Are you currently holding your meetings in your cramped home office, or grabbing ten minutes with a colleague in a crowded coffee shop in Leeds City Centre? These are just a couple of signs that it might be time to invest in professional meeting rooms in Leeds – here are the rest you need to be looking out for:
- You have an important client to meet, but nowhere professional enough in which to meet them.
You simply can’t impress those important clients and close those big deals without a professional image – without credibility, no one can take you seriously. This is why you need professionally set up meeting space in which to reel in those big fish and make key contacts in the circles you eventually want to move in.
- You end up meeting clients in noisy coffee shops.
If you’re one of those people who thinks that meetings can take place absolutely anywhere as long as it has tables and chairs, you might need to look at things a little differently – our blog on the subject explains why. Meetings in coffee shops and other public places in Leeds or any other city for that matter are fine when you’re catching up with a friend or having a very informal get-together, but they are wholly unsuitable for professional meetings. For starters, you can’t always guarantee that you’ll get the space you need, just in case you need to get out laptops and spread out papers. You might not even be able to get a table at all. Another major drawback of coffee shops is the noise, from the chatter of the customers to clatter of cups and the deafening noise of the milk steamer on the coffee machine. If you need to meet with more than one person, you might find that you’re struggling to hear everyone if you choose this kind of environment for your meeting.
- Meetings in your home office are often interrupted by crying children and ringing doorbells.
Nothing says ‘unprofessional’ like a meeting held in a cluttered home office, with constant household events disrupting the meeting. If you actually want to focus and get anything done, you might need to leave the kids with a babysitter and consider making the move to professional meeting space. Lisa Kanarek, writing on Forbes.com, outlines a few of the other signs that tell you it’s time to move out of the home office.
- You are starting to need more space for larger meetings.
If your business expands, either in the number of employees it has or the areas it covers, you might find that you need to invite more and more people to your meetings. These larger meetings aren’t the kind you can hold in your home office or in your local coffee shop. To be efficient and actually make progress in your meetings, you simply need more space.
- You find you need access to teleconferencing and other equipment.
Meetings incorporate technology much more than they used to, and things like teleconferencing equipment can make meetings with people throughout the world far easier. The problem is – most people don’t have this equipment in their homes, but professional meeting facilities do. You could use services such as Skype, but as Amber Neely explores in a Bright Hub article, there are pros and cons to using this technology for professional meetings and conference calls.
- You’re having a re-brand and want a more professional image.
If you think your business needs to pull its socks up and become more professional in order to be taken seriously, it’s time for a rebrand. This needs to extend to every part of your business, from your logo and business cards to your website and the services you use – including your meeting space.
- It’s an absolute pain travelling for hours to meet clients.
A ‘home visit’ to your clients may be appreciated, but it can eat up your valuable time and money if you have to do it all the time. An easier option all round is to find meeting space in a central location, near a major city like Leeds. If it’s close to public transport links and easy to find, it could become a very convenient meeting space for both parties.
- Technical problems keep ruining your presentations.
Gremlins in the system can ruin even the best prepared presentations, making them look unprofessional and amateurish (if the presentation even happens at all). When you hold meetings at your home, you may not have access to the best equipment fit for your purpose. If you book last minute meeting space, you might not have time to have a play with the equipment and get it working for you before your delegates arrive. A far better solution is to find reliable, professional meeting space with the equipment you need, all perfectly maintained and set-up ready for you to come in and present. If a meeting venue can offer you a guarantee of hitch-free equipment, you know you’re onto a winner. For further tips on delivering great presentations, Lauren Hoffman at the Creative Live blog also has some top tips for stopping technical problems ruining your meetings.
- Your home office space is being invaded by household clutter.
If your home office is a severely overtasked multifunctional space, being accounts, marketing and admin departments all at once, making it reception and meeting room too could be pushing it a step too far. Household clutter soon starts to creep in as well, giving you hardly any room to work, never mind looking professional.
- You’ve expanded your business.
If your company grows, you are bound to need access to more space, and you’ll also need to be a more professional outfit. What worked for you as a sole trader, such as meetings in Starbucks, won’t cut the mustard once your business starts to expand and thrive.
To help you find your ideal meeting space, take a look at our handy checklist of things you didn’t know you needed in a meeting room but which are essential. For further advice and handy tips, subscribe to the Carrwood Park blog.
