Small Talk (WSJ)

Small Talk

Q: I'm interested in renting shared office space for my business. How can I find it, and how do these arrangements usually work?

A: Most cities have some type of shared office centers where office and meeting space can be rented daily, weekly, monthly or even hourly, depending on a business's needs.

According to the Office Business Center Association International, a trade group, there are about 4,000 office business centers in the U.S. and more than 5,500 world-wide. A searchable database of U.S. shared office facilities is available on the association's Web site, www.obcai.org¹. Look on the right-hand side of the home page.

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These centers usually rent out enclosed offices and include some access to meeting rooms. A business can rent out one office or multiple offices, depending on how many employees it has.

Basic office rentals might include a desk, chairs, high-speed Internet connection, a phone and multiple phone lines, says Frank Fabish, president of Executive Office Place, a shared office center in Columbus, Ohio, and former president of the Office Business Center Association International.

He adds that businesses usually must equip their office rental with any technological needs, such as computer or fax machine.

Full-service business centers will be staffed by a receptionist who answers phone calls for businesses. Many also offer extra corporate business services a la carte, which can include boxed meals for meetings, secretarial services and courier delivery.

Monthly rates for shared offices range from $500 to $2,500, depending on the center's location, the size of the office, and the office's location within the center.

Shared office space in a lower-price real-estate market like Columbus might rent for $25 an hour or $150 a day. A high-price market like New York, on the other hand, might charge $100 an hour, or $500 a day. Rates include all utility and other operational costs.

Renting shared office space is a good option for entrepreneurs who work from home but occasionally need a place to hold a formal meeting outside the home.

Very small companies also can find it's cheaper to rent shared office space on an extended basis than to lease out commercial real estate on their own.

Many shared business centers offer a variety of office sizes and formats. So a business anticipating growth can start small and rent a larger space later on.

One benefit is that renting shared space that offers features like multiple phone lines and a receptionist can create the feel that companies are much bigger, and more established than they really are.

"Anybody calling in is going to get the [impression] of a full-staffed business," Mr. Fabish adds.