Monday, November 09, 2009

Safety in Numbers....the networking benefits to sharing an office.

In Saturday's Financial Times, Jonathan Moules asked for my advice to accompany an article about the benefits for small businesses of sharing an office.



I talked about three major benefits for small businesses working together:

1 - Taking advantage of economies of scale when sourcing suppliers, leading to cost savings and better support.

2 - Combining resources to tender together for larger projects than they could manage on their own.

3 - Sharing challenges and getting feedback from other entrepreneurs in a similar situation.

You can read my comments in full here.

1 comment:

  1. I am delighted to read this, not least because Andy was our star turn at the official opening of our shared office concept in 2007 - it was a bit "off the wall" as an idea then, but, as owners of several small businesses we needed a home and it seemed logical to secure premises that we could share with others!

    2 years on not only has Andy become an important part of our network but Albans Office Space has become an important part of our networking! Only this week our business and the business whose space is adjacent to us have been working on a project together - and we have been able to make recommendations and referrals that will positively benefit him. Equally some analytics we did today prove that our 2nd most important source of new business (2nd only to referrals) was through clients of Albans Office Space.

    So, sharing an office has not only mitigated the overhead for us but has enabled us to meet new business contacts that otherwise we probably would not have met...

    I full endorse shared offices, the pros vastly outweight any negative elements!

    Thanks Andy for posting this article!

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