The number one, two and three reason for such a high percentage of businesses failing (70%) in their first 3 years is insufficient cash flow. You have an amazing idea, you discuss its implementation with other people who are equally energized about it and launch headfirst into world domination. The problem is that most business don’t make any money until year 2 or 3. This means that, no matter how good the idea is, if you don’t have the cash to keep you going, then you are going down. Before taking one single step there needs to be a backup plan. It does not matter what the plan is (keep your job at the same time, get help from a friend, partner or parent, secure financial assistance from the bank or get a second job. Assume the worst and then the worst potential outcome is that you will be right.

Deadly sin number 4 is overspending on items which you think are important but they only feed those other businesses who are trying to excel thanks to your generosity. Examples of this are inflexible office space leases and overhyped marketing, which promises the world for just a few dollars more. The lure of a glitzy office building to impress your friends is overwhelming, as is the promise of your face in every face book ad there is, but you have to stop and take a breath.  Remember that you have just become a target for every Business to Business salesperson on this planet and you need to be able to see the helpers from the hustlers. The only word that matters to every pitch you are given is “why”. Why do I need this space? Is there a smarter and more agile alternative such as a virtual office, or a day office, or a coworking space / home office? Why is this marketing cost true value for my business?

Death nail number 5 is focusing on the detail of your service or product rather than trying to make money from your service or product. Not everyone is a perfect salesperson but everyone suddenly becomes the perfect boss in their own mind when they become CEO of their business and suddenly you are too good to sell. This rule is a biggie. Put your ego aside and hit the money shot hard in those first few days, weeks and months and don’t let up. If you can get sales in early then you can develop twice as quick but if you don’t get them in then you will have to deal with your worst demon – self doubt. Also focus on multiple sales channels so you can gauge what works and what does not.

Number 6 is listening to consultants. Listen to those who love you first. Your family has your best interests at heart. Then listen to people who are doing it right now, not those who have long forgotten what it is like to work and have one bright fleeting moment of greatness in-between a beer and a belch in the last century. Follow the guidance of doers, not advisors. The doers have felt the pain you are about to go through and can help you with some of the more expensive silly mistakes you are about to make.

Knockout punch number 7 is not being prepared for the task ahead and ultimately your own weakness. You have no concept of the world of work pain you are about to enter. Your party life is gone, your sports life is gone, your family life is gone and you will work 20 hours a day for less money than working in a 7/11.   After the first wonderful few months you will want to give up every day and those of you who need the right excuse will find it.  Those few who are left will ask yourselves why you are doing this for so little back – maybe it’s that remote possibility that you can make meaning, or the chance that you can change the direction of life just one small degree, or possibly the opportunity to be your own boss in a world where everyone is part of the herd.  To make it through the eye of this needle you will need to want it more than Rocky getting into the ring with Apollo Creed but just remember that after this point you will leave that ring a different fighter.  God Speed.

Deloitte solved this problem back in the 1990’s when they introduced reverse hoteling and hotdesking.  The primary goal at inception was for their staff to be efficient from the moment they arrived and to be able to work immediately without waste.   Today Deloitte have 40% of all their desk space  reserved for hoteling and the remainder is all allocated to the concept of reverse hoteling where employees give up their desks when they are not in the office.  What is even more staggering are their plans to increase the hoteling side of the equation to 70% as soon as they can. This will bring their square foot usage from 150 to half this number when all the office space moons align.

In Your Office Agent we just love when efficiency meets better work life balance and this company tick that box in a big way.  It also ticks most of the sustainability boxes too.  Mobile and home working are encouraged, less travel is needed, fewer buildings need to be build, less fit out is required in the space that is occupied and in general the seed of waste being good is not planted.  The other staggering aspect to this is the sheer scale of the task.  Deloitte have tens of thousands of employees in hundreds of offices all around the world.  They manage the efficiency of the work platform by implementing real-time technology such as onboard and phone switching along with empowering their team members to direct the hoteling movement like traffic cops in rush hour.  This team keeps desks clear, supplies at the ready, helps people find desks and manage the smooth running of the hoteling policy.  They don’t miss a beat.

Deloitte also point out that communication with the internal clients (their staff) is also vital and They train their managers to excel in this new environment and have a hoteling survey which goes out every quarter along with pre and post move surveys every time they implement or change a process.

