Short Form Lease Of Office Space: Fill & Download for Free

Step 1Investigate the state of the office market in which you want to relocate. If it's near your current location, or is in your home town, you may only think you know the office market. Do some reading; major real estate brokerages -- either national operations or local specialists -- produce a wealth of information on metro office markets and the submarkets within them in the form of market reports that are usually available at no cost. By looking at these reports, you can get a general idea of market conditions.Important information to look for in a report are vacancy rates and net absorption. Vacancy is the percentage of office space in a given market that's leased by no one. The higher the vacancy, the more anxious landlords tend to offer good deals to potential tenants.Net absorption is also a good gauge of market health. If hundreds of thousands or even millions of square feet are "absorbed" (occupied by tenants) in the course of a quarter or a year, then the market is healthy and landlords are less willing to deal. But if there's "negative absorption," that means that more tenants on the whole have left space than occupied new space. Negative absorption is bad for landlords and good for tenants.Be warned, however, that market reports are only general guides to a market. For more detailed information, you will need the professional help of a specialist in representing tenants.Step 2Establish a working relationship with a tenant representative, or tenant rep. If your office needs are very small indeed -- such as one person -- consider short-term leasing at an office suite. If you have more sophisticated office space needs, the help of a tenant rep can be invaluable.A tenant rep works for you, the potential tenant. He will offer suggestions about the most suitable space for you based on your particular needs, bringing to the table a detailed knowledge of the office market. The tenant rep will also assist you in dealing with the landlord when the time comes to negotiate for space. Generally, a tenant rep splits the commission with the landlord's leasing agent as her compensation.Not all tenant reps are created equal in terms of talent, however, and the profession is largely unregulated. Therefore, it's best to go with a tenant rep who has provided satisfactory service to someone you know and whose judgment you trust.Related Reading: The Rent Expense Account Belongs in Which Category of Accounts?Step 3Assess what you need in terms of office space. Be brutally honest in your assessment or you will certainly regret it later.Some questions to ask include not only how much office space you need now, but how much you might reasonably be expected to need in the future---three, five or even 10 years from now. A small dental practice, for example, might not need to grow much over the years, but a high-tech equipment distributor will need to consider asking for options in the lease that provide for taking additional space in the same building in the future.Also consider carefully the best town or neighborhood for your business, especially if you have more than a few employees to think of. Sometimes business owners relocate their operations considering only how convenient it is for the owner, and are later astonished when some of their best employees find work elsewhere at locations more convenient for them.Step 4Narrow your choices down to a few buildings with the assistance of a tenant rep, and examine each one carefully. The main thing to estimate at this point is how much it will cost -- aside from raw rent costs -- to do business there and which properties offer the best value for the money.A business owner also needs to consider certain intangible benefits of locating in one building versus another. It might not matter to some businesses what their building looks like, but if you need to impress a steady stream of clients who come to visit you, it might be better to spend a little more looking for a nicer building.If applicable, consider the building you're already in as a possible choice unless you're completely unsatisfied with your space there. Your current landlord is the devil you know, and might be very eager to cut a deal to get you to stay. Keeping tenants is always easier than finding new ones.Step 5Once you've selected a building, negotiate the price you want. You tenant rep ought to be able to give you a clear idea of what's reasonable to ask for and what's not in a particular building in a particular market. If you don't get reasonable concessions from the landlord, don't be afraid to walk away from the deal and find office space somewhere else.Typically landlords are able to offer tenants lower-than-published rental rates over the life a lease or "free rent" for a specified number of months at the beginning of the lease. Landlords are sometimes also willing to spend money to improve office space, according to the new tenant's needs, before the tenant moves in. That kind of concession is known as tenant buildout.In return for concessions, landlords often ask tenants to commit to a certain lease term. Ten years isn't uncommon in office leasing, but the length of a lease is entirely a matter of negotiation. Consider your needs and long-term growth trajectory carefully before committing your business to a long-term office lease.

