice people.
I personally would not want to go near a city (or even large town) location.
Just my thoughts as we didn't plan it that way, but with hindsight if you are happy then the chances are your clients will be and even if (which is questionable) you do not maximise the potential of your business your work / life balance will be so much better - imagine the wasted travel time getting into a city centre, it could easily be 10 hours per week, even at £100 per hour that's £1,000 per week you could be earning or spending time with the family.

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By neiljduncan
19th Apr 2017 11:10

I previously worked for a medium sized firm in a large town.
Limited parking, hard for clients (and me) to get in to.
The argument then was that you would pick up local business / clients walking past!
Do you really want somebody that walks past the door and chooses an accountant that way? We could not think of one decent client we picked up in 15 years purely because of the location. Depending on what size of business you and the potential city centre businesses are they may not be your type of client anyway.
10 years ago I left the firm, set up with somebody else in a rural business park. Best thing I ever did. Less than one mile from home (walked in today), views overlooking countryside, we picked up all the other businesses on site as clients and even loads of local small businesses as they cant be bothered travelling to the local town even though it is only 4 miles away!
They in turn recommend their mates - we have never spent a £ on advertising. I can't go out in the local village (1 mile away) without bumping into clients, which is actually quite good as they are all nice people.
I personally would not want to go near a city (or even large town) location.
Just my thoughts as we didn't plan it that way, but with hindsight if you are happy then the chances are your clients will be and even if (which is questionable) you do not maximise the potential of your business your work / life balance will be so much better - imagine the wasted travel time getting into a city centre, it could easily be 10 hours per week, even at £100 per hour that's £1,000 per week you could be earning or spending time with the family.

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Caroline
By accountantccole
19th Apr 2017 13:18

When I moved out of the home office, I looked at offices in the town centre, in the "accountant and lawyer" part of town. I ended up much nearer to home (5-7 min walk from home) and have no regrets. Most of my clients come through referrals and website hits and they seem to like the fact there is always parking available outside. We are in a corner shop conversion type building in a residential area. In the 3 years I have been here, I think I have had about 10 drop ins, time wasters were easy to identify and a quick high quote gets rid of them. Just had a walk by today who looks like they will be an interesting client.
If you are working on your own then the social and support aspect of the business centre might have its attractions.

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By Barry Adams
19th Apr 2017 13:27

Avoid city centre. I know of accountants that have relocated to a city centre and then had to move out again due to lack of parking for team members and clients.

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By ___confused
19th Apr 2017 16:54

Thanks all for the input, gives me a lot to consider.

City centre should be a walkable commute for me, but still a pain for clients.

Regarding the type of clients, I'm not chasing SA, but I was more thinking it would help build awareness by having an office on a busy road.

Agree with the referrals comment.

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FT
By FirstTab
20th Apr 2017 00:13

Please stop driving to the office if it is within a reasonable distance under 5 miles or so. Get a bicycle or walk.

Better still get rid of your car. If you are in London, life is better without a car.

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Replying to FirstTab:
RLI
By lionofludesch
20th Apr 2017 09:30

Sure - I need a couple of hours tagging onto either end of my day walking 5 miles to work.

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Elliott Chandler Picture
By elliottchandler
22nd Apr 2017 13:26

I think it might have been mentioned once but it is important to consider the internet connection. Get it checked out before making a decision.

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By sally1964
25th Apr 2017 13:42

My office is in the country side - clients like the fact they can park easily and do not have to deal with the town traffic problems. As most new business comes from referrals I don't think a rural location makes any difference

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By dbowleracca
28th Apr 2017 22:44

There is certainly a happy medium here - an office that has parking, is easily accessible, and affordable.

As many have said, you're unlikely to pick up bucket loads of clients from your location alone, although google maps is very useful for helping your website ranking.

My advice would be to get an office in a good location near the town, but not in it, and focus your marketing efforts on generating enquiries through social media and your website. Clients will travel to meetings for 20-30 minutes if you do a good job, and they are the right type of clients. It will only be a maximum of 4 times a year they need to do this - you can even agree to visit them at home half the time to make it easier.

An office is great to separate work/home life and raise your brand awareness and perception, so I would strongly recommend it, but don't be sucked in to having a city centre location just because of passing trade because it won't be the best source of new business no matter where you are.

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