The Office Industry is Changing

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Office Industry

Okay, so when is the office industry not changing? This may be a general statement in the world of ever-growing technology and real estate pricing. But, the business centre in a conventional sense is becoming very hard to define.

What is your work environment like? Are you a start up or do you have 40 employees? Do you primarily work at the same desk or find yourself always on the go?
In the past, there have been clear cut destinations that business owners have found themselves drawn to, based on a multitude of criteria. For example, finance companies worked in structured environments with rows of cubicles surrounded by water coolers; graphic designers worked at large communal tables in brick and beam buildings that formerly hosted industrial assembly lines.

They didn’t mix.

But what if these companies could find themselves rubbing shoulders with each other? Could a world filled with both left and right brain thinkers possibly get along together?

The shared office space industry certainly thinks so, and companies are beginning to prove them right.

With industry giants such as Regus & WeWork competing at either ends of the shared office space spectrum, we find numerous office providers who are starting to position themselves somewhere in between – with no clear cut definition of their target market.

A once relatively unknown industry is now being considered by multibillion dollar per-year companies, as it presents a cost-cutting method to operate their businesses with a strict fiscal bottom line in mind.

Once considered feared competitors to be reckoned with, the global recognition and media attention that these industry giants are garnering actually benefits the smaller shared office space providers.

How, you ask, can small businesses benefit from the ever growing giants within an industry?

I pose this question to you – have you ever had a pizza from Domino’s? You know the price, the quality, the speed of delivery, the shape, size, and consistency, but you’re never wowed by the end result. It is a quick alternative that hides itself behind flashy marketing and a cell phone app. They don’t know you, the customer. They don’t know the specifics of your order (unless you tell them, time after time). They are a generic food factory servicing the masses, without the ability to cater to each of their clients’ immediate needs specifically.

Now, have you ever eaten at your local pizzeria, owned and operated by a family in your very own neighbourhood? These are the same people that know you by name, face and voice. They know that you live on the same street and know that you don’t like too many black olives. They may even be charitable enough to sponsor your child’s soccer team, or better yet, allow you to pay them back next time when you find you’re short on cash. At the end of the day, they’re friends.

The point, very simply, is that people like to pay for a service that is specific to their likes, wants and needs. Sometimes choosing the largest company in the industry is not the best way to proceed.
This is where privately owned business centres secure their slice within the industry (pun absolutely intended). It is very common to have business owners move to these smaller outfits after stints with large corporations. They do this because they are unhappy with the giant’s inability to cater their services to the specific requirements of each company’s business practice.

So, I challenge you to consider all elements of this ever-changing industry when selecting your next office space provider. Whether you’re a financial giant or a start up app developer, why go with Domino’s when you can choose an experience that is fundamentally yours?

Like they say, you never know who you’re going to meet.

Click here for more information about available Office Space at The Rostie Group.

Have you seen our Reservation Portal?

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Here at the Rostie Group, we’re always looking to improve your experience. To that end, we have been working on something that is a long time coming.

A major updated to our reservation portal has made it better than ever before!

We have focused on eliminating the tiresome negotiation process of booking meeting rooms and streamlining the process to be as smooth as possible for our users.

As you can see below, the Rostie Group’s booking portal lets you see all of our available rooms as you book them.

If you’ve booked with us before, you can easily rebook meetings with a single click! This allows your layout, catering and other requests to remain the same as the last time you booked.

Whether you are using desktop, tablet or your phone we wanted you to have the best experience, so we redesigned the layout to be mobile ready no matter what screen you’re on.


If you are a new user, you’ll see how easy it is to view the catering menu and choose an option suited to your needs. Depending on the room size, you will also be able to view the meeting rooms various custom layouts and choose one that best fits your meeting requirements.

Delicious Catering

We understand that getting used to any new piece of software can be challenging. Not to worry, we will soon have an online tutorial added to our website to guide you through it and show just how easy it is!