The total cost can vary which most game developers who have been around for a while will tell you, but the general price point you can run with as a good estimate will be defined by the people not the number of people. You can have 3 really experienced developers on the team that are just as capable as 6 inexperienced members, so they would be more compitent, likely work better together and be more skilled and know their way around things a lot more. This isn't the only thing to take into account though. The types of casual games, whether or not you will use a framework to build upon or develop entirely from scratch and what tools you will use, also coupled with whether or not you target 2d or 3d.With all of that being said... I'll explain how you can go about working out the cost for your specific scenario in a general sense.Local Studio or Remote StudioIf you're looking to set up an official studio in your local area as opposed to the cheaper solution for your workers working remotely or out of a personal home office, then costs will sky rocket considerably. Of course there is no reason you cannot use the latter until you've become established and made a name for yourselves before you work towards a studio location.Time To DevelopOne of the more important facts to take into account is how long it will take this team to develop the desired casual games (on average) once you figure this out you will have a much better idea of how much it 'could' cost you to start up a studio. The teams experience will factor in here which is what I briefly mentioned above.Often different games will vary with time to develop which will effect the required funds to develop that gameSoftware CostsIf you're forming a team with people who will be working remotely that already own their desired software then you're already going to save considerable money unless everybody is using free software anyway, but some situations you will be required to put up the cost of certain software for a member or two to get everyone on a similar workflow which can alwways be worked around if budget is an issue, but the software costs will be something to factor in.Frameworks & TemplatesOften mobile developers will make use of various templates or frameworks and build upon them, this isn't a bad thing to do by all means but its done mostly to speed up the development of projects and save funds by shaving time off of the development. Which will hopefully raise profits or lower the bar to what you can consider the profit margin as the dev time was shorter and the cost to develop is then lower.If you're going to use such things they sometimes cost money and this could be considered a portion of the funds required if you intend to create a set type of casual games these could lay the ground work and pave your way as a sort of shortcut so to speak.HardwareIf you're targetting the mobile market you will need to look into getting a range of mobile devices to test your developments on and you may need to obtain a couple for multiple members of your team if you're not all local and working out of a home office or something like that. This can be avoided and reserved for a single member if needed though and the others can emulate mobiles devices on their compuuter to generally test things.OutsourcingBefore starting up your studio its always good to build an active list of freelance artists and coders or outsource studios, if you run into any hiccups through development you will likely need to reach out to one of these for a small fee that will no doubt save your ass and keep the project flowing as smoothly as possible which counts for a lot when you're on a schedule and budget for this type of business. You may never need to do this but it never hurts to keep the list up to date and keep in touch with potential freelancers that you can contract to help you when you are in need.SalariesIf you're not directly hiring your staff and you're intending on forming a game development team with people that you know, then often everyone may be willing to sacrifice a little in salaray to get started so long as there is some income, in which case you can bring down the cost a little but if you're hiring staff directly from the industry via freelancers or some other source then you're going to need to do some research on their experience, review their portfolio and look up the general average for their role, which is often defined by experience which is defined by the portfolio of a developer.Company Setup (Registration)This can cost you anywhere from £30 to £500 depending on the process you wish to go with, some comapnies will offer to take care of the paper work and offer advisors through the setup and a london based company address with some bonus features based on which package you chose, or you can manually do everything and just pay the companies house registration fee.Once you figure out what software you will be using and if you're going to want to develop your games with templates or frameworks and wheter or not you're going to form a team or hire from the industry you will have a better idea of the sort of funds you may need.outsourcing the development entirely can cost anywhere from £5,000 to £85,000 depending on the scope and length of the game and assets required, this really varies on the outsourcees.If you form a company yourself with a few like minded friends or contacts you've met then chances are you will be able to start-up a game studio with significantly less funding than most.I'm sorry that I couldn't give you a direct figure but this is because the required funds are going to be dynamic based on many variables and can change due to so many different things.I would have continued with this answer and gone into a few other things, but I currently have multiple dogs