Coworking VS Serviced Office

When start-ups think about their workspace, two options may pop up in their minds: getting a coworking space that is very prevalent these days, or renting a serviced office with a more private working area. Many of our clients have come across these questions time by time nowadays, but the answer is, these two choices are both awesome, ONLY they are fitting different needs, serving different purposes and having their own characteristics! So yes, the struggles are real, let’s open this topic and see if the following views can help you facilitate your decision?
 

Why Coworking Space?

To start-ups, budget control and resource management both play a significant role in their business expansion. Working at a coworking space is a low-cost pick but with a bundle of benefits at the same time. When you work at such environment, it allows you as a young business to meet different kinds of people that could turn into a valuable asset in your future expansion.

An unique characteristic and best thing of coworking space is Flexibility. When you work at a conventional office, you might not be able to come and go as you wish since a standard 1-2 years contract might tie you up. Yet, you won’t have to worry about the commitment period of your coworking space because certain service providers do offer different package plans like Day Pass / Weekly Pass / Monthly Plan (like what BRIDGES does) for start-ups to select. Some people may go for Day Pass for temporary usage, for which you can simply make a phone call or pay on spot then you are all set and good to go. Else, you can pick Monthly Plan with 40 hours usage or unlimited usage, depends on which plan fits you more.

So the concept of coworking space is pretty much like you just come in with your gear and then you can start working. When you have a meeting outside or need some fresh air, you can simply pack up and go outside to stretch your legs. Very flexible and dynamic, especially for those business travellers or green kictstarters.

What About Serviced Office?

Many businessmen go for serviced office for 3 main reasons - Privacy, Getting the Best Ready-to-Use Service at where they work, and having the ability to use a rather Long-Term Office Area for the growing team to locate. For example, for some start-ups or SMEs that value their own privacy a lot like IT, designs or investment industries, possessing their own private working spaces so that an easy interpersonal communication can be made is crucial. 

Comparatively, a serviced office is more suitable for those rather matured companies, looking for a fully furnished office space at a premier location like CENTRAL to match with their brand / company size. Also, they can make use of the glamourous meeting rooms on the same floor next to their offices to meet up with important clients conveniently.

What to Pick?

So basically a well established Business Centre can fulfill both your coworking space and serviced office needs, and you can even make the utmost benefit by using both services at different stages: using the cost-effective and flexible coworking space during your start-up stage, and starting to rent the larger serviced office unit with privacy and decent working environment when your firm is more developed and thus requires a better company image.

No matter what workspace type you will pick based on your status and requirements, it is suggested to find a compatible business centre having both coworking space and serviced office options so you don’t need to troublesomely switch from one service provider to another when you need the other workspace type at a later time.

Another huge benefit a Business Centre like BRIDGES can bring to you is that we will not only offer a prime office space but also take care of all your corporate needs and matters like ours, such as accounting & audit arrangement, tax filing, legal advice arrangement, working visa, trademark for company registration, etc. with our experienced on-site specialists who can come to you and provide face-to-face advice promptly on your different queries.

A New Era of Coworking

Under the ever-changing market with rapid technology / e-commerce development, more and more people, especially the young creative generations are making good use of this chance to start a whole new business nowadays. But where to start? 

Coworking space or dedicated desk* now serves as an entry ticket along with a bunch of benefits for start-ups to begin their entrepreneurial journey there :

Cost Efficiency

Cost is definitely one of the major concerns when it comes to forming a business. During the start-up stage of a business, most of the time you might not need a physical environment to achieve the tasks. Or you just need the office when you come to Hong Kong and work in it on a pay-as-you-use basis. Thus instead of carrying the burden of renting a sizable office that might not have much impact on your business, why not reorganise your resources and spend it on other development cost or supporting staff. And so, coworking space is undoubtedly a practical pick for start-ups.

Flexibility

To a newly set-up business, there could be many ad hoc tasks or incidents that require you to rearrange your schedule to work flexibly. Working at coworking space would allow you to come n’ go anytime as per your needs. You can even go pick up a cup of coffee or hit the gym whenever you need to be re-energised, then start your work again!

Networking

A mature coworking environment with periodic workshops provided is also famous for helping you expand your business and social network, and it is definitely a task worth spending time for start-ups. If the whole thing is well invested, you could have benefited from a diversified business network beyond imagination. The people you met could be just a friend or they could be a strong strategic alliance to your business and the relationship might turn into a mutually beneficial relationship eventually.

In some premier business centres, you can get all the help you need with their professional consultants specialized in accounting, tax reporting, payroll, working visa, China visa, etc. anytime, while free consultation will be extended to solve any of your instant queries. E.g. “What if I need to go to China for Canton Fair next week, what type of visa should I apply for and how fast?” When you have these kinds of questions, just drop by the reception and the consultants will walk out and provide face-to-face advice to you to ease your burden timely.

