Why you might ultimately regret renting a cheap office today.

It has always been a human trait to look out for the best bargains, which some would simply define as merely low price tag. This phenomenon also applies to office rentals where companies simply settle for a cheap long-term lease of a basic office, without considering enough about what their business needs and long-term goals are. Such measures to save costs might have work in the 90s, but not today. Instead, they could pose enormous risks that may derail a business over time. Here are five reasons why.

Higher Tendency To Spend More In The Long Run For Cheap Offices

A cheap office lease will only get you what you paid for. Nothing more and possibly a little less, if you deal with an unethical provider. What you will get is the essential space with basic furnishings. If you are lucky, probably a little pantry might be included.

You will then have to be responsible for office hygiene matters, IT infrastructure, the utility maintenance costs if anything goes faulty, and even the building management fees which are quite unjustifiable for what cheap office leases provide.

There are far better options today that would get you more value for money. Modern serviced offices and coworking spaces can provide you with quality essentials, a well-maintained workspace, and include utility maintenance costs in your agreement. Plus, they usually have a dedicated concierge that can assist with receiving parcels and basic administrative tasks, some can even help to organise your events if needed, helping you save on labour costs.

The abovementioned points are just the tip of the iceberg. As you read on to find out more, you will come to realise just how little value you might get out of a cheap office rental.

Cheap Office Environments Drive Talent Away

Times have changed, and employees demand a whole new standard of work environment. They prefer a conducive and flexible environment over a cheap office that restricts them to a workstation within plain white walls.

According to Alan Kohll, Founder and President of Total Wellness, “A quality workspace design leads to a less stressful and more productive atmosphere. It’s essential that employers take the physical work environment of their employees into consideration. Employees need to feel comfortable and calm in their physical work.”

A workspace today serves a greater purpose as compared to decades ago. As the world evolves, new job scopes with sophisticated skill sets are developed and they demand a lot more from an individual compared to what was required before. Hence, a proper work environment has to be established in order to foster productivity and well-being for all employees today.

Renting a cheap office can only provide you with a rigid space, which allows little room to design a conducive environment for different purposes. Without professional help, this could be a really daunting process. Therefore, companies are opting for serviced offices or coworking spaces that already have conducive workspaces ready. There won’t be a need to engage an interior firm to design a full-fledged workspace at a high cost. Your team could also make full use of breakout spaces for team building, collaboration hubs for discussions, or even phone booths as a quiet space for business calls. With so many more dedicated space to facilitate different aspects of work, office life will never be the same. Little wonder then, that today’s talent are straying away from working in a cheap office with a dull environment.

Uninspiring Workplace Destroys Creativity

Working within a dull environment, could also easily lead to a team feeling uninspired, and that could mean disaster.

Creativity is the key prerequisite that leads to the formulation of products or services that stand out in the market, and it is an important trait required of employees in today’s Information Age. When there is no inspiration, there can be no creativity.

It is easy to nurture creativity amongst teams, but it requires synergising an open working culture with an optimised working environment, one that will encourage employees to explore new ideas individually or as a team, something a coworking atmosphere is highly known for.

Unlike cheap offices, coworking spaces feature plenty of common spaces and amenities that are designed to encourage teams to engage in creative thinking and brainstorming sessions. There’s usually also more natural light let into these spaces thanks to bigger windows, which can boost moods and stimulates creativity. Due to the environment’s ease of networking, there’s also plenty of opportunity for anyone to contribute ideas when a fresh perspective is required.

Cheap Offices Are Too Rigid For Today’s Demands

We mentioned how rigid a cheap office space can be. In fact, its rigid nature goes beyond the space. The lease itself is long and ironclad, which could land a company in dire straits if a crisis, such as a pandemic or a global market crash, happens again. Companies will have no choice but to continue paying the lease despite the need to downsize, cut costs, or move out.

A rigid lease could also stand in the way of a company’s plan to relocate employees to another location for special purposes, such as a mid-to-long-term project commitment or simply seizing a better business opportunity elsewhere.

Companies could instead choose better options provided by modern serviced offices and coworking spaces where they offer lease terms that are more flexible. Some of them can also provide an optimised lease plan from an array of remote and physical workspace solutions, which can be more cost-effective for companies in the long run. This can also provide an ease of mind for companies to establish a roadmap for their business strategies with a flexible, yet stable foundation for talent support.

Limited Choice of Locations

For many business owners, location is king when determining where to set up an office. It was both a strategic factor and a matter of prestige before, but today, it also serves as an integral part of the entire working experience.

With that being said, cheap offices are inexpensive partly because they are within subpar locations that not only do not exude prestige but are also inconvenient to access. These locations also tend to feature far fewer surrounding amenities, which will further depreciate the overall working experience. These could pose as red flags for potential employees after they’ve done their research on your company’s location.

Offices that are within better locations will generally provide greater accessibility, a more dynamic working lifestyle, and a more reputable business address. This is a win-win for both business owners and employees, as they can now associate a prestigious address with their business, and the team could enjoy the surrounding amenities during breaks or after office hours.

We hope these five points have painted a clearer picture of how little cheap office rentals can benefit a business in the long run. The best approach to look for an office space today has to start with determining the structure, needs, goals, and vision of the business. By laying the points down, you should be able to better understand what an office space has to provide for your business, and make a more cost-effective decision that will pay off in time to come.

Curious to find out more about the office spaces and services featured above? Click on the links below to find out more:

1. Arcc Spaces Gardens North (Kuala Lumpur)
2. Arcc Spaces One Marina Boulevard (Singapore)
3. Arcc Spaces Kerry Centre (Shanghai)
4. 75 High Street by Arcc Spaces (Singapore)
5. Enterprise Solutions
6. Arcc Spaces Bund Finance Centre (Shanghai)