playing up and trying to climb over me and the little 12" laptop so.. I hope that this helps a little and I may edit and add more to this shortly as I have more that I would like to say but fee free to leave a comment!Kind Regards,Patrick Griffiths.Here is my edit to this answer... Based on the response of looking mostly for answers based on non-remote office space.There are probably about three different solutions one of which will be far easier and quicker to start.Rent Office Space.Set Up A Home Studio.Lease Space.Renting Office SpaceIn and around London there are place that you can rent office rooms in a shared environment, not just a cubicle but an entire office solution with conference rooms and the works, some spaces will offer you gym access shared with other companies renting space through the building along with other possible utilities like showers and the like. Although some of these companies will attempt to charge per-member you're going to have working in your office as opposed to just the space so be careful for that.The good thing about this is, if you do your research on a good location near you and find that there are other companies working here that could help you with your business chances are they would be willing to, there are often shared communal areas where you can have lunch and share a chat with someone else from another industry renting space a floor above yours and networking like this has often helped many people, if you get lucky maybe you'll find a freelancing agency with some nice talent that you could also contract a few things out to after office hours at a discount or with a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" type of deal, anything is possible...Many people seem to be against this when starting up a game studio or business for some reason but I personally liked being part of a start-up going through this route, it was cheaper than buying permanent office space and provided great social interaction during lunch breaks and networking through coming into contact with other people doing the same. Work was not only enjoyable but the work place was fun and often you could always go and kick back and just have a laugh with someone when frustrated over something or waiting for things to render/compile.I wanted to try and give you some figures here, but the prices vary based on office location and office space required so you will have to look up how much a local company to you will charge for this type of solution to know if it best suits your desired budget or not. Also look into whether or not they will offer furnished offices or not, because if not then this will cut into your budget for furnishing them (desks and chairs) and getting the hardware to the office spaces (usually best to order and have delivered there) some places will accept deliveries and have them brought to the office space for you so all you have to do is unpack and set the desks up. Be sure to look for secure office space with 24/7 security and CCTV, most will have this but some don't.Setting Up A Home StudioThe obvious solution for those looking to start a local studio on a tight budget, if you have the space or a large garden, you can construct an outbuilding and use that as the company office space, although depending on your housing situation you will need to notify and apply for using your home as your office too. The problem with this is that more often than not you will want to split your work/personal life and just using the spare room or moving your bedroom to the spare room and using the larger room as office space is one sacrifice many don't want to go with. It will also mean that people will be walking in and out of the home during office hours...Setting up an outbuilding if you're fortunate enough to have a large garden to where you will not have to go through planning permission is a great solution to the above and keeping things on a budget, you can set up a great outbuilding to be used as office space all year round from anywhere of about £865 - £4,200 depending on whether you want to self-build or buy something a little easier to piece together and construct also factoring in some thicker materials, but generally speaking you will get about 3-4 large desks fit in something for that price range without things being cramped anything more and you will need both a larger garden and larger budget.This is definitely something worth considering if you're a home owner with a large garden or just have a huge garden, it would be perfect if you have one of those houses with access to the garden without having to walk through the house, this would be a more ideal solution for setting up a home based studio and giving members of the small team access via a key, however parking may be an issue but if budget is something that you're fighting with, these are solutions and you can always get a work around... Like... Ride a bike to work!! (haha, I couldn't resist)Here is something that I personally looked into doing, a few friends and I were going to chip in to purchase a house and do the above and hire two other developers from the local community to come and work with us, it's an option if you're founding the company with all or some of the 2-6 members you've mentioned, it's a risky one in that if there is any real dispute among you guys and or gals, then you're stuck until you can resolve things or come up with a solution for one to step away without being at a huge loss, this was why we didn't go through with this and we rented office space instead, which was a good thing in the end. However if you happen to be family with one or two of the members or great close friends with the core founding members then this could be an option to look into.Leasing SpaceOutside of renting office space from a company