Office space profile – Officebroker.com’s Jim Venables

July 7th, 2008 | by Amy Edwards

Following on from our profile’s of Regus CEO Mark Dixon and UBC boss Philip Grace, today Choregus gets the low down from officebroker.com’s managing director Jim Venables.

Choregus asked Jim a series of questions relating to the growth of officebroker.com and the office space industry itself. You can read his responses below…

Choregus “Please give us the background of officebroker.com”

Jim: “Officebroker.com have been trading since 2001. We now have 3 offices – our head office is in the Midlands and we have a London office on Regent Street. We opened our US office in Dallas, TX in 2006. We are planning further expansion into Asia Pac in 2008.

We currently employ over 60 people, and have doubled our profit year on year. We are projecting a Group turnover of £6.5million this financial year (April to April)”

Choregus: “That’s some growth! Can you tell us What were the two MD’s doing before they started the business and why did they decide to start an office brokerage?”

Jim: “Running a recruitment company from a serviced office! From our own experience of looking for office space, we were shocked that no-one was interested in our business and our needs before offering an office space solution. The current online brokers were more interested in a web generated lead than providing a customer service and actually speaking to us.

From this we saw that there was a gap in the market for a consultative, customer focused office search facility and set about starting officebroker.com.”

Choregus “Clearly you saw a gap in the market and your growth figures show you have capitalised on it very successfully. What factors have contributed to the success of OB?”

Jim “Being completely different to our competitors in our approach to our customers is the biggest thing that moved the company forward to begin with. We were the first broker to split our sales team into regionally focused areas, so a single person would handle all enquiries for a certain location, enabling them to build relationships with their office providers and pass on expert knowledge to clients searching for space.”

Choregus “So you have stated that differentiating yourselves from the competition has aided your success story, what else has contributed to your achievements?”

Jim “Keeping ahead of the game with technology, both internal systems and our website development has also been a massive contribution. We also have a young and dynamic management team, many of whom have risen through the ranks and hold the business together so we can look at other avenues and diversification.

Choregus “What impact (if any) has the credit crunch had on your business?”

Jim “We are still growing and gaining market share and therefore its been tough for us to really understand if the credit crunch is impacting the business. We are expecting some kind of slow down and will be looking at patterns and trends as early as possible so we can make whatever adjustments will be required during whatever slow down we keep being advised is going to happen!

Choregus “Yes well, I don’t think anyone knows exactly how the credit crunch is going to impact on the industry at the moment. Aside from perceived economic woes, how do they see the industry developing in the future, what changes / developments do you foresee?

Jim “The Industry continues to expand globally exponentially. We added more serviced offices to our portfolio during the last quarter than any other quarter in our 6 years of trading. The serviced office sector accounts for a small percentage of global commercial property and we are part of the reason for the huge expansion of the market.

Through educating clients of the benefits of flexible office space we are excited about the potential that within the next 10 – 15 years we could see a huge swing and a potential of serviced office space accounting for a much larger chunk of all commercial property globally.

We intend to stay out in front as the market leader during this growth and help by continuing to do what we best – being an Office Broker.”

Well there you have it, some interesting responses from one of the key players in the serviced office industry. What is probably most exciting about what came out of this interview is the fact that only a small percentage of global commercial property is in the serviced sector. As Jim mentioned, there is huge potential for this industry to grow in the next decade or so. It looks as though the future is very bright for all those inside the industry.

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