Serviced offices are ideal for start-ups, writes Prajit Arora, managing director of Sentinel Business Centres.
Gulf Business
It is not surprising that huge ranges of businesses in Dubai are electing to use serviced offices today. Many new, but not necessarily small businesses cannot accurately predict their headcount figures over a two or three year time span. These companies take flexible offices in a serviced office facility where they will be able to take additional space when it is needed. A traditional office may feature in the next stage of their property strategy, but initially, they prefer to avoid large overheads with high set up costs.
A Business Centre is the collective term for an office building, or often just a floor or wing of an office building, in which a company provides a range of offices to tenants on relatively short term contracts in the form of serviced offices. These offices are fully fitted and furnished and ready for immediate occupancy. Serviced office operators also take responsibility for all of the services including reception services, secretarial support, and conference and meeting facilities, video conferencing, networking and high speed internet access.
While initial costs may look high, the charges that you pay includes almost all of the costs that you would normally expect to pay on top of rent in a conventional office; and better yet, they are fixed costs – from month to month, you know exactly what you’ll pay for your workspace. There are no additional costs for furniture, heating/air conditioning, lighting and power, security, cleaning, building and plant maintenance, elevators, insurance and other miscellaneous expenses that business owners are usually in the dark about until the bill arrives. For many start-ups, the up-front costs associated with a conventional office are simply unaffordable and the hassle-free monthly payments at a serviced office are far more manageable.