* In general, a coworking space means a floating desk without a fixed seat, while a dedicated desk means a fixed desk for which the user can have a more private workspace.

More young generations are starting their own business these days. Different from the past, they do have various channels to know what steps they can take to be a smarter entrepreneur, and how to get things done in the most cost-effective way.

For instance, if you’d like to put more resources into developing your business, it seems some traditional constant expenses like running a physical office or miscellaneous fees for maintaining that office should be cut down when they are not really facilitating your growth. Instead, you may restructure those resources and put into ‘real’ business, like materials / service provider sourcing or investing in product development, etc.

In this article, we’ll explore some efficient ways for a start-up to maximise its benefits under effective financial controls when running a business in HK.
 

COUNT the Cost

As mentioned above, being a savvy start-up or entrepreneur, minimizing the business costs and maximizing profits is crucial. So how do you know which cost to cut? Yes, one biggest monthly expense is RENT. HK property rent is known as one of the most expensive (read related news here) around the globe, especially the Central district. Central remains to be the top-level area as Core Business District (CBD) where most business activities take place, for many ambitious companies including those from China try to be stationed in this prime district. Does it mean the chance of getting your firm situated in Central is small? Not really. To achieve this, besides taking a rather costly traditional office, there are 3 affordable ways for a young business like yours to consider :

> Serviced Office: a fully furnished physical office that allows small team working together with privacy, while the pay-as-you-use office support services like printing, word processing are flexible to use - its monthly rental rate is higher than the other 2 options because of the private unit;

> Coworking Space: a space / compartment where you can freely come n’ go as you wish, having a desk in the Central environment to work, share and enjoy networking with like-minded people. This kind of coworking solution is very popular nowadays for people to gather and brainstorm new ideas - the fee is medium to high, offering daily access, weekly access and monthly access selections;

> Virtual Office: a virtual address provided by a professional business centre as your Government’s registered address (e.g. registered as your company’s business address, printed on name card, listed on website, etc.), together with mail handling, call answering and fax forwarding services. This is an excellent choice for start-ups with budget concern, given that they can locate their virtual office at a prestigious Central address at a minimal cost. There is a high level of flexibility for the start-ups to work whenever and wherever effortlessly - the monthly fee is the lowest of the 3 options, as low as HK$600 per month here.

In fact, high expenditure of physical office is not quite necessary at the company’s initial stage (especially when the budget control is critical during the start-up period), that’s why the virtual address solution is widely applied in many industries, but of course, picking a good proper address is important, preferably in a grade A building to further elevate your corporate image.

GET the Utmost Benefit

For start-ups, there are many flexible choices with different value-added services to help grow your business in the market. How to know which service provider is suitable for you? One thing you may take into consideration is their service experience and profundity. For example at our centre, the proficient team provides a full blend of corporate support services along with our business address plans, including phone & mail handling, incorporation packages, company secretarial services, accounting, tax reporting, visa application (work visa / China visa), payroll as well as meeting room usage and coworking space, where you can get all corporate compliance functions under one umbrella at once, and at a lower cost compared with getting them from several service providers generally. From time to time, we heard from our clients that the reasons they picked us is definitely the knowledgeable staff, fast turnaround time, fair pricing and wide spectrum of corporate assistance served as a business hub for entrepreneurs joining together and receive the support they need right here, from starting up to maintaining and expanding the business.

Many of our virtual office clients are frequent travellers, and so our Central centre will serve as a perfect place for them to meet business partners or clients when they come to HK. They could simply reserve a well-equipped meeting room for their professional meetups. Also, they could book a coworking space with Day Pass / Weekly Pass / Monthly Pass before their arrival, to ensure they’ll have a decent place to work and settle down. Not to mention when they are abroad, all their incoming calls will be answered in their company name by the fully-trained multilingual receptionists here, so no more lost business opportunities.

In recent years, virtual office seems a wise pick for the start-ups / SMEs to maintain and expand their business at low cost but with the right firm you can easily maximise your benefits and the overall superiority is beyond your imagination. Just some more tips, having a prestigious corporate address with company directory signage in a grade A building can help facilitate your government application or license acquisition, as well as your working visa application!

Try getting your business address at BRIDGES to taste our professionalism in a whole new way, where all your corporate needs are attentively taken care of. From corporate services like compiling an accounting report to office solutions like working at a flexible coworking space, or using our sea view meeting rooms whenever you’re in HK, please feel free to shoot an email to us at info@bridges.hk for any support. Or, simply drop us a private message to subscribe to the virtual office service now.