The coworking marketplace is crowded. And growing by the day.

The global shift in employee working patterns and company expectations from office space as a service has meant that flexible offices are becoming a product of choice for more users every day.

But this means that the range of choice is becoming overwhelming for many. Taking the City of London as an example – there are over 250 unique options to consider, with expectations of this going to 300+ within a couple of years.

So if you are on the lookout for serviced offices, how do you cover so much ground effectively? How many should you actually see in person?

The obvious first step is finding a professional that is well-versed in the coworking market and specialises in your chosen area and the size of space you are after. We have already put together useful content on how to choose the right intermediary, which you can see here.

But before you engage with flex consultants to help you look, you should work with your staff and decision makers internally to have a strong understanding of what is important to you. Preparation in a crowded market is going to save you a great deal of time.

We have a useful piece on the importance of strong qualification information which you can see here, but you can also refer to the table below which shows the various categories of information that will make narrowing down your perfect serviced office easier:

The more of these categories you can have covered in advance, the better-equipped your coworking broker will be to really narrow down the field.

But even if you have all 9 categories bottomed out, sometimes there will still be 20+ viable choices for you to consider.

So how many do you actually view? Five? Ten? All of them?

The answer depends on a number of factors:

Time: 

How much resource you can dedicate to this task and how urgent your needs are will play a large role. Coworking can be acquired very quickly (sometimes in a matter of days), so many customers tend to leave it to the last minute before looking.

Give thought to how many “viewing days” you have earmarked between enquiry time and needing to sign for something.

How many people will actually need to see the offices, and how many times? Get as many as you can do buy into doing it together to make the process more efficient.

Your position in the hierarchy & the decision-making process:

If you are the owner of the business and making the choice doesn’t involve anyone else, then you will probably know it when you see it. So less viewings will be needed as long as you give a detailed brief to your broker from the get-go.

If, on the other hand, you are tasked with compiling research in the market to pass up the food chain, more coverage will be better for you – see lots and then pass a shortlist up the decision-making ladder.

How clearly the vision has been communicated: 

Clear internal communication is crucial and a lack of it is responsible for much wastage –  there is nothing more frustrating than seeing a bunch of offices and then being told that they didn’t match the brief.

Engage all stakeholders to make sure the vision is shared – decision makers and staff need to be on board with a common idea of what the next ideal space should look like, where it is, and what benefits it offers to those that will use it.

Most brokers in the market will tell you that somewhere between 5 and 10 buildings need to be viewed in order to arrive at a position where you can make informed choices.

But in the end, the number you see will be directly linked to the level of preparation you invest in prior to commencing your search.