Office Space News
eOffice Offers Free Office Space in UK
Published September 25th, 2009 by Jennifer LeClaire
“Free office space.” I imagine if you hang a sign that says those three words just about anywhere in the world, you’ll pique the interest of entrepreneurs who need a place to hang their business hat.
eOffice is hanging such a sign. The UK company is offering start-up businesses, entrepreneurs, and self-employed people a chance to use an office at one of its four locations free of charge for the next three months.
Here’s what you’ll get gratis: a virtual office (which includes a business address, mail forwarding, telephone answering in your company name and call forwarding), 100 hours of hotdesking with Wi-Fi access, and two hours of meeting room use.
Get ready. The free office space offer runs from October 1 through December 31st 2009. There are no gimmicks, no strings, no hidden charges. It’s a good deal if you need it.
eOffice isn’t the first serviced office company to offer free office space. Office Suites PLUS has a similar story to tell. Office Suites PLUS announced a plan in August to offer downsized execs free office space for 90 days.
This is a savvy marketing tool. It raises awareness of a brand. It’s hard to compete with free. It shows good will in a bad economy. And, ultimately, I believe it wins a few customers. So long as serviced office operators have the space, and many of them do, there is little downside to the free office space offer.
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Maggie Correta September 25th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Interesting. Another offer for free office space. Isn’t a group in New York doing this as well? Does anybody know who was the serviced office company to start this trend? At some level, it seems genius to give entrepreneurs a taste of your service. At another level, it seems to smack of desperation to fill the executive office suites. I guess only time will tell if it’s an effective strategy.
Bill Brookshire September 25th, 2009 at 8:32 am
There are a few philosophies on free that I suppose would be relevant in any industry. One is that you can’t compete with free. Two is that free diminishes the value of a product or service. Three is that free is a great way to get folks in the door. I think in the case of the executive office suites industry, the third philosophy is the one that sticks. There’s still a lot of education that needs to be done around serviced office space, especially in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
Elizabeth Sanchez September 25th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Every time I hear about this strategy I think it’s brilliant. Maybe every serviced office space provider in the country that has more than 20 percent occupancy in their facility should give this a try. I mean, it’s understandable that if you are running above 90 percent occupancy you wouldn’t want to give out space for free. But if you are below 80 percent, why not give it a try? Something to think about.
Melanie Jones September 25th, 2009 at 8:50 am
No gimmicks. No strings. No hidden charges. No fine print? If only all office space set ups were like that. I think the nature of the serviced office industry is more transparent than traditional office leases in some ways. Of course, I guess you could rack up a lot of charges in a hurry from using some of the add-on administrative services that executive office suites centers usually provide if you aren’t paying attention. Still, the contracts seem simpler to me.