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I have a place I rent to work. I moved to a new location a few months ago and have found that my local clients have gone to about zero, which is unusual. The only thing that has changes is the location. (I still have clients around the country that I talk with on the phone and email) It's not a less convenient location, but it is in a worse area. Before I was in a mixed business and residential area that was kind of nice and now I am in an industrial area. So it seems people are afraid of the area.
So I don't want to move, but I have started to look into finding a shared office place where they rent out small meeting rooms for $20-25/hr, depending if you buy one at a time or a package. They have a couple locations that I could list as options for meeting clients.
You don't mention what your line of work is, but I can relate that many businesses suffer a loss of clientele when they move their locations.
I've seen this happen to auto mechanics, lawyers, dentists, gift shops, restaurants, and a host of other service/retailers in many areas. So your experience of loss of business is not anything unusual in small businesses.
Having a storefront/meeting place to bring in your clients that they will associate with your work product is essential. The shared office may work ... or it may not. Only you will know if you give it a try for awhile and advertise your availability to your clients.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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With so many struggling these days, you might post a 'wanted" in the local paper/online, and see if you can find someone who would downsize their space but has a lease. Maybe talk them into an as-needed space arrangement.
Here that kind of business is done at Starbucks all the time, for people that work out of their homes. It's so common that the customers don't have any problem with it, in fact people are happy to see that you aren't having to charge them more to pay for the expensive rents.
Location... Location... Location. It's not just for the housing market. Anytime you change a location of a business, there is going to be a risk of losing some customers. It could be that they don't feel safe in the area or it might not be as convenient for them, maybe there isn't adequate parking etc. Did you communicate to your customer base that you were moving? I would get the word out by advertising your move. It will take time, a few months is a short time frame, so be patient, but vigilant.
With so many struggling these days, you might post a 'wanted" in the local paper/online, and see if you can find someone who would downsize their space but has a lease. Maybe talk them into an as-needed space arrangement.
Here that kind of business is done at Starbucks all the time, for people that work out of their homes. It's so common that the customers don't have any problem with it, in fact people are happy to see that you aren't having to charge them more to pay for the expensive rents.
I only need about 3-5 hours of meeting time a month. So I like that the cost of the pay per hour meeting rooms are variable. I only pay for what I use. That typical usage will cost about $100/mo. I doubt I could do better than that.
One of my attorneys do that. He works from home and any time we have meetings, we meet at a local bank branch that sublets out their conference room for certain professionals. In this day and age, it only makes sense to cut your costs if you only meet with a client once or twice a month, if that.
I don't mind meeting with him and actually commend him in doing so because I know it helps with his overhead, which gives me better rates for his already great service. Unless you're in a really rundown part of town, then I don't think many clients will mind that you don't have an actual office. It all depends on where your shared office space is so location is indeed very important.
I moved to a new location a few months ago and have found that my local clients have gone to about zero, which is unusual.
Can't you spin your location change into a story about upscaling an industrial area or some other positive? Then use that as leverage to get some local advertising via newspaper or local TV?
One of my attorneys do that. He works from home and any time we have meetings, we meet at a local bank branch that sublets out their conference room for certain professionals. In this day and age, it only makes sense to cut your costs if you only meet with a client once or twice a month, if that.
I don't mind meeting with him and actually commend him in doing so because I know it helps with his overhead, which gives me better rates for his already great service. Unless you're in a really rundown part of town, then I don't think many clients will mind that you don't have an actual office. It all depends on where your shared office space is so location is indeed very important.
I can't really analyze the "why" part of it, I just know that it is. At my old place, I had people making appointments to meet with me. Now I don't and it's been a few months. So I can offer 2 additional new meeting places, one which is close to my old place and another which is in a nice downtown area. So that will be even better than the option before I moved. There is no upfront cost for me to do this, because I pay as I use, so if it doesn't work it won't cost anything.
The Attorney example you gave makes sense. having clients meet you at home can be odd and he probably doesn't want all of his clients knowing were he lives, in case a client becomes too unhappy with him.
I know a few people that have used the "rented" meeting space arrangement and really liked it. They had home based businesses (web design and other tech related business) but needed a professional looking place to meet with clients. This worked out really well for them. The really good offices will have receptionists that get to know you and try to make it seem like that is your full time space when clients arrive.
Just make sure you know the capacity, their reservation policy and guarantees for space so clients can see you when needed and not next week or next month sometime.
When my ex-wife's old employer (a large bank) decided to get out of the real estate business (title insurance and abstracting) when the economy tanked, I decided to buy them out for pennies on the dollar and got their clients for nothing. One of the first things I had to do to make the business generate a profit was to move out of a suite in a beautiful professional building that they paid $1800 a month for. We moved into the house and setup a home office to cut expenses. Then, we made a deal with one of the biggest clients, a lawyer with a beautiful office building with a real nice conference room setup for meetings that accomodated 12 people. We discounted his work in exchange for the use of his conference room when we needed it for closings, settlements etc. No money actually changed hands, nobody came to the house and we had a professional appearance and the people loved it and it worked out great for all of us.
I am not sure what your situation is, but if you could setup a deal with someone that you could exchange services or goods rather than money it would be sweet. A location can make or break you in business and being in an industrial park would scare off anyone in my area (DC) from wanting to do business. Just my .02.
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