Should you go for Traditional office or Coworking space? – Coworking Space VS Traditional Office

If you are a startup, an upcoming company or an aspiring entrepreneur, you may have some ideas about how you want your workplace to be. In other words, you would certainly have some perception about what sort of a workspace would be ideal for you considering the following factors:

· The Kind of business you have and your ultimate objective.

· The connectivity, and

· The budget that you may have assigned.

There is another very important factor that may need to be considered. And that is- Whether you would want to go for a Traditional style of office or a Coworking space.

Well, to be precise, both come with pros and cons. The perfect choice for you would be the one which caters to your requirement in the best possible way.

Let us first define each style of workspace:

· Traditional office: This is the conventional type of office, where you lease out an entire set up or facility. You are the facilitator and manage of the property.

· CoWorking space: As the name suggests, this type refers to co-existing individuals or companies working together. It is on a space-sharing basis.

Also Read- Benefits of Managed Office Space

Let us now list the various differences between Traditional offices and Coworking spaces, according to various parameters. It would help you decide which option may work best for you!

1. Tenure of Contract & Flexibility

The lease for a traditional office is usually long term, that's minimum three to five years, with specific lock-ins. Also, if you need to make certain changes to the agreement especially with respect to expansion, then the process may not be practically viable or economically possible.

However, in case of a coworking space, there is no need to commit yourself to a long-term lease, and the total tenure may be customized as per your requirement. In case of any changes at a later stage, the agreement could accordingly be worked upon to adjust your needs. If your team expands to a fairly large number, then a traditional office set up with a longer office lease and space to accommodate more people would make more sense.

2. Deposits

No organization would like to block their funds, especially a startup or an SME in a fast paced market. The deposits for a traditional office space can be as high as 10 months rent when compared with a 1 to 3 months rent at a Coworking Space. Coworking Space allows companies to invest their money at other appropriate places instead of keeping it idle with the landlords.

3. Privacy

The traditional workspace provides the required privacy since the entire set up would belong to you and you will have the freedom to create your personal branding in the workplace. There may be hardly any distractions and company specific private and confidential information will be safe.

On the other hand, a coworking space would have ready-made layouts to fit in more people or companies. Lack of privacy and distraction may be quite evident in such a case.

4. Networking

A traditional office will encourage work and collaboration among employees. However, a coworking space would create and promote opportunities to network and collaborate among various individuals and companies. Coworking Communities are one of the major reasons why freelancers and start-ups prefer Coworking.

5. Capital Expenditure

A traditional office space requires a huge sum of Capital Expenditure for various for the complete set-up starting with Interiors, furniture, Coffee Machine, Printers and so on. In a coworking set up, all of these services are included in the package as free services.

6. Additional staff

An administration manager or facility manager may be needed for the smooth day to day running of operations in a traditional office. Whereas, in a coworking space, the office management is not your headache! Common resources such as receptionists, housekeeping, IT, maintenance staff etc are available for all the occupants of a Coworking Space.

These are few pointers that may broadly give you an insight into what kind of an office space may be feasible for you. Both kinds have their pros and cons, however, it all depends upon what sort of requirement you may have in the short or long terms. Based on that, you could evaluate the Traditional offices and Coworking spaces, and decide which one is worth going for.

Contact The Next Storey team know more about Virtual Office and Coworking Space and the new offers floating in the market.