Today I want to dedicate this post to a sector I worked in for four and a half years, where I really enjoyed working and networking, and which I have just returned to, specifically at Affirma Business Centers.
Business centres have now been around for more than 20 years and are fully established in Spain; in fact, there is even higher education training on them, taught by the Universidad de Nebrija.
But what is a business centre?
It’s a flexible office space that allows any type of company to set up in less than 24 hours, with all the services it needs to start operating.
The cost savings compared with a traditional office are significant, as well as the immediacy, the flexible contracts and, above all, less red tape, since it’s a service contract that includes everything we need.
Without exaggerating, you could say it’s the perfect office, as you’ll have an office equipped with quality furniture, digital telephony, fibre-optic internet, maintenance and daily cleaning of the office and, above all, the support of the reception team to handle your calls, post and client visits.
There is also a really inexpensive but effective first step, the so-called Virtual Office. This service lets us have our registered address, receive our post and have our phone calls answered in a personalised way, thus giving our business a professional image.
What’s more, you can sign up for only the services you strictly need. And if we need to meet a client, all we have to do is call the business centre and book a meeting room or office for as long as we need.
Here we have another service we can use without being an office client: meeting rooms, training rooms or videoconferencing. It’s as simple as calling, specifying our requirements, the number of people, the duration, technical equipment and catering, and when we arrive everything will be ready for us to start work.
Training room
And why networking in business centres?
Simply because any business centre brings together a large number of companies from different sectors, both with offices and virtual ones, so synergies arise easily. That’s why you should take advantage of every moment of your time at the business centre to make first contact with your “neighbours”, whether at the coffee machine, during a cigarette break or when saying good morning as you arrive.
More and more business centres are organising networking breakfasts so that all their clients can get to know each other and network among themselves, so there’s no longer any excuse not to turn up with a good number of business cards and your “elevator pitch” (a one-minute professional introduction) to connect with the other attendees.
Also take the opportunity to get to know the team that runs the business centre well, so they can introduce you to clients you’d like to meet. Offer your services at a special price, a promotion, gifts or prize draws at the networking events organised at the centre, or get the offer to them directly by visiting them.
So if you’re up for it and are thinking of opening a new office or setting up your company in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao, Valencia or wherever you like, it’s easy: there are more than 160 business centres in Spain and several thousand around the world. Click here to see the ones in Spain.
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