How is growth enabled and nurtured through different business structures? Is one model more effective than another?
Read More about Enabling company growth through correct management structure
Is it the cup or the goal that makes your employers work hard?
I recently read the ‘wikihow’ post for how to get your team motivated. I loved it, it’s how I would like to think I work with my staff. Read More about Is it the cup or the goals that make your employees the most productive?
This beautiful photograph of Leeds was taken Paul Campbell from The effective group.
Being such an exciting, vibrant and ambitious urban metropolis, Leeds is a city that’s geared up for business. Read More about Starting a business in Leeds: Part one
You’ve heard of it, your friends are enthusiastically raving about it, you fancy trying it but you’re unsure what exactly co-working and hot-desking are. Put simply, it is a style of work which involves working in a shared environment. The shared office space is typically an office which comprises of independent activity and unlike a ‘conventional’ office, those working are not typically employed by the same organisation.
Okay, so you get the general gist of this modern working phenomenon, but you want to know what exactly is involved when you settle down to work.
Fortunately help is at hand. In order for you to comprehensively understanding what flexible office space entails take a look at our following guide to what exactly is included when you take the plunge into the increasingly popular world of co-working.
The most basic element of a hot-desking package includes the member getting his or her own desk. As Forbes writes: “People don’t want to work in tiny cubicles anymore.”
Instead of jostling for room in a coffee shop, co-workers get their own workstation that gives them ample room to spread out and make the most of their individual working space.
Of course, you can’t have a desk without a chair to sit on! Co-working centres do, of course, provide members with a chair. Unlike many ‘conventional’ offices, which are not well known for providing employees with the most comfortable of furniture, many of the higher-end co-working centres, such as WorkWell, stock only the highest quality of office furniture.
The internet has single-handedly provided people with new ways of working. With the World Wide Web spurning remote working initiatives and improved access to business applications, it stands to reason that the internet is an imperative feature of co-working offices.
For the remote worker, having access to quick Wi-Fi can make their working day considerably more productive. Consequently, co-working centres make ultra-rapid Wi-Fi an inherent part of their co-working packages.
When you are working independently, if you are not what you’d consider to be something of an IT whizz, a breakdown in telecommunication can be catastrophic. This is when co-working centres, which have IT support at the ready, can prove invaluable.
Aside from ultra-quick Wi-Fi, many of the higher-quality co-working centres, such as WorkWell, include onsite IT support. If your equipment or data fails you, all is not necessarily lost.
As Liz Elam, founder of LinkCoworking, told Forbes:
“Entrepreneurs who are trying to work out of their home struggle with isolation. Co-working allows them to have a built-in support system – and that in itself is priceless.”
How many times have you gone downstairs to make a much-needed cup of tea when working from home, only to find there are no teabags left! As the Huffington Post writes, having a constant flow of information can make you understandably agitated. Workers are encouraged to take regular breaks away from their computers in order to reduce stress levels and improve productivity.
In fact, apps are now even available, such as Google Chrome’s Take A Break, in which a small icon flashes every 15 minutes as a reminder for you to stop surfing and go and have a drink.
Though we have to admit, going to make a drink only to find there is no tea or coffee available will not do our anxiety levels any favours.
In shared offices, this less than favourable scenario is unlikely to occur. As the likes of WorkWell co-working offices always have a well-stocked kitchen. At WorkWell you can even forget about cheap instant coffee as our co-workers have the luxury of being able to have as much freshly brewed coffee as they want in a day!
There have been numerous studies carried out to determine the impact the air temperature of an office has on employee productivity. It is widely agreed that an optimal office temperature should be between 21 and 23 degrees Celsius.
Regulating the temperature in a homeworking environment so that it’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer can cost an independent worker a significant sum each year. Most co-working centres include total temperature control, meaning you can enjoy working in the ideal temperature all year round.
And the extras…
For an additional cost that is not included in the co-working membership packages, co-workers can have their own phone line. Some co-working centres will provide a landline number for your business. This number can be forwarded to your mobile number of to a personalised voicemail.
As home offices and coffee shops rarely have enough space to swing a cat let alone invite clients, colleagues or potential clients over for a meeting, many remote working set-ups lack the ‘professionalism’ of an office.
This is where co-working offices can help give you and your business a professional edge. For an additional cost, co-workers can book to use a comfortable meeting room which includes all the latest presentation and conferencing facilities.
