- Research cost for shared office space
- Consider approaching another business to sub-lease some space
Consider a Shared Office
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Many small business rent a portion of an established business which is designed to provide space for many smaller companies. These shared office suites often have a common receptionist to field calls (and they will answer the phone using your company name), shared office equipment such as photocopy machine and fax, a conference room you can rent space in, and may offer a prestigious address as well.
You get all these benefits - instant office that is "client ready" for a monthly fee. When clients visit you at this office, they may or may not notice it is a shared suite. The reality is that many people will not care either.
Once you reach the point where you have full time staff running your business, it may make more sense to lease your own office space. However, for a very small team, it could be more cost effective to stay in the shared environment where select costs (such as receptionist) are spread out among other businesses.
The decision of leasing shared office space will largely depend on if you plan to have clients meet with you at a location other than their office. The need to have a professional place to visit with clients and prospects is what will usually drive this decision.
Another less costly option could be to approach a non-competitive business that has extra space and propose that you locate a cubical or two in their space and pay them a fee monthly. They may be happy to have additional revenue from someone that is not even in the office a lot and for a space they weren't really using anyway. You might even be able to negotiate the use of a conference room or some office equipment.
I have also seen very small businesses for lease where the space is literally one room on a floor of an office building. These can also be cheap and give you a place to get away from home when you want to work on your business.
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