Where we base our businesses is pretty fundamental.
Do people think that the type of cleint an accountancy practice attracts varies based on the type of office?
Interested to hear what type of clients people think would most like each of the above.
I have excluded completely home office from the mix, as I envisage a firm with staff rather than just someone on their Bob Todd..
Related resources
Replies (8)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
We're currently renovating what will be our new office, and I'm unsure which of your categories it'll fit into. Location-wise it is fairly central to the town, but it's quite well hidden, certainly doesn't have a big shop frontage for advertising purposes. Our clients are mainly contractors/freelancers scattered across the UK, and to be honest we don't really want your typical local businesses to come to us.
Hence our new office suits us. Near to town for access to shops/bank/whatever. Hidden so we don't get all and sundry popping in for a chat.
High street office is probably more appropriate for someone looking to attract prestigious local clients. Business park may be cheaper, and more convenient for those travelling in from other towns. To be honest I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "Virtual office"...I know what the words mean, but what do you have in mind (as you've specifically stated you don't mean people working from home)?
We're moving soon
From home office in village to small market town. Premises slightly larger than we need, all ground floor, great ambience, good landlord (client for 15 years), sensible rent, walking distance to centre of town, can't wait. Do not need to hike fees to cover additional overheads. Premises will be well presented, exceptionally clean and clients will in due course be treated to an audience with the (not yet born) black Labrador (but only if they want to be). It's a country practice, we know what our clients like and expect. Dog welcome, good free parking essential, expensive coffee machine and goldfish much less so. Like the website, the premises need to convey the right feel for the clients you want to attract. They have to be made welcome and to feel valued. Lord and Lady would not follow us to a trading estate Wrench Bros would. Account of others experience would be most welcome.
Virtual office
I mean an address where the post is delivered and scanned to a cloud based server but the staff work from home/clients and only meet face to face periodically as required.
Its a relatively new way of service businesses to function without having an expensive office when people are often "out on audit" or can work effectively from their spare room at home.
EDIT: Maslins, I think you are a virtual office with a physical location, if that makes sense, as you could be on Mars as far as clients are concerned !
Who is Bob Todd.
If you go down virtual office route go with a provider that is well recommended and has a good reputation. I went with a local one with a part time venture I had and they were terrible. After I cancelled the contract a bundle of post turned up in someone's drawer some with cheques in that I had been waiting for ages which made me look a right Herbert as I was threatening court action against the bloke when he swore blind he had sent the cheque.
As said above the office you have will depend on what type of clients you attract. A shop front will bring a lot of low value initially clients (although you will get some good ones with them) a key for me would be some free client parking. A business park or serviced office would be the next progression from working from home as you pay a fixed fee and don't get stuck with extra costs like rates etc. A town centre pad will cost a lot and which might attract better clients with better fees. You will have to do the maths to see which works out best. Commercial property is relatively cheap in North East and I would, consider buying an office of busy road with parking if the right one came up. I am finding it difficult working from home so looking to revise my growth expectations.
Done them all....
In my experience, the high street office is the one that is markedly different from the other two.
This is mainly because it's the one that is in itself advertising the business - signs, footfall etc. I was a manager in such an office in a small town. I remember one decent client walking through the door because he lived locally and had seen the office, but the vast majority of such walk-ins were (from our perspective) a waste of time. These ranged from the little old lady with some bank interest who wanted her tax return done for £20, to the market trader who wanted our secretary to type some business letters for him, etc etc...
Even for this office, the majority of decent clients came through marketing efforts such as direct mail.
I have to say, though, of the office I've worked in it was the most pleasant location-wise - a stone's throw from a bakery and the library.
Virtual offices and business park offices don't have the advertising benefit of the high street office, so you're dependent entirely on other forms of marketing and referrals. As an employee/partner the business park office wasn't such a great place to work, as things to do in lunch hour were very, very limited, so I tended to just work straight through.
The great benefit of the business park office was the abundance of free and easy parking - not something to be sniffed at.
Virtual office while I was working at home for a couple of years - again, good parking, but no real ability to put a personal stamp on your offices and meeting room(s). Can't complain though (Regus was the one I used.)
As for the types of clients they attracted - no difference whatsoever, as I recall. The usual mix of small businesses, from contractors to multi-million pound operations. At least half my meetings were at client premises anyway regardless of where I worked, so it didn't make a huge amount of difference.
WS.
Good parking = vital
wilcoskip first comment assumes that the High Street office can be seen from the road/ pavement. Many accountants live above shops and have just a small plaque on the wall by the front door leading straight to stairs. No-one would see them so no 'passing by'.
wilcoskip is 100% correct when he says what is important is easy parking. Clients just want to pop in to leave their stuff and dont want to park, pay for parking and then have to walk up stairs with a heavy box of papers.
I was interested in wilcoskip's comment re Virtual Offices - as I am having to move offices shortly and have clients from all over the country and abroad I will be investigating his suggestion.
Is a fancy office really worth the extra cost?
Surely choice of office depends on the size of the firm.
I do like the idea of virtual offices and know a client who uses one as his registered address.
However, if one has a practice which caters for clients all over the UK, and these clients are very unlikely to travel to you, is it really worth operating from a prestigious office?
The firm I get most of my work from tend to travel to the far away clients when a telephone conversation will not suffice. ...gets extra browny points
High Street "shop front" gets the punters
I've been home based, shop-front and "hidden", and by far, the shop front on a High Street produced the larger/better clients. Just a couple of points, though.
Firstly, not a pedestrianised or traffic-calmed area - clients want to be able to drop off/collect stuff easily. My office was right opposite the exit to a main car park, so also good for advertising.
Secondly, downside is time-wasters - i.e. the pensioners who want free advice "because they're poor" (yeah, right!!), door-to-door salesmen. Get a gate-keeper/receptionist to weed out the tyre kickers and keep you away from the drop-ins.
Now got a "hidden" office, just off a main road, so am accessible to clients, but no longer get the time wasters, which is fine as I'm on a plateau now and not looking for too many new clients.