Economists are predicting a further recession potentially deeper than the previous one. The Eurozone crisis could be the major contributor towards this down turn. Certainly it is not good news for any existing businesses. It has already been very difficult to compete and survive in the recent economic conditions.

Downsizing, cost cutting, productivity optimisation and low margins have been the main strategies used to endure in this tough market scenario. Companies are busy concentrating on reducing their operating cost and maximizing productivity though it is almost impossible for any company to minimize all of its expenditures in the short-term.  

Expenditures incurred on acquiring fixed assets or upgrading an existing one, buying new office furniture, and office rent cannot be lessened in the short-term. For instance, leasehold office rents are based on a previously agreed fixed term contract basis. The good news is that it can definitely be controlled in the first instance by paying attention at the time of signing the new lease contract. There are various things that must not be ignored while signing the lease agreement as these may cost you extra tens of thousands of pounds and significant inconvenience in future.

Square footage and measurement: Wrong measurements can make you pay extra money over the term; therefore it is important to make sure your appointed fit-out company or leasehold office agent get the right measurements in order to prevent paying more than you should be for the space. In some cases, you might end up paying as much as an extra £15,000 for just 100 sq. ft. of variance on 5 year lease at £30 per sq. ft. per annum.

Annual service charges: As per the lease contract the lessee is duty bound to pay for the repairs, maintenance, insurance and management costs other than the rent. You are entitled to review the service charge accounts and summary of the costs on which the expenditures are based. So, it is advisable that you, your office agent and your lawyer peruse the last 3 years audit service charges when signing the new lease, you will want to avoid excessive service charges and look at getting them capped by your agent.

Relocation clause: In most cases you are committing to a fixed 5 year term and therefore it is advisable to ensure you have the right to sub-let your space or even assign the whole lease over to another party. In addition a good agent will be able to secure you a break after 3 years in some instances. Without this protection in an uncertain world, you are committing your business to a long-term fixed cost.

Rent free: Landlord’s tend to offer rent free periods rather than reduce the quoting rent, this is to protect the value of their asset. However, if the landlord knows you are not represented by an agent and therefore not so aware of market conditions, then you will end up with significantly less rent free.

There are many other elements which can be added or modified in your lease contract that can become an element of added stress to your already overloaded schedule as a business person you do not have spare time to devote on searching for your new office, finding the real market price of the particular building or floor that meets your requirement, negotiating the deal and finally securing the contract. So it is advisable to employ an agent for this task, however, please take the above advice on board while choosing to do this.

“Work experience abroad”

Hello, it’s me again. As promised in my previous blog about my first few weeks as an intern at Office Planet Ltd, I will update you on how things have developed and changed in the last couple of weeks.
I was told to develop a direct mail campaign targeting local occupiers who have a lease expiry within the next year.

When Zack first told me to help him create a marketing letter, I was like sure, shouldn’t be such a big deal, write a few catchy phrases, print and sent them. Done. If only. The few catchy phrases turned into a well written professional letter, the printing and sending became a time-consuming project. Finding hundreds of addresses, buying stamps and envelopes and dealing with technical problems (anybody who ever worked with Microsoft Word knows what I’m talking about) did not make matters easier. Despite this, when I put the last stamp on the last letter, it was well worth it.
We have a client who we are acquiring office space for and they needed a photographic schedule of condition which states the current condition of a property.

So Zack introduced me to this completely new kind of task. What we basically did is, we went to the office space, photographed its condition and made notes relating to the photos. Afterwards back in the office, we then created the photographic Schedule of Condition by making a document which contains all the pictures with descriptions about the current state of the floor, a very detailed but important tool for an end user.

Of course, I continued to do some of the things I did in my previous weeks, which is why I can see a difference in how I handled for example phone calls in my first week and how I do today. Honestly speaking, I was indeed a bit nervous when answering the phone in the beginning, I am from a foreign country, wasn’t used to the lingo and terminology in the property sector and so on. I am a lot more confident now and also eager to improve my English and business English skills even further.
Since I am leaving my internship on the 26th of November, please make sure you check out my last update on this blog, being uploaded on my last working day, the 25th of November.

Tim

I am 18 years old fromHamburginGermanyand I have just finished my A-level equivalent and before taking the easier option of working ‘IDB’, I needed to find my own two feet, step up to the plate and  gain some work and life experiences abroad. My plan is to work and live inLondonfor 6 months and then move toMadridfor the second half of the year.

Not sure what I have let myself in for… as I arrived during theLondonriots which is something I clearly never experienced before and hopefully never to be repeated again. After a week or so I attended an international language and business college so that I was not completely devoid of English business jargon before I started my internship.

At the beginning of September, Office Planet gave me the opportunity to help and work within their organisation. They have been trading for over seven years and are a small company with lots of experience and ambition.

I had a vague understanding of what was required of me, the first few days were spent meeting the team, understanding the office ethos and what exactly Office Planet does, which essentially is office acquisition. I was thrown straight into the deep end and was given a number of tasks to do which included some admin, marketing and research.

Interestingly my directorZack Bermandescribed the different types of officing in theUKas the equivalent of staying in a hotel, i.e. short term, generally more expensive and furnished or renting your own apartment, i.e. we all would like to live in a hotel, but cannot afford it and therefore rent apartments/offices on longer terms unfurnished. This made me truly understand the difference between a serviced office and a leasehold office.

