Canada.com:
You want to start a small business. Your idea doesn’t require much capital upfront - which is good, because you don’t have much. So after you finish the business plan, you get a Yellow Pages listing and decide on a name and you’re up and running. But what’s your address? Where do you meet clients? Surely not in the corner of your basement where you’ve set up your office.
As a new small-business owner, you want to look bigger than you are. No problem. Using technology, a whole new industry has grown out of the increase in home-based businesses and the ever-increasing number of self-employed Canadians. The services, which range from transcription services to remote receptionists, are all designed to give a company a slick image when in fact it’s essentially run out of that corner in the basement.
Companies such as Centretown Corporate Services, Minto Business Centre and Auriga Corporate Centre spotted the need 2 decades ago and established themselves as a steppingstone for growing companies. Today, there are several others offering the same thing.
These business centres look like executive offices complete with conference rooms, nameplates and sometimes even corporate logos. Actually, they’re made up of rentable space, inhabited by companies that don’t want permanent space.
The least expensive services most biz centres offer small-business owners are office rentals by the day (about $80) or hour (about $20). They’ll also rent executive boardrooms. Read more.
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