Thinking of renting out an office for your small company? You probably don’t need to. Digital technology has made it easier to run a full-fledged business entirely from home whilst still maintaining a sense of professionalism. This could save you huge costs as well as saving you time by not having to commute. Here are just five reasons why having an office isn’t a necessity.

 

You can use videoconferencing to conduct meetings with clients

If you’d like an office so that you can conduct meetings with clients, consider instead using videoconferencing. By using programmes such as Skype you can conduct face-to-face meetings without having to invite clients to your office. On top of being able to do this from your home, you’ll save your client the hassle of having to travel to your office.

 

Or you can meet clients in a coffee bar

Not everybody is happy with videoconferencing – some people prefer in-person meetings. In these cases, it’s possible to still conduct meetings without an office. Instead of hosting a meeting at home, you can simply host a meeting in a coffee bar. These are popular places to carry out business meetings – the environment is chilled out, there’s often free internet access, plus you can treat your client to some coffee (it’s likely to better than any coffee you’d be able to brew up in your own office). Of course, coffee bars aren’t the only places to meet up – libraries, university buildings and community centres may have function rooms that they can offer you.

 

You can hire remote employees

Perhaps you’re thinking of renting an office so that you can start hiring employees. However, you may still be able to get along without one by simply hiring remote workers. If your work is entirely computer/phone based, employees may be able to do the job from the comfort of their own home. You can communicate with them via email, instant message, phone or video. Information such as documents and other files can meanwhile be shared on the cloud. A growing number of startups are starting to hire all-remote workforces. It’s been found that remote employees are generally more productive and happier – this could be due to less distractions from colleagues, no commute and more flexibility. Studies have found that remote workers all take less time off sick, perhaps due to the fact that colleagues can’t pass on bugs to one another.

 

You can outsource storage for paper (or go paperless)

If you’re looking to rent an office so that you have somewhere to store all your paper files, consider whether you’d be better off simply outsourcing a document storage facility. This could be much cheaper than having to rent your own premises and could still give you somewhere to store this paperwork (these services may also be able to create digital copies of your documents so that you can still view them remotely when you need to rather than having to take a trip to the storage facility each time). Of course, you could always consider going entirely paperless by creating digital copies of all your paperwork. Many companies are relaxing their laws on the need to store paper copies of contracts and receipts. This could allow you to free up lots of space by storing everything digitally instead.

 

You can use virtual P.O. box

One downside to working from home is having to give out your personal address to clients for mailing purposes. Many company owners like to have separate address for business mail – in the past this would have meant renting out a physical office, but now it’s possible to use a virtual mailbox. These virtual mailing address companies allow you to use their address for mailing purposes. They then collect your mail and redirect it to you. Some of these companies are based in central city locations – by being able to use their address publicly, clients may assume that your business is based in the city, which could help you to look more credible than having a residential address. All in all, this could allow you to work from home whilst not having to give out your personal address to clients.