Is the door finally closing on open offices?
Amata Law Offices
4 Reasons Your Business May Need to ‘Rightsize’
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.
4 Tips for Surviving the Incredible Shrinking Office
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.
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.
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.
Client Spotlight: Marcus Capital LLC
When Dan Marcus started his investment management business nearly a decade ago, he needed an office space that would be able to grow with his company. After considering a variety of options, including traditional office space, Dan decided to lease space in Amata’s newly renovated 225 W. Washington location.
The Amata Difference
If you follow us on social media, you may see our name with #AmataDifference attached to it. So you noticed, but what does this mean? And what does this have to do with shared office space in Chicago? To us, it has everything to do with it.
Be Our “Guest”: Shared Office Providers Take a Page from Hotel Operators
For years, apartment and condominium buildings have modeled everything from their common areas to resident services after hotels, believing that if a building’s ambiance can convince someone to rent a room for a night, it can also persuade them to sign a lease or a sale contract.
The Top 3 Open-Office Myths
What’s the best way to promote teamwork and collaboration in the workplace?
Coworking 2.0: Collaboration Meets Privacy in the Workplace
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the cubicle, and while few people dispute the impact this workplace wonder has had on office design and culture, most agree that cubicles have come to symbolize the old way of doing business.