As mentioned before, I would now like to give you an idea of how some of my tasks look like: One of the first things I was taught was working with databases helping us to check availability in order to provide our clients with information in a timely manner. So last week, for example, I had to find companies whose leases were about to expire. Having found like 200 companies, I then tried to create a l literally outstanding letter, which should not end up in the trash, like most of its kind, but rather stay in mind of those businesses and convince them of our services. What is probably the most exciting part of my working day are the viewings involving the direct customer contact. Worth mentioning is the fact that I not only attended those viewings, but also created the schedules for them.

Summing up my first three and a half weeks, I can say that I am truly involved in the actions taking place in Office Planet and not just a bystander making coffee and using the printer, the typical image one can have of a trainee. I hope you enjoyed reading these lines and will continue on reading my diary blog.

Tim

Ever felt that you are swamped by e-mail? Ever stopped to realise just how much time you spend checking, reading and sending? Ever thought how much of it was important?

Ask yourself and answer honestly, when you wake up in the morning do you check your e-mail straight way? last thing at night a quick check since having checked an hour before, in fact is there any hour of any day that you haven’t checked your Blackberry or iPhone to see who has communicated with you recently apart from when you are asleep?

The answer most of us will give is ‘yes, I check it constantly’

Then ask another question and again answer yourself honestly. Are more than 20% of the e-mails I receive important, I mean important enough to make a difference to my goals, my earnings, and my life?

The answer for most of us is ‘no’ and in fact we would be happy with 5% of them being that important.

The truth is that most of the e-mails we receive are of little or no consequence to our daily lives yet we can not get to them quick enough or more regulary than we tried, fearing desperately that we might miss something.

The problem with all of this is threefold.

One, it breaks up our focus on more important tasks, by stopping to check and often reading everyone regardless of importance, then leads to yet more non-productive time being wasted.

Secondly, it can lead to starting another task, regardless of importance and often it is of low value, which means the thing, more than likely an important thing, we stopped doing to check our mail remains unfinished.

Thirdly, and most important of all, if you added up all the time spent checking, opening, reading and often responding to the 80% of unimportant non-life changing mail, it would amount to somewhere between 8-10 hours a week may be more depending on just how hooked you are.

The solution to claim back that lost time and regain your focus is simple – delete all the unimportant e-mail at the end of the working day without opening it or reading the preview and guess what? if it was important they will send it again. Also, try closing down outlook and switching off your Blackberry or iPhone while you are focussing on your important tasks and resist the temptation to have a quick peek. In the evening don’t check your e-mail as usually there is little that can be done to change anything especially if you are looking at 10pm and in the morning try planning the day ahead focussing on what makes a difference to your life before opening the mail.

If you do this every day for about 2-3 weeks you will form a great habit, that will give you hours of extra time to focus on what really makes a difference and don’t allow others, often complete strangers, steal your precious time and break your focus.

If we all don’t do something to reduce our daily fix of email, it will overcome us and we will sink down the e-mail drain never to re-emerge.

@MitchMeyerson has posted an article on the rules of compelling online content – definitely worth a read.

@ Mashable on the launch of Decide who will help you decide whn to buy or not buy the latest tech gizmo.

@Regus_UK have been lucky enough to test drive the new Blackberry Playbook.

@michaelport on how to hire the right person with the right attitude.

Post by Philip Dodson – follow me on Twitter and when we follow you back your posts and articles will feature in The Office Planet Daily

@Mashable, @SmartaHQ and @BirdsOnTheBlog are just 3 of the 101 contributors to today’s edition featuring news, videos, photo’s, views and tweets from the last 24 hours on Twitter all in one simple easy to read and follow online paper.

If you don’t want to miss out click the link above and you can subscribe.

Posted by Philip Dodson 17th June 2011 – follow me on Twitter

At Office Planet we are unique in dealing with both serviced and leasehold space

Check out our latest offices to let in central London

• Desk share 2-3 people from £250 pcm
• 2,000 square feet prime Soho office to let on the Carnaby Estate
• 2,000 square feet office space to let in Covent Garden
• 1,300 square feet available Oxford Street office space to let

If you are looking for serviced office space then click the links below take you to options available now:

Serviced offices w1, serviced offices Covent Garden and serviced offices London

By Philip Dodson 16th June 2011

In today’s edition

• @JamesMillman talks about how #4Networking has generated 300 new clients for him!
• @Mashable – hackers have now taken down CIA site
• @StartupUK on pension scheme rules

Many more stories from world of Twitter.

If you are looking to move office space then take a look at our tips and resources – Offices to Let London

Located on the 2nd floor of 71 Broadwick Street on the corner of Carnaby Street and is part of the vibrant Carnaby Estate with excellent amenities, shops and restaurants.

The space is approximately 2,000 square feet and is fitted out to a high specification, with 3 private offices, kitchen, comms room, reception and boardroom.

The space has good natural daylight, raised floors, and cooling.

We will be posting full particulars shortly, however,  should you wish to view the space then contact us at Office Planet, sole agents on 020 7290 1770 or 0800 085 8326.

For Serviced Offices Soho or other Offices to Let Soho

By Philip Dodson 16th June 2011