Your Office Agent scorecard.

Our Ideal Office scorecard is always based on six criteria out of a maximum score of five points for each criteria. We adapt our criteria based on your feedback and the latest needs for office users, so please keep giving us your views so we can stay on track.

• Lease flexibility  and Space Agility – 4 (we do not know the lease terms yet but agility has to be a maximum with such a fluid workforce)
• Personal employee growth – 5 (surrounded by different people daily)
• Community collaboration  – 5 (this is only because it is managed so well)
• Premises look and feel – 4 (the concept has been adapted to older buildings too)
• Desire to be here  – 4 (not everyone loves hoteling but its well overdue)
• Employee work      life balance - 5 (you get to choose where you work from)

27 out of 30 is our best score yet and will be hard to beat.  Deloitte may not have the prettiest desks or the brightest colors or table football for all their employees but they have one important concept which trumps all the rest.  Do what you need to do as efficiently and quickly as you can so you can get on with the rest of your life.  Maybe they are on to something..

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a networking event at the offices of an Orange County recruitment company and met with one of their team members, whose card intrigued me because her title was the “Mission, Vision and Values Director”. Now I have seen many titles in my time and most are self serving ego trips for senior management, however, this was the first time that the writer had seen a title where Values held a place as important as Vision. Within 30 seconds of being there I wondered if this was going to prove to be an office of the people for the people or just another good title.

The first clue was the self mocking portrait of the owner as you enter the floor, which is almost directly opposite the proudly placed award for best place to work 2007. With all the other fast growing awards on the wall this one took the main spot. As you then walk onto the main recruitment floor I was struck by the bar area with beer on tap, Margarita machine (with different flavors), plasma screen showing the basketball game and the inviting way the stools surrounded the whole section. Behind me was the cube area which I normally oppose, however, it seemed to really work with the direct contrast to the large open plan kitchen / bar and circulation area. To my right was the bosses office, a time out room, with more multimedia equipment to help escape from the world of work and a cigar patio. Photos of basketball stars filled the walls in the way a fan would decorate their lounge at home. To my left was the table football with signs all around it showing the companies values.

It was interesting to note that the walls were not full of targets and sales numbers, as I would have expected in a recruitment office, however inside the cubes this was obvious to see. Its almost like the message is that inside your cube you be everything you can be and outside “mi casa es tu casa.”

The networking event itself was done in a open plan area which had very comfortable cinema like chairs, more multimedia equipment but the casual nature of it made it easy to see how much more effective this would be as a brainstorming and learning area than the more traditional boardroom that most companies use. The area was surrounded by a fish tank behind and barbeque patio in front of it and was just an excellent use of what would normally have been dead circulation space.

The event was also streamed online because the data technology and broadband speed is second to none and easy to scale and the fact that they were hosting a networking event to some of the smartest people in data showed me that their way of marketing had that same human touch as the space itself.

Your Office Agent Scorecard – Your Office Agent Scorecard is always based on six criteria out of a maximum score of five points for each criteria.

• Lease Flexibility and Space Agility – 3 (it is a traditional lease, mainly office based so limited flexibility to be agile)
• Personal employee growth – 5 (Recruitment is the highest pressure industry there is and the happier your good people are the more you destroy all competition)
• Community Collaboration – 4 (we don’t like cubes normally but the bar and presentation areas are excellent, as is the networking. We did not see any gender, child friendly or culture specific benefits but are sure they are or will be in the plans for the future)
• Premises look and feel – 5 (Just a nice place to be)
• Desire to be here – 4 (Almost a 5 however it is all fixed office space rather than virtual / fixed combinations)
• Employee work life balance 4 (Recruitment as an industry is always bad at this but this business has taken the home into the office – smart)

25 out of 30 makes this a great place to work and a real lesson to those new companies who want to create a culture that people will really like instead of making their staff miserable and keeping the best space for themselves. In too many companies we see senior management who believe they are great leaders but in reality are just great process driven bullies who were probably bullied getting there. Real leadership is about the team coming first and providing an environment for the great to become greater and a platform for those who need help to get it. We wish this team success in what will undoubtedly be an imminent expansion.

There have already been far too many articles about coworking and the mindless propaganda that surrounds this way of work. Its like everyone talking about a prize fighter being the next world champ before the title shot takes place.

