How to set up an office in Bangalore with a minimum price?
Table of Content
An affordable Bangalore office!
If you have been planning about ways to set up an office in Bangalore, look no further! Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, once a pensioner’s paradise is now vibrant with tech giants and startups. It not only houses thousands of startups, but it also has created many successful unicorns.
So, for aspiring entrepreneurs, Bangalore has always been the first choice for starting up a business. But not everyone knows the right real estate strategy. Many factors define this strategy; location, size of the current team & expansion plans, duration of stay, services & amenities offered, the flexibility of lease, etc. among many other factors.
Identifying the right type of office space to fit your budget is a challenging task. Office providers are continuously coming up with new products and services. We have various types of office space today such as managed office space, custom office space, coworking space, etc. Each of these is suitable for a company depending upon its team size, expansion rate, budget, flexibility, etc.
Being in commercial Real estate for these many years, some of the experts from BHIVE Workspace suggest this approach to set up an office space at an optimum price.
-
Identifying the right type of office space
Office space providers have been brainstorming to come up with new products and services according to dynamic demands. A few decades back, traditional office spaces were the norm of the day. Companies would be bound by the size of the floor plate of the building in which they took the space. More often than not, they would end up taking more space than they needed. Additionally, the terms of the contract and the initial deposit always favored the landlords. Today, we have various types of office spaces that remove all these hurdles.
Three of the most common office space solutions are:
-
Flexible Office Space
Flexible office space or coworking space is mostly preferred by startups. . Regus was the first to come up with this idea back in 1991 in Belgium. Only a few would have anticipated its business potential.
In a coworking space, you would be sharing the space with other startups, thus you would be a part of a community. You can develop your connections and develop your acquaintances from the community. Coworking spaces typically charge per seat rather than charging per unit area being occupied.
There are several coworking space providers in Bangalore such as BHIVE Workspace, WeWork, CoWrks, etc.
BHIVE being the first to establish co-working spaces in 2014, is now one of the largest chains of coworking spaces in Bangalore with a variety of choices.
Today, given the aggressive growth plans companies make, we see more & more companies seeking highly flexible leasing options.
-
Managed Office Space
These are suitable for medium-sized companies that have 50-200 employees. They require a larger space than startups. Sometimes, they would need to occupy an entire floor. In such cases, they would move into a managed office space.
The seating arrangements, interiors, amenities, maintenance, and hospitality would all be ready to be serviced when you move in. You just have to plug and play your devices.
This makes your office space management hassle-free. You don’t have to worry about anything apart from your work. There are office providers like BHIVE which provide managed office spaces that are worth the money you pay.
Your workspace can be customized according to your needs. The interiors, number of cabins, number of seats, amount of free space, etc can be modified. This enables you to set up your own dream office. Managed office space is charged per unit area rather than charging per seat. It normally takes a couple of months for the office providers to do the customizations you demanded.
-
Traditional Office Space
Source: hbr.org
Companies with large team members still prefer traditional offices. These companies have huge budgets and expansion rates. They mostly occupy multiple floors in a commercial building.
Considering the team size and expansion rate, a traditional office might be authentic to them. But with the arrival of the pandemic, everything has changed for them. Most of their employees are working from home and all the investments they made in traditional offices went in vain.
They are now considering a scattered workspace policy in which they won’t have a single building accommodating entire employees. Instead, each team will have different spaces in different parts of a particular city.
They are considering coworking and managed office spaces for this.
Startups have a very less number of team members. When you try to set up an office space, you could expect some cost reductions from the provider’s end when your team size is more. But most of the time setting up an office for themselves would cost them more.
With the advent of coworking space, startups were able to solve this cost issue. Coworking spaces generally have startups housing them. You will also feel like being a part of a large community. The amount of ideas and information that you would receive from the community is stupendous.
2) Location
Source: enacademic
Real estate prices are primarily based on location. Certain locations in Bangalore like MG Road & Residency road are costly for obvious reasons. There are certainly huge benefits from setting up an office at MG Road. MG Road which is within the CBD(Central Business District) is one of the most happening places in Bangalore.
Tech giants are keen to establish their offices in CBD. Geographically also, MG Road is the center of Bangalore.
But many of the companies cannot afford these locations. Instead, they could go with nearby areas where they would get almost similar business reach and accessibility.
For example, HSR Layout which is near Bellandur and Koramangala can be one of the best alternatives to these places. Considering the development in HSR and connectivity with major parts of the city, the real estate prices are economical here. Marathahalli, Hebbal, Jaya Nagar, etc are other alternatives.
3) Office providers
The best way to reduce the cost of setting up and managing an office is to use office providers. They provide spaces with complete interiors, furniture, hospitality, maintenance, and amenities. You just have to move in and start working.
Apart from reducing your expenses, they make the entire process hassle-free for you. They provide a variety of spaces like flexible, managed, and customs offices.
Bangalore is packed with office space providers. You might have a difficult time scouting the best option for you. The right way to choose is to measure the brand reliability, value for money, and flexibility they offer to you.
It is advisable to go with established firms rather than new ones. Established firms like BHIVE, WeWork, Regus, Awfis, etc are highly experienced. They will identify your needs and offer you the best office space for you.
By Harikrishnan P