Don’t forget- we don’t just offer Meeting Rooms! Check out our diversified Virtual Offices Packages and start your plan today.

What are you waiting for? Click here to go see the new Portal right now!

Modern Meeting Rooms

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Modern Meeting Room

What do you think of when you think of a board meeting?

Unlike modern facilities, I’m willing to bet the first things that come to mind are dark rooms, thick carpeting, leather chairs, the smell of old wood, and dust. Well, that may have been fine in 1956, but just as the workplaces look different in 2018, your meetings should too.

At the Rostie Group, we have Modern Meeting Rooms that are guaranteed to permanently change your perception of a board meeting. Our rooms come equipped with large windows to maximize natural light, and modern, ergonomic furniture that has been sustainably produced, in factories that guarantee good working conditions for their workers. Because unlike in the era that saw ‘traditional meetings’, that matters today.

It’s 2018- your meeting should either be paperless or it should have as little paper as possible. Deforestation is a global issue- leave that enormous paper trail where you left the old dusty furniture- firmly back in 1956. A modern meeting room needs to be equipped with a wide range of audio-visual options- screens, speakers, dedicated wi-fi, and outlets; leave paper behind.

Your comfort, and your guests’ comfort deeply impacts how successful your meeting is; and a modern meeting room experience is carefully tailored to maximize your meeting’s success. We worry about all of the additional details, like state of the art A/V equipment and sustainably produced furniture- all so you can focus on what’s really at stake- the success of your meeting.

Disrupt your preconceived notions of what a meeting is at the Rostie Group. You wouldn’t stay at a hotel that was last updated 40 years ago, so why would you hold a meeting there? It doesn’t make sense to embrace the past in a business environment that is as fast-paced and forward-looking as Toronto’s – go with the Rostie Group and understand what a modern meeting room experience really is .

Renting Class Space in Toronto

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Class Space

The class’ focus is one of the most important aspects when running a session with an audience. Just as any seasoned professor can tell you, it can be difficult to get the attention you need. In a way, that’s really up to the class members; they paid for the course. If they choose not to pay attention, then that’s their choice. However, that isn’t exactly conducive to the long term feasibility of a course. If the class attendees feel like they got nothing from the session, and if they feel their time was wasted, they’ll share that, and your class will suffer.

One of the main ways to get a class to focus is to provide them with a good environment. From the youngest children, to the most adult person, we all need a comfortable environment to learn in. So your main effort should be in finding and selecting an environment to run your session. It has to be an open space, capable of holding all your attendees comfortably, and be conducive to learning.

It also has to be decked out with the best tech. You carry your class with you; presentations, materials, etc. Nothing could be worse than entering a room and start to setup for your session, and the screen is of poor quality (or non-existent), There are no plugs for laptops, or everyone has to huddle somewhere to see and hear your presentation. It just hurts the overall focus in the room, leading to an inferior experience.

With The Rostie Group, you will always have the best class experience. Our rooms have multiple screens and full video conference available, so you can run your session from anywhere in the world! We can accommodate any group size. But if you need more space, our rooms can be linked by video, the next best thing to being in two places at once!

Take a look at our room selection, and choose the best fit to make your class a success!jvieir

Serviced Offices & Why you Need them.

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Serviced Office

Unlike a Serviced Office, the traditional model of renting your office can be tricky business. 3-5 year terms are the norm and you can’t get out of it easily if you need to. Not to mention, you’ll need to install communication systems, need to furnish your office and build your brand in your area.

Serviced Offices take all of these barriers that you’ll encounter and eliminates them, but you may have overlooked them in the past. Their monthly rental fees are higher, but they carry many benefits that a traditional office model does not.

Flexible short term lease agreements

Office renters, according to Skyline Offices, are looking for shorter term rentals. Offices are rented out on a rolling basis, meaning you pay at the end of every month, meaning that you pay only for the facilities that you have used. The costs of a serviced office may be higher, but you get far more services and facilities for your money and you have flexibility in case your business doesn’t work out. In addition to the physical space you are renting, services and facilities such as copiers, meeting rooms and even staff are available as and when you need them. Meeting rooms can even be booked by the hour for when you need them, rather than paying for facilities which do not get used.

