Serviced offices have begun to fill a much needed gap for businesses that do not have a physical office that they can call home. A serviced office is one in which the amenities of a regular office environment are available to the business owner or the employees using the office, but usually cost only a small percentage of what an actual office would. Unlike standard virtual offices, which can sometimes just provide an address, mail drop and telephone number for the businesses using it, serviced offices are much more robust. Serviced offices provide actual physical locations where businesses can do work, hold meetings, conduct interviews or have presentations and they provide just about every service that a business could need.

One of the most attractive features of a serviced office is that the terms are usually customizable down to the day or even the hour. That means that the business owner who only needs physical space for his or her business can save a great deal of money. While leasing an office can be expensive, leasing office space from a virtual office where the business is already located is usually extremely affordable. This is certainly one of the reasons that the virtual office has become so popular and why there has been a leaning towards this type of setup with business owners, particularly in an economy that makes many business necessities cost prohibitive.

However, serviced offices usually offer a great deal more than just office space whenever it is needed. They normally provide a wide range of services that can service just about any type of business. This is a necessity, because so many different types of businesses are using the virtual office. Some of the services and amenities that a serviced office might provide include a flexible lease, available often by the day, or by the hour for some types of space like conference rooms or banquet facilities. Of course, they also often provide extended lease terms if needed as well. Other things that you will likely find in a serviced office are a secure Wi-Fi connection and telephones that have the ability to make and receive conference calls. Document services are almost always available such as printers, copiers, fax machines, computer scanners and various other types of equipment. Also, most serviced offices are available 24 hours a day for those all-night meetings and some companies such as the serviced offices at Regus, provide a variety of locations so that the offices can be utilized no matter where you are.

There is no doubt that the serviced office industry is growing. Recently, Place North West reported that the number of serviced offices had doubled in a couple of major regions since 2005 in the UK. This trend is sure to be similar here in Australia as well as in various other places where business is growing around the world.  In the future, we may even see a majority of business using some type of shared office environment such as a virtual office because of the cost and the convenience of having everything that is needed or might be needed in the future at the company’s fingertips.

The virtual office and the serviced office model works well for some of the fastest growing types of businesses. Work at home businesses are becoming more and more common and rising even faster are the number of employees who still work for a large company but do their week at home much or all of the time. This means that it is extremely likely that this trend will continue and grow even faster in the future.