According to the Gartner study on the Future of Work, the office has once again become a strategic space. It is a place for knowledge transfer, collaboration, and cohesion. It is where teams share their expertise, test new ways of working, and strengthen their sense of belonging. In a context where reference points are evolving, the office remains an essential anchor point.
Whether located in a business center, a coworking space, or even at home, it plays a key role in team performance and well-being. It is no longer just a transient place, but a true HR, managerial, and human driver.
So, how do you choose the right office when you are a small business? What are the options, the criteria to consider, and the mistakes to avoid? This is what we will explore together.
Why Rent Offices?
Are you a professional seeking premises to launch or structure your business? With a constrained budget, lack of long-term visibility, and the need for agility, investing in an office can seem risky… Have you considered office rental as a flexible and scalable solution?
Renting offices as a small business offers several advantages:
- Adaptability: You choose the size and configuration of the office according to your current needs, with the possibility of evolving the space over time.
- Cost Control: You avoid expenses related to the purchase, construction, renovation, or equipping of premises.
- Fewer Fixed Costs: Maintenance, upkeep, and repair costs are generally included or shared.
- Financial Flexibility: Rental is more accessible for developing businesses or entities with limited cash flow.
- Strategic Location Choice: You can set up your business in a well-served area, close to main roads, public transport, or your team's homes.
Office Rental for Small Businesses: What Are Your Options?
The Advantage of Private Offices in Business Centers
Business centers offer small businesses a flexible and professional office rental solution.
This formula allows small businesses to choose the size and layout of their office based on their specific needs, while maintaining budget control. It also promotes agility, enabling rapid evolution of office spaces according to company growth or reorganizations.
Unlike a traditional commercial lease, business centers provide access to immediately ready-to-use offices, with a range of integrated services: registered address, mail management, high-speed internet, secretarial services, and reception. Meeting rooms equipped with modern equipment (flipchart, video projector, etc.), and confidential and common areas also help to strengthen your company’s professional image and simplify your daily operations.
Located in strategic locations, business centers facilitate accessibility and professional mobility, especially for executives on the go or employees in regular contact with clients.
Such an environment conducive to exchanges is also an opportunity to develop your network, create partnerships, or simply connect with other tenants in the space.
Coworking Space: Open-Plan or Private Offices
Contrary to popular belief, coworking spaces are not reserved for freelancers. Many small and medium-sized businesses today find them a suitable solution for their budgetary constraints, their need for flexibility, and their desire to offer their teams a stimulating work environment, without heavy commitment.
These locations combine workstations in open-plan areas, as well as private coworking offices (private or shared). Common areas (meeting rooms, relaxation zones, shared kitchen), for their part, foster connection, exchanges, and conviviality.
You choose your pace: coworking allows you to rent a workstation by the day or by the month. This on-demand model is particularly useful if your employees are split between several geographical sites or work partially remotely. Establishing your offices as a small business in a coworking space also allows you to test a new local market without taking risks.
The line between coworking and business centers can seem blurred. What often makes them different? The client typology. Business centers primarily host small businesses, SMEs, and established entities, while coworking spaces attract more independent workers, remote workers, or geographically dispersed teams.
That said, some structures like BURO Club offer the best of both worlds: business centers with open-plan areas, equipped private offices, and an environment conducive to professional synergies.
Dedicated and Independent Fitted-Out Spaces
For small and medium-sized businesses seeking an agile and independent solution, the managed office can represent an excellent compromise.
The principle? You have an entirely private and fitted-out space that is managed daily by a provider for your company. You benefit from a more economical and flexible contract than the 3-6-9 lease, as well as professional services: furniture, internet, cleaning, maintenance, reception, and mail management.
So, Which Office Solution for Small Businesses?
Faced with the constraints of the 3/6/9 lease, often rigid and committing for several years, alternative solutions such as business centers, coworking spaces, and managed offices meet the new needs of small and medium-sized businesses:
- The business center offers a structured, turnkey environment with shared services and a valuable professional image. It is an excellent choice for leaders seeking stability, centralized services, and a solution without initial investment.
- Coworking, for its part, appeals with its flexibility and accessibility. It is perfectly suited for geographically dispersed teams, evolving structures, or companies wishing to test a market.
- Finally, the managed office is ideal for growing businesses, who desire a space that reflects their image, is independent, while delegating management and controlling their costs.
Our Experts’ Advice for Setting Up Your Offices as a Small Business
The right choice ultimately depends on your working method, your internal organization, your HR and financial challenges… and especially on your ability to anticipate your developments. In any case, it is better to opt for a scalable, equipped, and unconstrained space to remain focused on what truly matters: growing your business.
Our flexible workspace rental experts offer their advice on choosing the best solution for your offices as a small business:
- Define your location needs;
- Consider the safety of the neighborhood and its attractiveness to appeal to your future talent;
- Public transport, nearby train station, bike paths, parking spaces… Ensure easy access to the offices for your employees!
- Favor solutions that allow you to adjust your office space to your growth rate;
- Benefit from often underestimated shared costs! Cleaning, maintenance, reception, internet, meeting rooms: all these budget items can be included in your rent;
- Do not neglect the importance of services and equipment – these elements directly influence your teams’ productivity.
At BURO Club, for example, you benefit from shared services that simplify your daily life and enhance well-being at work, without multiplying providers or costs.
Visit, test, before committing!
Do you wish to rent offices in a business center or coworking space?
Do not rely solely on photos or brochures. An on-site visit allows you to check the brightness, soundproofing, flow within the spaces, and the general atmosphere. Sit in an office, imagine your typical day. Some operators allow you to test the premises before signing. Also consider gathering feedback from already established companies: it is often very insightful.