Office space is a huge expense for many businesses. Fortunately, there are many ways to save costs in this area. Here are four options for companies on a budget.

Work from home

If you’re running your business solo, there may be no reason spend money on office space at all. Most businesses only need a computer and a phone. An office space can be nice for meeting clients in person, but you could simply opt for video calls or meet people in a local coffee bar. If you rent a property, you may even be able to claim some of this on expenses by working from home.

It’s worth always having your own private work space to limit distractions. By making this a designated office space it may also help to separate your home and work life. It could also be worth getting a separate phone and number for business, as well as using a virtual address so that clients sending business mail don’t know your home address.

Once you start hiring employees, you may want to think about moving, although it’s possible they may be able to work from their homes too. The only issue may be that communication is slower than it would be in an office.

Try working from a ‘coffice’

Using a laptop, it’s possible to work from any location. Coffee bars have become the go-to alternative office, allowing you to get out the house and also serving as a great place for meeting clients. You may want to avoid certain coffee bars around certain times, as they could get busy and noisy, making them distracting and unsuitable if you need to take phone-calls. Libraries, parks and even bars are other places you could consider.

Think rural

If renting or buying an office space is the only option, there are still ways that you could save costs. Location can have a big effect on rates. Urban areas are almost always favoured for being central, but unless you’ve got clients regularly coming into your office, do you need an urban office space?

Opting for somewhere rural and out of the way could possibly be cheaper. A lot of farmers convert their barns and rent them out to potential business for a cheap rate. You could even buy a barn and convert it yourself. Issues could be getting electricity, which may require buying a generator. Look out for diesel generator sales online that could help save you money. Alternatively, you could consider solar power.

Share your office

Shared office spaces are ideal for small businesses. You could buy somewhere yourself and then rent space to another business to help pay the mortgage. You could alternative rent space of another company. There are even specific co-working spaces, in which multiple businesses and individuals share space. Not only will this cut costs of rent, but it will also cut costs of bills too and allow you share certain resources like printers and paper.