I have recently moved to London from Dover and in the process started a new business venture. At first the obvious choice was to rent a suite of serviced offices, whilst I found my feet. I tend to spend most of my time seeing clients at their premises and occasionally (perhaps twice a week) I see a client at my own office. I also required a place to live, whilst I looked for a flat of my own.
Well, call me a yokel if you want, but I was staggered at the cost of residential rents in the middle of London, as I was with the cost of the small office that I wanted. So it was with these costs fresh in my mind that I came up with what I thought was a brilliant plan. Why not combine both a serviced office type environment and a place to live.
So I did. I phoned around until I found a great deal with a 4 star hotel (I won’t mention the name but we are talking very nice and well known here). One months rental for a one bedroom suite, where the sleeping area and the sitting area were separate rooms, in a hotel next to Hyde Park, including wireless internet and breakfast, was £2276.
Okay, this was marginally more than the separate office and place to live but it did have breakfast and someone to make my bed and clean the room. As I never cook and tend to get takeaway or go out to eat, the lack of kitchen wasn’t a problem. The first 3 weeks were the best of my life. I entertained the odd client at the hotel, the staff were on first name terms with me, I felt great.
By the 4th week things had lost their lustre. The same easy Listening CD played ad infinitum in the lobby. The stupid, bland paintings that at first had seemed so inoffensive had become items of abhorrence.
Along with this, every time that I used one of the hotels business facilities like the fax machine or the boardroom they charged like there was no tomorrow.
In short, my idea was a failure, rent a proper serviced office (or at least a virtual office). And stay in a flat where you can do what you want (within reason). I have found out the hard way that there needs to be boarders between personal and business life.
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