If you operate a business, you know how crucial it is to keep tabs on the economy as a whole and understand how changes might affect your bottom line.
The rate of inflation in the United Kingdom has risen dramatically in recent months. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew by 7% in the year to March 2022, the largest annual rate of growth in the cost of living in three decades, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Read on to learn what this means for you, especially regarding your serviced office space, as a company owner, including increased costs and decreasing profitability.
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There Might Be More Availability
Thanks to the cost-of-living crisis, businesses, just like everyone else, are tightening their belts. They might choose to give up their serviced office space and focus instead on allowing their employees to work entirely from home. After all, this would save a monthly outgoing, and that could be extremely beneficial.
The more businesses that do this, the more availability there will be in serviced offices because fewer desks and rooms are being rented out.
There Might Be the Same Availability
Of course, it may well be that things change, and even if the cost-of-living crisis remains the same for some time – or even deepens – business owners might decide that having a serviced office to use when they need it is actually better for business.
This means that businesses may well continue to use their serviced offices in the same way they always have, utilising them on either a regular basis or on an as-and-when system, depending on the nature of the work they are doing, and which employees are requesting this.
There Might Be Less Availability
Equally, it could be that there is a lot less availability in terms of serviced office spaces around the country, and this is due to more employees needing their space. To begin with, the cost of living crisis is pushing some people to get additional jobs, either full or part-time, and therefore businesses may not have room for everyone in their current office – the answer is to rent office space elsewhere.
Maybe your business won’t take on more staff, but the team you currently have who works remotely might find their home bills are racking up – electricity, gas, even their broadband. As a caring business owner, you need to ensure your team is able to do their work effectively, and that might mean renting serviced offices in Belfast or wherever you – or they – happen to work for them to do so. Yes, it will cost your business more money, but it will also ensure your staff are loyal and hardworking, and that will pay for itself.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the answer to the question of what the cost-of-living crisis is going to mean for serviced offices and how much availability they have is impossible to answer, but having a contingency plan in place no matter what happens is always a sensible thing to do.
