Start-ups and small businesses abandon their traditional offices

An interesting article in the Times is really useful for the “location” topic in the new AS Business Studies specifications…

Small businesses are abandoning their traditional office locations and moving back home, according to a new survey.

The survey sample size is quite small (530 small businesses) but the findings are very interesting and they certainly mirror my experience of dealing with SMEs recently.

Of those surveyed, many don’t use full-time offices.  Two-thirds of those who do work from fixed or formal office premises are considering giving them up within the year.

Various factors are encouraging greater home-based working:

- The need to cut fixed costs (rent, rates & other service charges often are often significant for a small business)

- Desire for flexible working (drop the kids off at school, go home to work, pick the kids up, make them tea, go back upstairs and keep working…)

- Enabling technology - who needs an office when you have a BlackBerry, a virtual PA…

- For service sector markets, clients rarely visit the office.  Meetings, if needed, can be held at hotels, in Starbucks etc

A great article to add to the resources on business location.

Revision Presentation - Calculating and Measuring Profit [13 May 2012]
Predictions of a dramatic change in the way goods are produced - and how it may change business [25 Apr 2012]
Leadership - meet the new boss of Starbucks UK [17 Apr 2012]
“Strategy is Choice” - Takeovers are Just One Option [25 Mar 2012]
It’s Time for a Global Luxury Chinese Hotel Chain - for the Chinese [25 Mar 2012]
Starbucks acquisition provides the base for entry into the juice bar market [25 Mar 2012]
Starbucks chooses strategic alliance in bid to enter the Indian market [13 Mar 2012]
Barriers to entry for business expansion to Brazil [23 Feb 2012]
Starbucks growth - three out of four ain’t bad! [30 Jan 2012]
Schultz on Leadership, Love and the Competitive Advantage of Culture [29 Jan 2012]
Growth strategy - Starbucks eyes the franchise model [28 Jan 2012]
Revision Presentation - Cost Minimisation [3 Jan 2012]
Revision Presentation - Business Location [2 Jan 2012]
Revision Presentation - Workforce Planning [26 Dec 2011]
The Rise and Fall and Rise of Gerald Ratner [27 Nov 2011]
Cut price cup cake deal goes wrong…... [22 Nov 2011]
Unilever hit by rising costs [6 Nov 2011]
Location Location Location [28 Oct 2011]
Greggs, Sausage Rolls and the Ansoff Matrix [20 Oct 2011]
How PepsiCo are trying to control diseconomies of scale [18 Oct 2011]
Revision Quiz - Breakeven Basics [15 Oct 2011]
Revision Quiz - Locating the Startup Business [12 Oct 2011]
Revision Quiz - Costs, Revenues and Profits [12 Oct 2011]
Revision Quiz - Business Costs [12 Oct 2011]
Lesson Worksheet - Business Costs [12 Oct 2011]
Lesson activity - the Dyson Debate [29 Sep 2011]
Jaguar Land Rover Essay [20 Sep 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
Employers opt for remote working to gain competitiveness [21 Jun 2011]
An end to outsourcing? [18 May 2011]
Retrenchment in action - Comet turns off the retail lights [12 May 2011]
Using Chucklevision to Teach Business [8 May 2011]
Whitbread goes for organic growth [2 May 2011]
Howard Schultz - A Changed Starbucks. A Changed C.E.O [13 Mar 2011]
Superb Analysis of the UK Coffee Market [5 Mar 2011]
CSR at the Movies - Black Gold [23 Feb 2011]
The Year of Corporate Philanthropy [31 Jan 2011]
Starbucks and our hostility to rebranding [17 Jan 2011]
An idea that’s a lot of hot air…. [11 Jan 2011]
Q&A - What are the main issues in operating a multi-site business? [29 Dec 2010]
Q&A - Explain what is meant by industrial inertia [29 Dec 2010]