For those few of you who have not heard about the coworking revolution it is is described as a mostly open plan office area where multiple companies sit beside each other, focused on their own businesses, but able to collaborate with each other for the common good. The focus is not on the pin stripe suit you are wearing and more about the concept you are developing. The logic behind the concept is that the creativity and referral business that this collaboration will cause will elevate you and your business to new levels. Sounds good, almost enjoyable. Oscar Wilde would turn in his grave at all this love of workplace and actually even workplace cynics like our team at Your Office Agent agree that this is an amazing concept, however, our contention is that up to now there has been too much focus on meaningless rhetoric about the concept and not enough focus on measuring its success. There are many benefits to companies who can really embrace this concept, however, up to now and leaving out our home workers, mobile workers, start ups and lonely souls, most medium sized companies have been afraid to fully embrace such an overwhelming concept such as this. We therefore made it our mission not to look for owner operators, who look to make a margin from the business, but moreover to find those genius companies who not only embrace the concept but turn it into their competitive advantage. As such, our February submission for the Office Of The Future are the the Auctionpoint offices in Marina Del Rey. the Story behind Auctionpoint is all about finding a disruptive technology to make an industry better and during this journey partners Keith Yang and Joseph Tang decided that the only way to stay ahead of the competitive curve was to make sure they created the best working environment they had ever worked in and then invite companies into that environment who also inspired them. It gives the writer goose bumps even thinking about it but for any company to qualify to be part of their space they needed to be (1) innovative, (2) entrepreneurial, (3) tech-savvy, and (4) creative. In all 5 companies were chosen to sit in designated areas with Auction point in the middle directing the flow of traffic. Cutting edge companies such as Magnet.tv, mystoryinc.com, vanquishla.com, resourcepro.com and m-codesign.com all bought into the dream to create an awesome environment from the moment you walk in. So how does the scorecard compare to our other finalists.

As always the Your Office Agent Scorecard is always based on 6 criteria out of a maximum score of 5 points for each criteria:

1. Lease flexibility and space agility – 3 (excellent terms on space and meeting rooms and only restriction is the max size)
2. personal employee growth – 5 (co working is an amazing model to learn from 6 companies instead of 1)
3. Community collaboration – 5 (not a massive surprise)
4. Premises look and feel – 4 (great inside but have to enter from the back)
5. Desire to be here – 4 ( great location and wonderful open environment)
6. Employee work life balance – 4 (space is excellent but office base always knocks off a point)

25 points has these visionaries in joint first place with perfect Microsoft technology and ahead of the super ship in San Francisco as the 2012 Office Of the Future. Its hard to stop a dream just at the good bit so we will be watching closely to see what this leads to in the future.

This way of working was not only inefficient but it also created an unfair business playing field because, if you did not have space in one of these expensive office buildings, then companies did not feel safe doing business with you and the big fish stayed big against all comers.

Then something magical happened.  Technology came into our lives and rewrote the business manual.  Laptops meant we were no longer chained to the desks, wireless networks meant that we could dispose of the wires, Smart phones and tablets meant that we could take our office with us, the cloud meant that this new office did not weigh anything and for the first time, a true free market without boundaries became possible.  Smart commercial building owners and executive suites quickly maximized customer benefit and provided far reaching business solutions such as high level video conferencing to connect us all over the world.  Virtual offices became the new low cost company image, so executives could have their addresses in amazing buildings and phones answered far away from where they are based.  Drop in offices became available for rent for as little as a day at a time globally, led by Regus and then followed by other providers like MWB, Premier, Servecorp and Avanta.  Now for the first time companies could really build their own Ideal Office rather than being forced to follow an outdated convention.  More recently the latest move forward is to do with co working as a solution to the home and mobile working mass.  Co Working is when multiple companies share the same space but it is genius because it is a marketing return on investment rather than a facility cost.  To explain more simply, I would rather have 30 companies around me helping my business grow than rely on little old me coming up with all the solutions.

All of this is made possible by technology and Microsoft is the daddy of this technology.  Their latest move to roll out retail stores around the US but to use them as local business hubs instead of just shop fronts is akin to what co working is doing for executive suites.  We managed to get the below video from Microsoft about their vision of the future, which we highly recommend a look at. 

