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Your Office in the United States

Your office in the United States will be your major environment for the largest portion of the near-future working life of the on-site staff. It is worth investing time and resources to plan and create the ideal workspace which fits your needs best. Before making any decisions about your USA office, you should first determine your actual requirements and figure out what purpose(s) your office should serve.

"A man who has no office to go - I don't care who he is - is a trial of which you can have no conception." George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

Determining the purpose(s) of your USA office

No two businesses are alike. Therefore different businesses may require completely different office concepts. To determine the right USA office concept for you, we simply make a list of the actual day-to-day activities which are going to take place in the office. Getting an abstract view about typical tasks will help you to make better choices between the available office concepts. Some businesses entering the American market may need their USA office mainly for representation and welcoming customers. Others may simply want "a good address" for their business. Some may just need a desk for their desktop computer in a quiet environment.

After we compiled the list of tasks, we may want to add the importance of each task for the business in form of priorities which again depend completely on your individual requirements and sometimes personal taste.

If for example representation is the highest priority issue, you may want to invest in a fancy downtown office in Central New York City with a professional looking receptionist. On the other hand, if your clients visit you only a couple of times you can probably be better off with a regular office in an office park at the outskirts of a city. You do not expect any clients coming to you at all? Maybe a home office is just fine. Bottom line, your office will always be a compromise and include the weighing of different factors. The ideal office will be the one where most of your "musts" and "wants" are included for an acceptable price.

So, after you have a clear picture of what features your future office should have, let"s think about some basic options.

Which concept for the USA business? The "standard answer" for new businesses coming to the United States

When seeking advice on how to get a physical office established in a foreign country, you are often getting the following answer: "A serviced office concept is the way to go. You are up and running within a couple of days and have the highest flexibility for a fair price". Getting your business established with a serviced office is often a typical mainstream solution and if you are eager on not making any mistakes (what can be wrong about something everybody else is doing?), maybe you ought to go with that concept. As right as the option of a serviced office could be, it could be as wrong and budget-burning at the same time. Do not fall into the trap of ignoring the alternatives, which are quite attractive, too.

Are serviced offices they the right choice for the doing business in America?

Serviced offices are ready-to-run offices - mainly in large buildings at attractive business location - where everything is already in place. With moving in, you get your telephone number, your Internet connection, a street address, access to conference rooms, a receptionist welcoming your visitors and taking your calls and so on.

You should definitely visit some of those serviced office locations, make yourself a picture about the offerings and get a price list for their services. Those companies are usually charging a monthly base price for the office and additional fees if you access certain services like conference rooms, training facilities, and copy machines and so on. At first, those charges look very reasonable, but do not forget to look into the fine-prints of the contracts: some of those facilities charge you for example hourly "air conditioning fees" or if you are working longer than 5.30 pm in the evening. Many of those details will add up in the long-term and the bottom-line costs may be much more than anticipated. When choosing a serviced office, you should be aware that you may not have the flexibility to select a different Internet provider and/or telephone company and therefore are also stuck with their pricing models.

Pro's and Con's of serviced offices for doing business in America

A serviced office is a great option to get started, but is almost always a temporary solution until investing in an own office. The main advantages are:

• Very quick time-to market
• Almost eliminates setup time
• Expansion possibilities within the same building
• Potentially less initial investment

On the other hand, you may face the following disadvantage of a Serviced Office in the United States:

• Almost always a temporary solution
• Inflexibility in choosing service provider
• The lack of an own office is obvious to visitors
• Long terms service contracts
• High ongoing investments (monthly cost)

What to do?

The question of having your own USA office or going with a serviced office concept is a traditional make-or-buy decision. The main criteria is often the initial costs and timely resources you have to invest do upfront. An own office has higher initial costs but much lower monthly costs and more flexibility. By comparing the two options from various perspectives including costs, you can easily find out what suits you better.

About the Author

Ben Baier owns and runs www.myusabusiness.com. You can learn more on the 'about' section on the left within this website.

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