Is It Practical To Start a Business With No Office?

By Business Desk

, November 3, 2020.

Thanks to modern technological advances, it’s become incredibly easy for us to start a full-sized business without ever needing an office. However, this might not always be the most practical solution and it’ll depend on your type of business and the approach that you want to take. Office environments are constantly evolving these days, so it’s never a bad idea to consider taking a modern approach by adopting more remote workflow practices. So let’s take a look at some of the benefits of starting a business with no office and if it’s suitable for your company. 

No more commuting

Commutes can be stressful for a lot of people. Not only do they take up valuable time from your day, but they can also be surprisingly expensive. In America, research suggests that the average person spends anywhere between $2,000 and $5,000 on transportation and commuting each year. That’s a serious amount of money to spend on just getting to work. With an office-less business that works through the internet, you can completely cut out these commuting costs.

Recruiting talent across the world

Remote businesses can also access talent from across the world instead of being stuck with just their local talent. While recruiting local talent isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does limit the number of options you have. You’ll find it’s easier to search for talented individuals on the internet from other countries because there is a much larger pool of talent.

Work entirely from the cloud

Being able to work entirely from the cloud has lots of benefits. Everything is saved online which means backups can automatically be created and there’s no loss of data in the event a hard drive stops working. It’s also easier to collaborate on projects that require multiple people.

You can still host in-person meetings

Despite being an office-less business, you can still rent out coworking office spaces to host meetings or speak with employees and clients in-person. This is a fantastic option for anyone that still needs to talk with their clients and would prefer to do it in-person as opposed to online with video calling.

However, there are some caveats

It’s important to remember that an office-less business isn’t completely free of caveats.

• You and your employees might develop feelings of isolation since you’re working alone for most of the time. This can be quite tricky to deal with and some people might be extremely put off by the idea of being so far from your colleagues.

• No employee visibility means you can’t see your employees working. You just need to trust that they’re getting their work done and that they’re not doing anything suspicious or strange while working.

• No business address makes it difficult to establish yourself as a business that people take seriously. You’ll need to use your own home address or consider a virtual business address.

• Lastly, people that work from home find that they’re more susceptible to distractions, reducing their productivity at times and making it hard to get work done.

Fortunately, it’s entirely possible to overcome these caveats depending on the type of business you operate and your chosen method of coping with them.