Business Plan for FlexiDesk: A Shareable Open Office in London

The assignment is a comprehensive business plan for FlexiDesk, a shareable open office space located in Bloomsbury, London. The plan outlines the business details, including the concept of providing flexible and well-equipped office workstations to various entities, targeting businesses, professionals, freelancers, and start-ups. It includes a detailed industry and market analysis, emphasizing the growing demand for flexible office spaces in London, supported by a SWOT analysis and Porter's value chain model. The plan covers the marketing strategy, operations plan, management team, resources, financing, and financial projections, along with risk assessment and key milestones. A market survey is also analyzed, highlighting the awareness and demand for shareable office spaces, with affordable rent being a key factor in purchasing decisions. The plan provides insights into the furniture requirements of office occupiers. The business plan also includes appendices with a questionnaire, cash flow statement, loan amortization schedule and profit and loss account.

BUSINESS PLAN
(Shareable open office, FlexiDesk)

Table of Contents
Executive summary......................................................................................................................3
Business details............................................................................................................................3
Industry and market analysis........................................................................................................5
Customers and Value Preposition..............................................................................................15
Marketing strategy.....................................................................................................................16
Operations plan..........................................................................................................................17
Management team and company structure.................................................................................18
Resources...................................................................................................................................19
Financing....................................................................................................................................21
Financial projections..................................................................................................................21
Risk and strategic options..........................................................................................................23
Key milestones...........................................................................................................................24
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................28
Appendix :1. Questionnaire.......................................................................................................28
Appendix: 2. Cash flow statement.............................................................................................29
Appendix: 3. Loan amortization schedule.................................................................................30
Appendix: 3. Profit and loss account.........................................................................................30

Executive summary
Planning an effective and highly-realistic business plan is critical for achieving long-term
entrepreneurial success and sustainable progress. It is regarded as the process of setting targets,
objectives and mapping out necessary plans and policies to accomplish the goals successfully. It
laid down the strategy and path of business growth to ensure stability and continuality of the
enterprise. The current business plan, “FlexiDesk” is about setting a shareable smart open office
at the central location of London, Bloomsbury. It will be established in sole proprietorship
structure whose quality standards services, competitive prices, well-furnishing arrangements
with adequate space and amenities will satisfy its target consumer, businesses, professionals,
freelancers and start-ups. It will be built with modern technology and promotion will be made
through online advertisement, TV and newspaper ads, print media and word of mouth publicity.
Business details
Shareable office space is a concept that allows corporations to share or rent their
available space or workstation to smaller companies who are looking for occupying a flexible
workspace. Shareable office space is well-furnished and well-equipped workstations that are
available for establishing branch office or new start-up also called business centers. The concept
enables entrepreneurs to occupy office at lower cost in comparison to their own premises or
traditional offices at rents (Duffy, Cave and Worthington, 2016 ). In UK, the demand of
innovative, flexible and shareable office spaces are increasing rapidly because there are number
of entities who cannot afford the cost of full office premises. It provide the opportunity for the
potential entrepreneurs to establish their own shareable redundant office space where enough
space will be provided to many entities who are keen to acquire flexible workstation (Waters-
Lynch and Potts, 2017).
The designed proposed business plan is about setting a new shareable office space named
“FlexiDesk” which will provide flexible, innovative and well-furnished office workstations to
various entities. Renter will be provided with the desk, phone, furniture, cubs and other
equipments i.e. copier, fax machine, receptionist and others for the business purpose. Under this
concept, renter will execute their work based on sharing concept where they will commonly
share conference room, kitchen and other services. It will be established at the central location of

London, Bloomsbury so as to attract maximum number of entrepreneurs who are looking for
smart open offices.