Micrsoft Vision of the future

Your Office Agent Scorecard

Your Office Agent Scorecard is always based on six criteria out of a maximum score of five points for each criteria. 

1. Lease Flexibility and Space Agility – 5
2. Personal employee growth – 3 (technology is a great teacher but we are still learning how to learn this as well as through human interaction)
3. Community Collaboration – 4 (social media gets us access to more people than ever before but we must learn how to manage this)
4. Premises look and feel – 5 (you get to create your own reality at a fraction of what the price used to be)
5. Desire to be here - 4 (for me this is a 5 however measuring remote technology with fixed technology is important for many people)
6. Employee work life balance 4 (Technology has actually made most of us work harder but we get to do it where we wish and that’s pretty good.

25 out of 30 puts technology in front as the best office of the future yet.  In addition, as we evolve, this score will only increase.  We will be watching closely to see what Microsoft and all those developers do next to take us to the next level.  Let the team here at your office agent know if you ever want any help with finding your office of the future at www.yourofficeagent.com.

This week the Your Office Agent team are looking at established businesses and ironically the situation can sometimes be even worse.  Even if the original space plan was well managed its probable that the business itself has overtaken the practical uses of the space and the company has fallen into the trap of adding desks as new staff are added.  Then, to make the team feel more settled, a 3 to 5 year lease is signed and the future looks bright until those rainclouds of change start to appear overhead.  In the same way that taxes and death are the two certainties of life so it is true that change is inevitable and by fixing 100% of your staff into a fixed, inflexible, non agile model such as this, you are not going to be able to adapt when that change comes.  Many CFO’s shut their eyes to this at lease signing, hoping that the change ticket comes after they have moved on but, although this may have been possible 10 years ago, it is not today.

The solution for the established businesses out there starts with – Do you have a best and worst case business strategy written out?  This is not just a real estate floor plan but a detailed breakdown as to how you currently align your real estate with your business objectives and where innovation is possible.  The options range from outsourcing to executive suites, optimizing desks, to hoteling, to reverse hoteling, to hotdesking, to name just a few.  Outside the office walls you have mobile working, home working and telecommuting.  Although there are cost savings of up to 70% to be achieved from implementing some or all of these work styles there are those who are afraid of change, who find it hard to manage a remote team, who do not trust their team to work as hard when they are away.  There are others who covet their desk, the prestige it brings, the feeling of accomplishment that this particular piece of wood gives to them. Seriously, get over it.  It’s just a tree.  The below is what you really need to think about: 

• What do you want – a strong company or your desk
• The savings from real estate can go straight into marketing and give extra commission or better facilities.
• Many employees will not stay unless there is a work life balance.  This keeps better people longer.
• Hoteling gives you hundreds of desks, not just one. The desk was never yours. 
• Space utilization is not cutting 1 inch off a desk that is only used 50% of the time and the same applies to meeting rooms, common areas, etc.

Here at Your Office Agent we normally advise our clients not to eat the proverbial elephant in one bite.  Start with small bites.  Check out competitors for best practice, measure total potential savings, and then do a pilot.  Ask employees what they want and don’t go too extreme on day one.  Take small steps and most importantly get the buy in from your team.  If you do all this then you will build the bullet proof company of the next 10 years.

The solution for small businesses is to look at everything their company will need to be successful over the coming year and years.  Then notate it as this will become the checklist for the office space beauty contest that’s coming.  Challenge yourself as to why you need an office.  Put your ego aside and start with your business objectives and what it will take to realize those objectives.  Then look at your home circumstances and include this as part of the final measurement.  Don’t just take an office because you feel it’s something that must be done.  Take one if you actually need to use that office for business benefit 40 hours a week.  If you don’t then there are plenty of part time off icing options along with virtual office solutions all over the world and if image is of no consequence then you can always start at home.  Remember that it’s as easy to get a solution in Los Angeles as it is in New York, Tokyo or London so don’t limit a great business idea because you believe it will be too expensive to move it outside your city.  Ask friends, colleagues and those who you know have travelled the same road as you and just remember that whatever else you decide cash flow trumps everything.  As long as there is cash flow there is a business so plan to keep it.

We at Your office Agent specialize in giving advice to small businesses to make this minefield a liitle easier to navigate through. There are so many excellent low cost options out there. You just need to know where to find them.