When you are choosing your cheap office space there are of course a few things you should consider carefully. While price will of course be a very important factor, there is no point selling yourself and your business short for the sake of the cheapest office space going.

Make sure that there will be capacity for you to take further office space should you need to as your business grows, finding that you have to uproot your entire company because you need an extra office or two is not a position you want to find yourself in. Most good quality office rental companies will always have some spare space should you need it.

Take into consideration the location of the building. If you are going to have customers coming to visit, you don’t want them to have to walk through an industrial estate, or down an alley to reach your offices, likewise you don’t want your staff to feel like they are working in the back end of no-where, especially if you want to keep moral high, or ask people to work late to get things done.  This point goes hand in hand with the next really – the appearance of the reception area. First impressions count, and if you have clients walking into a dark, dingy unkempt reception area it isn’t going to give them a good impression of your business, even if they are aware that you are operating out of rented office space. It will give the impression that you are not particularly fussy about the standard of your surroundings and this could easily be translated into not being fussy about the standard of work you carry out.

Be sure that your staff have enough space. Of course keeping costs to a minimum is important, but squashing four people into a two person office is going to do nothing for moral and work rates except send them plummeting through the floor. This also goes with making sure you have enough room, and adequate facilities for any storage you might need, every business has files and papers that need to be kept but you don’t want them around on a daily basis,  so you will need some kind of separate storage to be provided.

It is a popular misconception that renting office space can be expensive. Renting office space can actually save a lot of time and money when researched properly. It is possible to get very good packages that includes things such as high speed broadband, networked PCs, telephones with a personal answering service and even access to boardroom style meeting rooms with tea and coffee on request. These may seem like small, even silly things, but they are all time consuming to arrange, especially the IT side of things.

Having someone else to deal with the nitty gritty setting up of your office frees you up to get on with more important things, and if anything goes wrong, it isn’t your problem, there is someone there to fix it for you.  All the benefits of office space without any of the worry.

Just because you are renting cheap office space doesn’t mean you have to share it with other companies or people. You can have designated offices, either single or a larger open plan office or even a complex of individual offices, whatever suits your needs, so it feels as if you are in your very own office building. You may have to share some communal facilities such as the kitchen or toilets, depending on how much space you are renting, but these areas will always be maintained by the company you are renting your office space from and can be a good way to meet other people that are also renting in the same building as you – especially if you are a lone renter – it can get a bit lonely sitting on your own day in day out!

Cheap office space gives you all the benefits of high quality office space without any of the responsibility. Of course you will have to sign up to a contract, but this will only be for a period of time such as 6 months, whereas if you were to lease an entire building you could be looking at 6 years or more.  Having the day to day running of your office taken care of for you is something that can be invaluable, especially if you are a start-up business where every second is precious. Running around trying to get internet and phones connected is the last thing you want to be doing, and not having access to the internet or phone is not an option. Why not sit back and let someone else provide it all for you so you can get on with the more important things.

When starting out on a new business venture, finding a premises to conduct your business from can turn out to be an expensive exercise. This is where cheap office space comes into it’s own, offering a flexible alternative to renting an entire building or floor of a building for yourself.

One of the main advantages of renting office space is that you can choose the amount of space you actually need, rather than having to take a space that is too big, or even too small and making do with what you can afford. Companies offering office space to rent understand that sometimes all that is needed is one or two offices, or even just a workstation to start with, with the option to expand on this as your business grows.

Another advantage is that the rental price will include things such as electricity, cleaning, business rates and sometimes even a phone answering service is included, meaning you don’t have to worry about lots of different outgoings to lots of different companies. It is easy to have broadband connected to your office or workstation at an extra cost, and this will nearly always be a top-quality high speed connection which you don’t have to worry about or wait to have installed.  All these little things can add up to a big worry, and when you are trying to focus on getting your business off the ground you really don’t have the time or energy to spare on running around trying to get all these different aspects of a working office set up and functioning properly.

Many cheap office space rental companies will also provide you with a direct contact, a business manager, who will deal with you from the start and handle any concerns, needs, complaints and questions you may have, this gives you peace of mind of having one person to deal with for everything you may need, someone who understands your needs and can help you every step of the way. It is also good to be able to build a relationship with your business manager as if and when it comes time to upgrade the amount of office space you need, you have someone you can negotiate a great deal with directly.

Over the last twenty years there hasn’t been a better time to find cheaper office space in and around London. A recent report produced by Knight Frank has stated that prices of office space in the south east has fallen by around 15% and will continue falling until the end of 2010. Reuters News Agency reports that empty office space in London has risen by approximately 10% at the beginning of 2009 which converts to about 10 million square feet!

Office rental prices are not expected to bounce back until sometime in 2012, allowing businesses to cost cut their rental overheads. Due to a large oversupply in the areas around the M25 and the M4 corridor, competition amongst landlords is higher than ever, much to the potential tenant’s advantage. We are seeing rent free periods extending over the longest periods ever, as landlords compete to grab tenants.With prices between £19 and £25 around the M25  and £29 in parts of  London such as  Hammersmith there are great deals out there. As such many landlords are discounting the rent of their current tenants in order to entice them to stay and avoid their real estate lying empty.

With the large amount of redundancies being made at the moment, many companies who are seeing their office space go to waste are now advertising to share  there now empty cubicles to help cover building costs.  A good place to look for these available office shares is to start by searching on the internet. Many companies will self advertise in directories such as  thegumtree.com, which carries many adverts in this area. Otherwise contact some office rental agents and tell them you’re interested in any sub-letting opportunities to get an idea of what’s out there. Alternatively, it may be wise to use the services of an office aquisition agent, as they will have current knowledge of prime locations and current price levels. An office aquisition agent should be well informed of the locations you are interested in an be able to negotiate on your behalf.

To find cheap office space in London is getting easier and easier due to the economic slowdown that seems to be occurring at the moment. Empty offices are building up all over the capital as firms cease to trade or downsize their office space as they downsize their workforce. This has an impact throughout the office supply chain, not only the commercial real estate landlords but the specialised office letting agents also. If you take on the services of a office finder letting agent, it is with all likelihood that you will be able to negotiate very favourable terms, as without placing tenants these agencies cannot bring in the revenue. The first step to finding cheap office space is to decide which area you are interested. Carry out a search on a reputable search engine and select a page or advert to click on. In all likelihood you will go straight through to an office broker who acts as the middleman or agent between you the potential office you will hire. They get a commission for each office they let. It is rare for the person or company who hires the office to pay any commission or charges to the office broker, as usualy it’s the company that owns the office who will pay the broker. Anyway, the office broker generally will provide you with the list of offices they have available to rent to you, within the set amount you require. Here’s where it can get tricky, due to hidden costs. Some big office space chains will try and charge you a moving in fee, usually about the price of one month’s rent. This can usually be negotiated away, sespecially in the current economic climate, so don’t pay it. They are there to service you afterall. You must also enquire as to the other hiden charges that can pile up, telephone connection fees are one example, where the office provider charges you to hire a phone line from them, they try to charge you an admin fee just for them pressing a few buttons to connect you. Other fes to be wary of are cleaning fees. Generally they’re included, but make sure.