that makes it it's business to rent out office space to start-ups and other small companies, there is the more traditional leasing of space and converting or using it as your studio office space, if you get lucky you may be able to find a great location nearby with an even better price.This would become a dedicated location for your company/team but will cost the most up-front.I am going to assume that this is something you would have looked into already as its the most common thing to look into when considering local on-site setup of a studio.Hardware CostsI mentioned hardware above in my first section of the answer before knowing that you were looking into setting up a studio locally. I will extend this.Depending on whether you're going to want to tackle mostly 2d and lower end 3d or 3d games will give you different price ranges for the hardware you'll have to supply at your office location.It can cost anywhere from £500 - £1,200 per dev unit for each staff member for the computer you may need.Chances are you will need artists, artists require certain hardware pieces which most programmers will never need, and these are graphic tablets, both 2d and 3d artists will need them, you can grab the simple solution of an Intuos by Wacom for the art stations you will have set up which can run you about £60 - £240 (prices may vary over time and model or size of device) per unit and most artists will be fine with that but you will want to shoot for have one cintiq that can be shared throughout the office space and the price is right up there at about. £1,800 - £2,400 the last I looked, you can shop around and get the smaller models or perhaps a pre-owned model which will save you some cash and likely work all the same, but it's something that you will need to consider. Some artists that you're going to work with 'may' be able to supply their own standard graphics tablet to work with and some I have known to prefer this and bring hteir own devices into work anyway so you may be able to get away with that, and others will sketch and design on paper scan the image into the computer and touch up with a standard tablet and thus a Cintiq is never needed, but it will vary with the artists you're working with and their preferences.Setting up Networked storage for all of the office computers is something that will cost a pretty penny to get going but this has been invaluable when working in any office. Look into setting up a personal server for your office, connecting computers to share and store data will make transferring source files and game assets so much more efficient, but this also can vary from fairly low to really high in price depending on desired features and speeds so I will leave this up to you to look into.Again as mentioned before you will need certain testing devices such as tablets and phones left in the office space for the developers to test on actively and prices may vary based on new or pre-owned and what your target platforms are if going mobile.You may need to consider an office printer or important documents and letters, this c an be from £50-£250 depending on your needs.Software costsWhile some software will allow a user to log in remotely from any location connected to the internet to use the software (mostly subscription based licenses) some software don't, you will need to define your desired tools such as which engine you're going to use, whether 2d or 3d and look into the desired workflow for your game projects art pipeline, this will help you figure out which software you will need to purchase and license under the company name on the dev machines so that your staff can come in and just worry about working. As I am sure you're aware prices depending on software can sky rocket with regards to 3d suites and some 2d packages.Personally I prefer standalone licenses over subscription software which counts towards a constant outgoing of funds, so if anything happens you have the software you'd need and be capable of picking up where you left off as opposed to subscribing and if things go bad not being able to do certain aspects of development through not having the required funds of subscribing to the software anymore. Its unlikely but a scenario that should be considered, but perhaps this is just me being a little too cautious!Closing NotesAs I mentioned in my first section of the answer, you will have to try and figure out the average development time for your desired team and the complexity of your projects to be able to define how much it can cost as the office space you can often rent weekly to monthly but is cheaper over paying rent upfront for longer periods of time, so that can also cut some costs. So figuring out how efficient the 2-6 people are will help you learn a more accurate figure estimate for how much it can cost you to set up your studio.Through my experience you can set something official up from as little as £8,000 to about £25,000 excluding the salaries of staff which often vary based on level of experience and other things. Of course the lower end of the aforementioned figure is cutting some serious corners, making use of free and open source software and note setting up a virtual or remote team.I hope this further addition to the answer helps you a little more, or at least gives you a better idea of what to look into, it's not an easy process and there is no 'set' figure estimate really, when considering this industry and getting started with your own studio there is just too many variables that can define the prices of things and there is no set boilerplate solution that I've seen or come across.I hope you figure something out and through the business plan stage of setting this up you will surely be able to figure out a good and fairly accurate estimate of the required funds!Regards,Patrick.

