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Month: May 2016

Client Spotlight: Bennett & Bangser LLC

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Client Spotlight: Bennett & Bangser LLC

While shared offices attract a wide range of professionals, they’re especially popular among attorneys, who account for nearly 35 percent of Amata’s clientele. Not only do lawyers benefit from each other’s expertise by officing down the hall from each other, but they can also take advantage of special services and amenities offered to Amata’s legal clients, including everything from private deposition rooms to paralegal support that can help with legal research. Amata staff members will even file lawsuits and serve subpoenas, and can also assist with Spanish translation – services that aren’t provided in a typical shared office environment.

It was this full spectrum of services that appealed to Brad Bennett & Marc Bangser, a pair of attorneys who, after working together at a larger firm, decided to start their own practice last year, becoming one of the first tenants at Amata’s newest shared office center at 150 S. Wacker Drive. “We had a chance to see several other shared office floors with rival companies, and without a doubt Amata had the best setup with the friendliest and most outgoing professionals to welcome us into their family,” says Bangser.

You can read more about how Amata’s services have benefitted their business below:

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Why Every Startup Needs a Long-Term Real Estate Plan

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Why Every Startup Needs a Long-Term Real Estate Plan

When launching a new business, one of the many questions entrepreneurs ask is where they will house their operations. For some, their home or garage is a convenient, affordable place to start – just ask tech giants like Microsoft, Apple and Google – but when it comes time to finding a more permanent and professional home for their company, many small business owners are overwhelmed by the number of options available to them.

Starting a business at home, whether it’s in the garage, basement or home office, is often a short-term solution to a long-term need. As a company brings on clients and employees, it’s important for them to have a long-term real estate plan in place that allows them to scale operations and relocate quickly and efficiently should they ever outgrow their space.

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Spotlight on Tony Reynes: Transforming Our Chicago Shared Office Space Walls

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Spotlight on Tony Reynes: Transforming Our Chicago Shared Office Space Walls

Beautiful photography can work magic in the eyes of its beholder. It can re-invent a time or place long lost or changed. It can take us to a destination we’ve never been to before. It can evoke emotions we didn’t know we felt and even help us sympathize with the emotions of others. To top it all off- it just looks great.

Inspiring and eye-catching photography like this hangs on the walls of two of Amata’s Chicago shared office spaces at 150 S. Wacker and 225 W. Washington. The photographer responsible for these striking photos is Tony Reynes, the founder of Northshore Digital Photography. His photographs have attracted the attention of Amata’s clients and their guests, so we want to give you a re-cap on a quick chat we recently had with Tony himself. But first…

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Designing for Success: Attracting Productivity with Productive Design in Your Office Space

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Designing for Success: Attracting Productivity with Productive Design in Your Office Space

When working in a shared office space, we have the luxury of moving right on in. No muss, no fuss. Bring your files, your computer, and you’re good to go! But overlooking the opportunity to personalize your office may be hindering you more than you realize. Aesthetics can actually play a large role in your business’s success. Spending a little time and attention on this can boost productivity and work flow and create an inviting atmosphere that makes your clients feel more connected.

Think it sounds like a silly waste of time and money? Businesses actually hire professionals to custom-tailor office spaces for their employees. Not ready to commit to a pro? Don’t worry; try out the following tips for a starter’s crash course in productive design.

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4 Reasons Your Business May Need to ‘Rightsize’

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Whether U.S. businesses are still on a staffing pause due to the recession, or feeling optimistic about the economy, there is a new trend reshaping office markets across the country: rightsizing. And while this term doesn’t always imply a decrease in space, that has certainly been the case with most businesses, especially law firms.

In fact, a recent report from Chicago-based real estate services firm JLL found that law firms, on average, shed 17 percent of their space upon relocating in 2014 – up from 14 percent in 2013 – with many moving administrative functions off-site and, in some cases, adopting open-office floor plans that allow them to further reduce their real estate expenses. While this trend has most commonly been associated with the legal sector, other industries are adopting a similar strategy as they seek to maximize efficiency and facilitate collaboration in the workplace.

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4 Tips for Surviving the Incredible Shrinking Office

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Last year marked the strongest year for hiring since 1999, but rather than expanding their offices, many U.S. employers have started fitting more employees into less space as they seek to reduce their real estate expenses and embrace the open-office model.

The average amount of space allocated to a North American office worker dropped from 225 square feet in 2010 to 176 in 2012, a decrease of more than 20 percent, according to CoreNet Global, a corporate real estate association. Businesses that were forced to reduce their footprint during the recession are now choosing to lease less space, even as their employee count returns to pre-recession levels, a trend that has ignited a debate over how small is too small when it comes to individual workspaces.

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5 Reasons Coworking Spaces Make Sense for Freelancers

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5 Reasons Coworking Spaces Make Sense for Freelancers

Demand for freelancers continued to climb in 2014 as employers sought to streamline operations and reduce overhead, and if the latest numbers are any indication, the trend shows no sign of slowing in the months and years ahead.

In fact, it’s estimated that freelancers, defined as “individuals who have engaged in supplemental, temporary, or project- or contract-based work in the past 12 months,” currently account for 34 percent of the U.S. workforce, contributing more than $700 billion to the nation’s economy each year. While experts have varying opinions on how quickly the freelance economy will grow – some predict independent workers will make up as much as 50 percent of the workforce by 2020 – the general consensus is that the “full-time job with benefits” is falling out of favor with workers who increasingly prefer the flexibility of the project-to-project lifestyle.

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Small Business, Big Dreams. How Shared Office Space Can Change Your Business.

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Small Business, Big Dreams. How Shared Office Space Can Change Your Business.So you’re a small business. That doesn’t mean for a second that you can’t have big dreams.

Do you find yourself drooling over successful business owners and asking, “why not me”? Don’t waste time doubting or convincing yourself that you don’t have the means to be successful. You and your small business have the ability to become a huge success if only you set yourself up for it.

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