One of the best parts of our job here at DeVono involves helping fledgling creatives find their perfect spot in the capital. But what makes the idea workplace both from the perspective of the business and your team members? Here are some considerations to take on board as you start your search…
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH LIKE MINDED PEOPLE
London offers no shortage of clusters where creatives tend to gravitate: Soho and Covent Garden for advertising, Bloomsbury for publishing and the Silicon Roundabout for tech-based creativity, to name just a few.
Clustering in this way doesn’t happen by accident; being part of a wider community can be both a big morale booster and a source of inspiration – especially if your business so far consists of just a small handful of people.
What’s more, if your office building itself is home to multiple businesses all working in creative fields that complement each other, there’s often plenty of scope for new collaboration opportunities – right on your doorstep.
CONSIDER WHERE YOUR CLIENTS ARE BASED
As a couple of examples, let’s say you provide advertising collateral for corporates, all of whom are based in the Square Mile, or you specialise in clinical photography and are seeking to court Harley Street clinics. Focusing on a creative cluster as a possible base is one option, but another involves embedding your business in an area where a large proportion of existing and potential clients are situated.
COMMITMENT- WISE, STAY WITHIN YOUR COMFORT ZONE
You take a daring approach with your work, but especially in the current climate, you’re a lot more conservative when it comes to financial risk. In fact, the idea of signing up to even a year’s lease is something that fills you with dread.
If this sounds familiar, then take a look at what serviced work spaces can offer and prepare for a pleasant surprise. Thanks to rolling month-by-month contracts, it’s possible to move in quickly and establish yourself without the worry of a long-term lease hanging over you. With this type of arrangement, it also tends to be very easy to scale up (or down) as your requirements change.
BE CLEAR ON YOUR REQUIRED SPEC- AND HERE’S HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU GET IT
It can be all too easy to fall in love with a work space and to want to jump into it without properly considering whether it’s going to meet your specific requirements. To avoid this, list your top priorities.
Will you need space for specialist setups such as cutting tables or model-building zones? What would your ideal media lab include? Is natural light a must? Will clients be dropping in – and if so, what’s your preferred method of presenting your work?
Your work space should enable your creative process; it shouldn’t have to be a case of changing the way you do things to suit the office setup. When you are presented with possible options by a property agent, make sure those options are actually suitable, rather than the properties of landlords they happen to act for. Fortunately, we don’t represent landlords here at DeVono, so we can focus on getting it right for our clients without any conflicting interests getting in the way.
INSPIRE YOUR TEAM
We all know that the best ideas rarely come when we’re staring at our monitors. Your staff and your business at a whole are likely to reap the benefits if you choose an environment designed to inspire.
This is an area where serviced work spaces excel. Courtyards, roof gardens, chill zones, creative breakout areas: these features and many like them are all in plentiful supply across London’s serviced office spaces.
NURTURE YOUR STAFF
You might not be able to give them a stellar salary just yet, but you can offer your staff scope for personal development – and your choice of workplace can go a long way to help you with this.
Simply by being able to interact with creatives from other firms in the same building can broaden perspectives. Some spaces even host workshops and ‘mini-TED talks’ where occupants put on presentations and share their skills.
Are you ready to explore some of London’s best and most accessible creative work spaces? This is the ideal time to search the serviced office market with DeVono.
