Office solutions for people not ready to rent space

Do you see clients in person to provide your services? Some people are comfortable meeting clients in their home. Others find this awkward or inappropriate for a variety of reasons:

- Children at home
- Pets at home
- Stress of housekeeping perfection
- Decorating needs updating
- Noisy neighborhood
- Not the right space
- Not professional looking
- Invades your privacy
- Inconvenient location
- Parking issues

So where can you meet your clients if you aren’t ready to officially rent space or use your home? There are several alternatives worth investigating.

Free Public Options

- Many public libraries have small rooms with doors where you can meet clients
- Starbucks and other coffee shops are great public spaces depending on the service you provide
- Some Barnes and Noble bookstores have coffee shops too (usually a version of Starbucks)
- Panera Bread shops are also great meeting places and there are other more upscale fast food places where you can conduct meetings
- If you are a Chamber of Commerce member, sometimes they have rooms available – for free (or a fee)

Friends/Colleagues

- People you know may have conference rooms that are often empty. They might allow you to use the space on an “as-needed” basis when available at no charge. These could be within corporations or small businesses like law offices, accountants, etc.
- Think of the professionals you know who might have unused office space they would be willing to offer you on a temporary basis until you build up a clientele.

Part Time Office Options

- Depending on your business, you may know other professionals who have extra space in their office. For example, if you are a health-related practitioner, you might ask your chiropractor, acupuncturist, nutritionist, even day spas, if they have a space you could use temporarily. Often you can pay by the hour or share a portion of your fee with them.

- Office co-ops are springing up all over as they become more popular. They provide office space and conference rooms on a part time basis. You can usually get space whenever you need it or pay a regular but small fee to have a space always available.
Switch to “Phone-Only” Service

In addition to all of these options, you can also just decide to begin doing your sessions completely over the phone. There was a point I was doing everything in-person and had a big fear that switching over to the phone would make my clients not want to work with me. I did not find that to be the case at all. This is especially true for new clients who didn’t know that I’d ever offered in-person sessions.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

Are you looking for office space on a tight or non-existent budget? If so, think about all the professionals you know who might have a conference room or extra office space not currently being used who you can approach.

In addition, this is a great request for your BNI group. Be sure to leverage your networking to find a solution. You will likely be very surprised at how many options you turn up when you reach out to people.