Q&A - How important is location in determining business success? [29 Dec 2010]
A retailer’s worst nightmare - where are the customers? [20 Dec 2010]
Starbucks - Two Examples of Financial and Non-Financial Methods of Motivation [19 Dec 2010]
Britain’s changing High Street - Poundland, nail bars and empty shops [8 Dec 2010]
Schultz on Starbucks Growth Strategy and the China Opportunity [3 Dec 2010]
Globalisation and Indian Coffee Houses [27 Nov 2010]
Dominos Pizza - Growth & Strategy (Part 3) - Smart Marketing [26 Nov 2010]
Dominos Pizza - Growth & Strategy (Part 2) - Innovation, Service and Smart Operations [26 Nov 2010]
Starbucks goes for vertical integration to fuel growth in China [18 Nov 2010]
Profits up at Amazon - but so are costs [22 Oct 2010]
A great example of off-the-job-training - Starbucks Coffee College [16 Oct 2010]
How to start a toy shop [12 Oct 2010]
Rationalising & Redeployment at Alliance Boots [9 Oct 2010]
The business cost of labour turnover [7 Oct 2010]
Would you stand for it? [14 Sep 2010]
Inflation and profit margins - lessons from the market [27 Aug 2010]
Tracking the popularity of global brands on social networks [13 Jul 2010]
Dark days for the UK nightclub market [21 Jun 2010]
AQA BUSS4 Section B Practice Question - Starbucks [15 Jun 2010]
Flexible Working More Popular than Bonuses as a Source of Staff Motivation [2 Jun 2010]
Strategy Case Study - Vauxhall/Opel restructuring [24 May 2010]
Howard Schultz on Starbuck’s Growth Prospects in China [19 May 2010]
UK Recession - Hotels Suffer Despite the Trend towards Staycations [3 May 2010]
Why Coffee Shops did so well during the UK Recession [25 Apr 2010]
Starbucks pushes the green button on further UK growth [22 Apr 2010]
Starbucks - the Famous Strategic Change Memo from 2007 [21 Apr 2010]
Revision Quiz - Using Breakeven Analysis in Decision-making [5 Apr 2010]
UK Recession - What Happened to Redundancies? [30 Mar 2010]
Cool looking map to highlight globalisation [1 Mar 2010]
HRM priorities as firms exit the recession [27 Feb 2010]
Are these really Britain’s most disliked brands? [17 Feb 2010]
Branded coffee shops prove resilient to the UK recession [17 Feb 2010]
Can Greggs Become the Skoda of Pies? [16 Feb 2010]
Business priorities in a recession [1 Feb 2010]
Flexible working thrives in the recession [1 Feb 2010]
Teaching strategy - Starbucks revisited [24 Jan 2010]
Revision Presentation - Recruitment for a New Business [30 Dec 2009]
Revision Presentation - Cost Basics [30 Dec 2009]
Revision Presentation - the Basics of Profit [30 Dec 2009]
Outdoor Ice-skating heads firmly down the product life cycle [3 Dec 2009]
A tale of two bakers [16 Nov 2009]
Innocent Drinks - Teaching Accounts Exercise [9 Nov 2009]
Flexibility: Does it work? [3 Nov 2009]
Q&A - What are the main causes of unemployment? [27 Oct 2009]
Dyson launches a new premium product [14 Oct 2009]
The Decline of Newspapers Creates a Surge in Local Startups [4 Oct 2009]
Todd Stitzer’s Strategic Test [14 Sep 2009]
Beat the Teacher - Introduction to Costs [14 Sep 2009]
Patent Theft threatens enterprising inventors [3 Sep 2009]
More trouble in the skies [27 Aug 2009]
Demand and supply in action - tea prices surge [4 Aug 2009]
BA cuts out the cost of short-haul meals [29 Jul 2009]
Product life cycle - end of the line for Teletext [17 Jul 2009]
How to improve profitability? - give customers a “staff appraisal” [12 Jul 2009]
Coffee Republic struggles with the daily grind [6 Jul 2009]
What makes a profitable menu? [6 Jul 2009]
Standing room only - on Ryanair? [6 Jul 2009]
Q&A - Outline the main costs and benefits of inflation [1 Jul 2009]
Q&A - Explain the causes of inflation [1 Jul 2009]

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