A Third Option: Renting Private Office Space

Working from home not working? Not ready for the office?

This isn’t an entirely new idea. Artists have been renting private studio space since forever. The small, affordable spaces come with electricity, heat, plumbing, and other amenities that allow them to work in peace. When several small studio spaces are being rented at once, the common area becomes an excellent social center.

It’s not a giant leap to apply this model to short or long-term rentals of private office space along those same lines.

It’s still going to be a while before business offices open up to full population safely. For now, there are still a lot of people struggling with working from home, and a lot of empty space being paid for but not used.

The third option of renting or subsidizing private office rentals are an answer whose time has come.

Coworking spaces vs. private office spaces

Before the pandemic, coworking spaces enjoyed some popularity. They were as social as working at a coffee shop but had a good hotel business center’s practicality. To me, the costs seemed a bit on the high side for a place where you had little control over things like noise or interruptions. But they had their fans.

I much prefer the option to rent personal office space. You can control the noise element better. You have a door that closes. Distractions are cut down. At the same time, there are social opportunities (within current safety precautions) to meet with other workers in common areas of the building.

The benefits of renting private office space

Is private office rental an option whose time has come? Here are five factors to consider:

Scalability

Whether it’s just you, or a team of a dozen or more, you can select however much space you need. No more and no less. As your needs change, so too can the amount of space you rent.

Office essentials

Rentable private offices can come furnished or unfurnished. A furnished office means you can move right in without having to worry about deskspace, filing cabinets, meeting tables, and so forth. They’re already there. Some of the more competitive office space renters may offer additional incentives in WiFi service, meeting rooms, and onsite business centers with copy machines, printers, and charging stations.

Logistics

Whose turn is it to clean the office bathroom and kitchen? Who was supposed to pick up coffee filters? Who empties the trash? Is there anyone where who can sign for this package?

Most rented office space facilities will take care of these things for you. Review your rental agreement to see if they will take care of general maintenance and cleaning, receive and send mail, and other mundane tasks. The better facilities will even keep fully stocked kitchens or vending machine areas onsite, have readily available tech support for the business center and WiFi, and offer VoIP phone service.

Privacy

While working from home, one of the significant challenges has always been maintaining a sense of privacy — particularly while teleconferencing. Even in a traditional work environment, some of the office distractions made work trying.

Private rental offices have doors that can be closed. That, alone, is a huge selling feature. If you’re in a field like health care or finance, that extra bit of privacy is useful.

Productivity

Finally, while shuffling down to your temporary home office each morning in your robe and slippers might sound like a luxury, it can be a real productivity killer. If you want to maintain your focus and boost your productivity, you can best do that by getting out of the house and into an office setting — all while wearing actual shoes.

How to find available office rentals

A lot depends on location, availability, and demand. Urban areas are going to have more options than rural areas. Suburban areas could go either way, depending on whether there are under-filled industrial parks or business complexes nearby.

Start with classified ads, either online or in the newspaper. You can always tap into the local word-of-mouth network and see who your friends and colleagues recommend. Work-sharing places such as WeWork and DropDesk have been redesigning many of their workspaces to be more Covid-friendly as well.

Who pays for it?

That all depends.

If you’re a freelancer or solo entrepreneur, you’re going to have to foot the bill. Some rental spaces are cheaper than others. You might have to give up some perks, but it’s worth shopping around. Don’t forget to keep records of every expenditure for your taxes.

If you’re a business, you’ll have to compare what you’re paying now for your current space and what you could be paying for space more scaled for your current needs. Calculate the costs of doing business against what savings you may gain from a scalable private rental. Look into possible tax benefits along the way.

If you’re a remote employee stuck at home, you’ll have to compare what you’d be paying versus what you could be earning with increased productivity. It’s possible you could make a pitch to your employer to cover some, if not all, of the costs if it means greater productivity. You may be surprised, and you may find them renting several spaces for you and your coworkers so you can all work safely and efficiently.

For both businesses and solo entrepreneurs

Business is changing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Many people find that these new ways of controlling their work environment are paying big dividends in terms of productivity and peace of mind. Likewise, as more people enter the freelance world or take on solo ventures, they need good places to work.

Private rentals spaces could be the best solution. What’s nice is that rental agreements don’t have to be long-term. If it’s not for you, then you haven’t really lost much. If it does turn out to be the best choice for you, then it’s all gain.

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