A very interesting question and something that requires a generous measure of insight into the workings of a Big4 and foresight on what the post-Covid-19 world is going to look like.It is said that it takes a minimum of 21 days to form a habit. Coincidentally, 21 days is what we are going to be locked down for, a period that could get extended if we cannot put the Covid genie back into the bottle by then.I have divided my response into short term and long term impacts. The list is by no means exhaustive. Having been out of the system for 8 years now, it is quite possible that my reading of the situation is very wrong or extremely superficial. With that necessary caveat, I look forward to inputs from the readers as we go forward in this ever evolving Covid-19 landscape.Short Term ImpactSalary freeze /cuts : This is the time when most companies complete their year end performance appraisals, decide on bonuses and salary increases. The outlook by the Big4 firms, whose fortunes are necessarily tied-up with the industries they serve, will be extremely cautious. Hence get ready for moderate to nil bonuses and salary freezes for the next one year at least.Halt / deferral of big ticket investments : Most of the large accounting firms had committed to significant investments in India towards ramping up their operations. I expect that a lot of those plans will be deferred if not cancelled altogether.Slowdown in hiring : Given the cautious outlook, there will be a hiring freeze in most departments. There will be even greater focus on increasing efficiency and productivity of existing resources than increasing headcount.Working capital tightness / fee cuts : The Big4 will have to share the pains that their clients are suffering, specially in the travel and hospitality sectors. Receivables will take longer to be recovered, clients may ask for steep discounts on already billed jobs and also for future engagements. That will have its own cascading effect on cost cutting measures to protect bottom lines.Long Term ImpactDramatic increase in work from home and flexi-timing : While working from home existed as a concept and practice in all Big4 firms, it was tightly controlled and tacitly discouraged. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Big4 firms have had to speedily ramp up their IT infrastructure to allow working from home. Over a period of time, the realisation will set in that productivity and efficiency can be maintained in most departments even if the staff are largely working from home. That realisation will bring a paradigm shift in talent acquisition and management even in the post lockdown / post-Covid-19 era -Firms will now have more liberal work-from-home rules;Firms will now be open to hiring more talent that are only willing to work from home or on flexible hours. A whole new talent pool will now be available.Reduced dependence on real estate : All expansion plans of Big4 firms were followed by acquisition/leasing of large tracts of office space in prime areas. Big fancy offices with huge conference and meeting rooms were the ways by which professional accounting firms would highlight their success and prosperity. With remote working / telecommuting becoming the order of the day, firms will re-evaluate their needs for large office spaces and dedicated work stations. Need for office space will contract dramatically, hot-desking (a system where you are assigned a work-station as and when you decide to work from the office) will become all pervasive and most meetings will happen over tele / video conferencing.Greater investment in IT Infrastructure, Data Security and Collaborative Platforms : With more and more people working from homes out of choice even after the lockdown, the firms will need to beef up their IT infrastructure and security to enable access of their IT systems, servers etc. from remote locations in a reliable and secure manner. Collaborative software like Microsoft Teams will become more widely used to deliver projects. Employees will be provided data cards to ensure adequate broadband speeds to securely access their data. More and more data will be stored digitally than in paper files to enable sharing and portability. Client waivers will be obtained so that people can access client sensitive information from their homes. Risk management protocols and requisite training will be needed to work under this new paradigm.Reduction in local and outstation travel : Most of the Big4 have pledged in some form or manner to reduce their carbon footprint / become carbon neutral. A large chunk of the carbon footprint comes from the humongous amount of local commute and out-station air travel that takes place. These 21 days (if not longer) of lock-down will teach everyone that a lot of work can be done without material loss of output or quality through video and tele-conferencing. Working from home will similarly reduce daily to-and-fro commute. We should therefore see a drastic reduction in travel and, consequently, the carbon footprint.Greater emphasis on work-life balance by the staff : [This is more a hope and a prayer than a forecast] This type of global scare is bound to act as an eye-opener for a majority of the staff who are habituated to burning the candle at both ends, forever chasing targets and bonuses and promotions. This is a kind of a wake-up call. People will get time to reflect and realise the virtues of slowing down, the missed opportunities of family bonding and that there is more to life than the daily grind. I expect people to now start demanding more work-life balance than before, take more personal time off and apply greater focus on their spiritual quotient.