Aims and objectives
 To provide well-equipped, innovative, hi-tech openand flexible co-working office spaces
to the clients
 To ensure adequate furniture and fixture arrangements i.e. desk, chair, cubicls, phone and
other facilities for the business and professional purpose
 To provide basic amenities to the renters i.e. access to high-speed internet, conference,
board room, mail service, receptionist, health centre etc.
 To serve exceptional quality facilities like full serviced office to the businesses and
professionals at competitive rental charges
Industry and market analysis
According to the recent European Survey, in London, office occupiers are looking for
choosing their office at the best location considering three main criteria collaboration between
clients and staff, expected cost and flexibility. It gains interest of the entrepreneurs in corporate
sector to create flexible, smart and shared offices space in order to boost their productivity &

efficiency. In the country, with the technological advancement, innovation and remote work
arrangements, office space requirement of the entities are changing which directly impacts the
corporate demand in London office market (London Office Market Trend, 2017). People are
demanding office stations with open space and high-tech.
SWOT analysis
It is an internal analysis tool that helps potential entrepreneur to identify their internal
business strength which will assist them in taking benefits from the existed market opportunities.
However, on the other side, weaknesses might turn out in possible threats.
Strength
 Exceptional quality, hi-tech smart
offices
 Well-furnished with chair, desk,
cubicls, lockable storage and security
access
 Competitive charges for all
 Stunning business location
 Free of cost services i.e. breakfast,
fitness centre, gym
 Collaborative and friendly co-worker
team
Weaknesses
 Risk of default in payment due to
absence of any deposits
 High cost for building latest technology
integrated smart and flexible office
 High cost of marketing and promotion
Opportunity
 Growing demand of flexible offices in
the London office market
 Geographical expansion by opening
more shared smart office stations at
other locations of London and overseas
(Morrison and Macky, 2017)
Threats
 Stiff competition from Rentadesk, Club
Workspace, Share Desk, BE offices,
Virtual Office Group and others
 High rate of inflation in the country
 Changes in regulations and standard
provisions

Porter’s value chain model
This model consists of a set of activities that an organization performs or executes to
deliver valuable and exceptional quality of products and services to the users. It is a useful
strategic model that encourage “FlexiDesk” to change the inputs & outputs in such a manner that
will offer increased value to the final users than its original cost (Simatupang, Piboonrungroj and
Williams, 2017).
Figure 1 Porter's value chain model
(Source: Amara, Halilem and Traoré, 2016)
Primary activities: These activities are directly related to the goods and services offered by the
business enterprises and comprises below listed elements:
Inbound logistic: FlexiDesk will create contracts and agreements with the suppliers for
furniture and fixture setting, constructors and equipments vendors to build hi-tech smart open
offices. Thus, it will maintain effective relationship with the supplier and meet their
commitments timely to create value (Armstrong and et.al., 2014).
Operation: It will maintain proper arrangements of fast and reliable Wi-Fi, booking
facilities, training room, board meeting and conference rooms, telephone answering, kitchen,
health centre and well-furnished office premises to satisfy clients.

Outbound logistic: In this, client can book required office space either via online or by
visiting office physically. In order to satisfy their need, they will be provided with the great
quality of office facilities like that of full serviced office at the competitive charges without any
advance (Das and Chowdhury, 2012). Comfortable furniture in office area, meeting room,
conference, professional reception, stunning location, equipment’s and other facilities provide a
unique business experience to the clients and reduce distraction from working at home.
Marketing and sales: Online advertisement, newspaper and TV-ads, print media and
word of mouth publicity will be used for the purpose of marketing and promotional offerings to
boost sales (Hastings and Domegan, 2013).
Service: Kitchen, health centre, Wi-Fi, filtered water, equipment’s, coffee and snacks,
attractive discounts and other services also will be offered to all the businessmen, professionals
and new entrepreneurs (Amara, Halilem and Traoré, 2016).
Support activities: Such activities are essential to support primary functions, enumerated
underneath:
Procurement: FlexiDesk will find out various suppliers for furniture, equipment’s and
other resources negotiate with them for bargaining and choose the supplier with standard quality
service at affordable rates (Caplan, Dutta and Lawson, 2016).
HR management: Proposed business entity will hire competent, talented and experience
team of people for delivering great quality services to the clients (Zhang, 2017). Moreover,
training sessions will be organized and they will be motivated and rewarded for the best
performance for valuing their efforts.
Technological development: In designing FlexiDesk, latest and modern technologies
and equipment’s i.e. copier, fax machine, automatic telephone answering, Wi-Fi, air-conditioned
offices and others will be used to build a hi-tech integrated, digitalized and innovative office
(Koc and Bozdag, 2017).
Infrastructure development:In this, IT, financial management, compliance with the
legality aspects and proper accounting will be undertaken to support infrastructure development.