When you consider you’ll have access to ultra-rapid Wi-Fi, a built-in support system, top-quality office furniture, year-round temperature control, a potential landline number and a well-facilitated meeting room at your disposal, co-working in Leeds memberships can be a cost-effective way to give your business a boost in the right direction.
Want to try coworking in Leeds or Harrogate? Let us know! Get in touch with me and try us for a week.
Whether you’re a freelance web designer or the director of a fashion start-up, networking is an indispensable component of modern business growth. Read More about Top 10 ways to get the most out of your networking
Launch day is drawing unnervingly closer. Will your product be a success? Or will it, like three out of four start-ups, be discarded onto the failure heap before it’s even got going?
The trick is not to put yourself in this position in the first place. The gold rule of any business venture is to have a pretty solid understanding that your product or services are going to be successful. In order to have such an understanding, you will need to carry out extensive market research prior to the launch date.
Of course, in reality, knowing your start-up is going to be a success is easier said than done. If this was the case, then why do the majority of entrepreneurs fail to meet their goal of becoming a millionaire by the time they are 30?
That said, there are certain fairly common mistakes start-ups make that can and should be avoided. And the best way to avoid going down dead-end avenues that are likely to prove detrimental to your business, is to avoid them.
With this is mind, take the time to look at the following 10 start-up mistakes you should avoid.
It has been said that 9 out of 10 start-ups fail because their original concept isn’t viable. They are so desperate to be in business that they fail to do enough homework prior to the launch of their product. Thus, the business is doomed from the outset.
It is quite easy to get carried away in pumping 20 years’ of savings into your business venture – after all you have to ‘speculate to accumulate’. As cash flow is the bloodline of every business, it is important to protect the capital you have as you never know when you’ll need it.
As Andy Karuza of Brandbuddee advises:
“Anything unexpected can come up after you launch. You might not realise your product needs more work before people will buy it. Don’t spend all your money up front; you need enough to last through the first year or until you gain traction.”
It is not uncommon for young businesses to be so full of optimism that their venture is going to succeed that when things do go wrong, there is no backup plan in place. For example, if your manufactured product is failing to sell as well as you had hoped, do you close operations, spend more money improving the product or resort to a different plan? Without that plan in place, the future looks depressingly bleak.
If you don’t have a backup plan in place, the chances are you don’t have any emergency funds available either. The two go hand in hand as a plan B typically requires the money to fund it. Without the funds available, your start-up could sink before it’s out of the starting blocks.
A director and business owner’s job is never completely done and it would be a mistake to think that the hard work was over when the product has gone ‘live’. In reality, the game has only just begun. As John Meyer of Lemonly says:
“After all your work designing, developing and testing, there’s a celebration when you click launch because you think you’ve made it. But that isn’t the finish line – it’s the starting line. Shift your mindset to know the hard work happens after the launch.”
It is very easy to get excited about your own product, so much so that you inflate financial projections to investors. In reality, most products sell to a lot less than 1 per cent, so believing that your product is going to sell to millions before having any ‘proof’ can set you up for disappointment.
Adequate PR is essential for every start-up, but it is important you get the timing right. It might be tempting to launch a comprehensive social media campaign, attend every networking event in your field from London to Leeds to shout about your business venture, but if your start-up isn’t ready to be opened to the public, your efforts will be wasted.
Companies that fail typically comprise, as Entrepreneur writes, “lower sales, higher costs and too much overhead.”
Refrain from signing a 12-month contract with a state-of-the-art office block on Canary Wharf and handing out employment contracts offering fantastic salaries before you have a proven turnover to justify such expenditures.
While it is tempting for over-optimistic start-ups to be lavish in their pre-product launch spending, it can be equally as tempting to take on everything themselves and not have the time to dedicate to elements of their business which will help it grow, like driving sales.
You don’t need to spend the earth and blow your budget outsourcing certain elements of your business to people who are professionals in that field. For example, having a chartered accountant take care of your tax issues will free up some of your valuable time without costing a fortune.
Take a look at our earlier blog on ‘40 things you should outsource’ in order to free up time to areas of the business that will nurture growth instead of festering for failure.
It is fairly common for start-ups and entrepreneurs to have their ‘fingers in too many pies.’ Whilst it might be sensible not to put ‘too many eggs in one basket’, being involved in too many projects can result in neglecting your main venture, which can ultimately lead to failure.
Are you a start-up who has succeeded? Or perhaps your business venture failed for a specific reason? We’d love to hear your experiences and tips of how to be a successful start-up.