No downtime when moving in

When you rent your own premises, there is a long set up period with installation and decoration. In a serviced office, you bypass this setup period and you can move straight into an office which is already prepared for you. You are ready to start operating from day one.

Maintenance of your serviced office

So who cleans your office when you rent your own premises? According to BSRIA, the average cost for maintenance was roughly £14 per square metre in 2008. In a serviced office, the cleaning and maintenance are included in your monthly cost. You won’t need to worry about allotting extra funds for cleaning, you can re-invest them back into your business.

Staffing

Renting your own premises comes with the extra cost of staffing it. You’ll need a receptionist, technical staff, janitorial staff, etc. A serviced office strives to have the best staff and technology to ensure that their facilities are maintained to the highest quality at all times.

So before you sign for that lease, consider all your options. Is it really the best fit for you? You may just find that a serviced office like we have here at the Rostie Group fits all of your needs.

Renting a Meeting Room? Top 5 things to Consider

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Meeting Room Rental

When meeting with important clients, or just bringing the team together, you’ll want to consider the location carefully. You can always have the meeting at a bar somewhere, but run the risk of considered low-brow, and of someone having a drink or two too many. You can also do it in a hotel lobby, but that can be busy and full of potential eavesdroppers. So have you given any thought to renting a meeting room?

It can be a difficult decision, but here are 5 key areas to consider if you’ll be renting a meeting room:

Cost

Undoubtedly the most important category is cost. At first, it may seem expensive to rent a meeting room, but consider the larger picture: You can choose to only rent a meeting room only for the time you will use it, or you can choose a month to month lease that will be lying unoccupied most of the month. A one-off payment for a room for a couple of hours solely for the duration of your meeting is much more cost effective than paying out month after month for a space that will sit vacant.

Maintenance

Having a space in an office requires maintenance. Common areas will normally be kept to a high standard, but will a meeting room that is used once a month be held up to the same level of scrutiny? Afterall, it’s only used occasionally, so the team may go in, hash out what they have to do, and not worry about the mess until later. That later becomes much later, until eventually you’ll be paying a premium for repairs in a rarely used space. But there is more to consider when renting your meeting room.

Catering

Often meetings (and meeting attendees) suffer from a big problem; hunger. Either you allow your attendees to enter and leave as they like, disrupting the meeting, or have everyone sit and suffer through it, thinking more about their stomachs, than the actual matter at hand. Even if you set a lunch break, people will head out, and lose track of time on a sunny day, when the last thing they want is to come back to a meeting. When renting a meeting room, you have an option to get your breakfast and lunch catered.You’ll no longer have to worry about anyone being hungry, or wandering off for an extended amount of time. Everything is conveniently right there and ready for you.

Appearance

Change is a good thing. And with a change of place, comes a change of mind. It may be that your meeting is to try to discuss a problem and brainstorm solutions, or host a quarterly Board Meeting. A change in venue, from your own office, to a stylishly decorated meeting room may be just the thing you need. A new settings will help your team’s minds focus, and realize that this is important, to be on their “A-Game”. Renting a meeting room, rather than just having your meeting in the same office as usual may be key to this state of mind change.

Services

What is available in the room? And what will you need? Sure, you can pay for, and have a couple of TVs installed. But how do you set them up? Are they properly wired up and do you have access to tech support? You’ll also have to consider how clean the room is, and if staff has been using it as an extra work area or a break room. You’ll also have to know ahead of time how many people will be in the meeting, and have to set up the room for them. A small meeting might only need two or three tables, but a larger one can create some challenges. Not to mention your staff now has to arrange their own chairs and tables, and then put everything back, when they should be acting on the results of the meeting.

These are the key areas you’ll have to consider when renting a meeting room. But when you decide it really is the better choice, why don’t you see the rooms that The Rostie Group has available, and start here? With us, you’re covered for catering and for all the services you need, in stylishly decorated rooms just steps away from Union Station.