Analysis of market survey
Theme: 1 Majority of the surveyed people are well aware with the concept of shred offices
Number of respondents %
Yes, definitely 85 71%
Little aware 23 19%
Not at all 0 0%
120 100%
Yes, definitely
79%
Little aware
21%
Number of respondents
Findings and analysis: Survey discovered that businessman, professionals as well as
potential entrepreneurs are well-aware with the concept of shared smart open offices in the
London. In the survey, 85(79%) people said that open office provides office services including
furniture, copier, fax machines, conference room, kitchen, fitness centre and others to number of
professionals in a single roof whilst only 23(19%) said that they are little much aware about this.
The results of the findings implies that majority of the survey respondents are aware with the
concept of dynamic and flexible office arrangement in the London office market. Evidencing
this, in the UK market, office occupiers are greatly demanding the open office arrangements to
set up their offices without the need of actual ownership.
Theme: 2 People agree that shareable, flexible and virtual offices is an alternative to designing
their own offices
Number of respondents %

Yes, surely 79 66%
May or may not 41 34%
Not at all 0 0%
120 100%
Yes, surely
66%
May or may not
34%
Number of respondents
Findings and analysis: The outcome of the survey identified that 66% people feel that
flexible and smart open offices with all the services is the best alternative for the start-ups,
professionals and SMEs to establish their offices on rent without the need of designing and
constructing their own offices (Liu, Chen and Balachander, 2016).As per the results, it becomes
clear that the demand of flexible and virtual open offices is growing rapidly among businessman,
professionals, new start-ups and freelancers in UK as these are available at an affordable cost at
stunning office locations with all the necessary and required facilities like that of full-serviced
offices.
Theme: 3 less cost is the main reason that encourage office occupiers to use shred office services
Number of respondents %
Less cost 52 43%
Well-furnished office 34 28%
Reduced distraction from working at home 16 13%
Easy availability at stunning locations 10 8%
Others 8 7%
120 100%

0
20
40
60 52
34
16 10 8
Number of respondents
Number of respondents
Findings and analysis: 52(43%) respondents said that shared co-working and virtual
office services are available at less cost in comparison to constructing own office therefore, this
is the main reason behind increasing demand of shared smart open offices. However, 34(28%)
gave preference to well-furnished, 16(13%) said that reduced distraction, 10(8%) stated that it is
easy to locate office at stunning locations as they are easily available and rest 8(7%) preferred
other factors. The results demonstrate that affordable cost is the main factor that encourages
office occupiers in the country to use the facilities offered by shareable open offices. It
eliminates the need to construct their own offices and mitigate excessive cost by using the
services of smart open offices at reasonable cost.
Theme: 4 People gave first priority to affordable rent in their purchasing decision
Number of
respondents %
High technology integrated 20 17%
Adequately furnished 23 19%
Free of cost amenities 6 5%
Affordable rent 48 40%
Central location 12 10%
Friendly co-workers 8 7%
Others 3 3%
120 100%

High technology integrated
Adequately furnished
Free of cost amenities
Affordable rent
Central location
Friendly co-workers
Others
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
20 23
6
48
12 8 3
Number of respondents
Number of respondents
Findings and analysis: Affordable rent is the top priority among businesses and
professionals as 48(40%) preferred it. However, 20(17%) preferred hi-tech, 23(19%) prioritize
well furnished, 6(5%) preferred free of cost amenities, 12(10%) to the stunning location at the
centre and 8(7%) have preference to friendly co-workers who also hire office on rent. It indicates
that people are demanding flexible and open space offices at competitive charges (Lusch and
Vargo, 2014).It indicates that the affordable rent with suitable office arrangements and services
like that of full-serviced office is the top preference among office occupiers in the nation which
motivate them to demand virtual offices. However, little number of surveyed candidates had
given preference to other factors i.e. adequate furniture and fitting arrangement, friendly staff,
central location and others.
Theme: 5. Desk and working table are the top most furniture requirement among office
occupiers
Number of respondents %
Desk 115 96%
Conference table 92 77%
Work table 112 93%
File cabinet 67 56%
Lockable storage 72 60%