To Office or Not to Office?
We hear a lot in the media about the success of working remotely during the last eighteen months of the Pandemic. Employers who could not imagine allowing their workforce to work at home were forced to think differently and creatively about how to keep their staff engaged and productive, whether they were working from a summerhouse in Devon or a tiny flat in Nottingham. The discussion has raged around whether fixed working hours in an office environment will ever return to being ‘the norm’.
For sole traders, one-man-bands or trades, this may never be an issue. You may be very happy working from home; you or your partner doing your admin in the evenings or at weekends. Your ‘office’ may be your van or lockup.
In our case, what started out as just me working on my dining room table grew to a point that the paperwork had taken over the house. I desperately needed somewhere else to keep it all. I expanded into a small office above Hunt and Nash in the Parade in Bourne End, and then into larger offices next to the Telephone Exchange. I also picked up staff along the way and needed somewhere for them to work too. Interestingly, although we have now become almost paperless, and in spite of the freedom of working at home during lockdown, they still prefer to come into the office to work – as much for the camaraderie as anything else.
Moving to an office is not for the faint-hearted – suddenly you are responsible for rent, electric, rates (although the smallest offices are entitled to a full rebate), and insurance, all of which add to your overheads. You may not be at that point yet. When I was looking for a little office, there was not much out there. Times have moved on and there are now options in between home and a fully rented space. I recently came across the new Mill House in Wooburn Green (a bit of a plug for another local business there), a co-working space that offers the benefits of a high-tech, stylish office environment, without the need to commit to a long-term lease.
Sylvia
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