 

 

Time=Money: Video Conferencing saves you Both

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Video Conferencing Group

From the rise of Youtube to the era of the Instagram vertical video, it’s hard to deny that video in general has become cheaper and more accessible. The technology has already been in place for remote video conferencing for years. But poor video quality and hard-to-hear audio made them fall out of favor.

In the modern business sphere, information has to be shared and traded immediately. Which is great if you’re sitting across from your team mate, but if your company is large enough to have offices in different parts of the world, then it might get more difficult.

Of course, E-mail has it’s uses. However, just like any piece of written work; “context is key”, and the message can be lost in translation. Nothing beat face-to-face communications, but it’s not always practical, or even possible to sit in the same room.

To be able to share the entire context of your vital business information, the solution is video conferencing.

Additionally, video conferencing allows for the reading of body language, share thoughts, ideas and information while allowing you to read your audience to ensure they’re receiving the information in the intended manner. It’s a tremendous tool for training purposes and makes remote working a breeze.

However, it’s not as simple as setting up a Skype account and letting everyone have the address. First of all, Skype is not very secure, and if you have information that you want to keep private, that may not be the best option.

And of course, being a free option, it’s likely to be monetized in other ways. Nothing is more embarrassing than meeting with a new client, and having an Ad pop up during your presentation.

Also, while the video quality is usually ok, it’s not reliable, and while that might be fine if you’re just chatting with a team mate, it’s not good enough if you’re speaking to a client, or giving a large board presentation.

So not only do you want to have video conferencing available, but you also need it to be private, and be clear and crisp.

The Rostie Group can provide for all of your video conferencing solutions!  Our rooms have video conferencing equipment that is secure and easy to use. And in case of trouble, we have on-site tech support ready to make sure you have the best experience.

Give it a try today! 

 

Why you should Rent your Meeting Space

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Meeting Space Rent

It’s a fact of life (or a fact of business) that you’ll eventually have to have meetings. One-on-One, group meetings, team meetings, etc. You name them, they’ll have to meet at some point. Have you considered renting that meeting space?

So when you’re finding a space for those meetings to occur, it is often a corner of the office somewhere, where everyone has to bring their chairs and scoot over. Just making what might already be an uncomfortable space, even more so.

Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones that has their own proper meeting space. But of course, owning space is very different from renting it.

For one, you have to maintain it. It can be costly to maintain a meeting room up to standard. Of course when it’s just your team, a little mess can be expected; some markers laying around, a used whiteboard, some leftover snacks.

But then if you want to bring a new client into that space, you’ll have to make sure it’s all clean and tidy. And your staff, as great as they may be, are busy making sure the business runs. They don’t have time to clean up every speck of dirt. Which then means you need to hire a cleaning crew, or extend the current crew’s service into the meeting room. But that brings potential reservations over confidential information…

And that isn’t even mentioning the cost of maintenance. What if the chairs break? Or the meeting table is damaged? The TV on the wall starts displaying static?

It’s just a whole cycle of never ending issues.

And of course, think about the opportunity cost. Space is expensive, especially in large cities. You already pay a significant amount for rent, and having enough space for your employees to actually do their job, do you really want to have to worry about paying rent for a room that will be sitting empty most of the time?

Unless your meeting space is doubling as your break room (which it really shouldn’t be), then it’s actual wasted space, and wasted money.

For those who are looking to cut some costs on their rent, and have a top notch, clean, and well stocked room, you should consider renting your meeting space from The Rostie Group. Free Wi-Fi, full technical support, videoconferencing, and delicious catering are all available.

The May Scoop is Out!

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Enjoy this month’s Scoop and learn about exciting events happening around Toronto’s Waterfront. If you would like to advertise in our growing newsletter we are always happy to showcase local companies and community partners. For more information on advertising, email marketing@rostiegroup.com

And you can download a PDF version here