The physical workplace as we see it is in greater flux now more than ever. Once upon a time, the workplace meant cubicles or a traditional office environment. However, in recent years as small businesses sprang up and firms with low budgets started, many couldn’t afford the high rent prices needed to rent out a space to conduct their office business in. On the other hand, having access to WiFi, a working printer/scanner/fax/copier, and other office tools was invaluable, especially if the operation was too large to work out of home. Shared workspaces started springing up as a result. Now a mobile office workspace is starting to take off in popularity. This has been especially popular in the food service industry — a mobile office is perfect for a food truck or concession stands, although they’ve also been popular as pop-up stores.
What Are These Mobile Offices Even Made Of?
Surprisingly, many mobile offices are made of old steel shipping containers or a steel cargo container! They find new life as a mobile office space and there are plenty of companies who can add modifications, such as adding doors, windows, skylights, managing climate control, revamping the interior, adding locks, shelves, and painting the container to make it a more appealing space to work. Considering that shipping makes up about 90% of the world’s trade, there are plenty of used steel storage containers for sale. Currently, there are around 20 million containers crossing the world. However, some mobile offices are created from new shipping containers, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that the container market is estimated to grow a little over five percent between 2014 and 2017. With all the new demand in a different part of the market, container manufacturers will have plenty of work on their hands!
What Are the Benefits of Using a Mobile Office?
For one thing, using a portable office means that you aren’t tied down to just one place — you and your business have the freedom to move wherever your business takes you. It’s less expensive to simply pack up your business and set it back up in the new place. It also reduces the time spent looking for new office space, and you know what they say: time is money! A portable office space reflects the world’s rapidly changing pace and push to innovate faster and better than ever before.
Additionally, you can modify your portable office any way you like — don’t worry about having to adhere to a landlord’s specifications about paint color, installing air conditioners, or lighting! You can simply do what you wish — after all, you own your workspace! It’s also virtually impossible to be kicked out of your office, due to increased rent, a high tenant demand, or other factors that can make renting office space uncertain. Since you own the portable office, you control it! So that’s one worry you can forget about. There’s also quite a range of sizes when it comes to mobile offices, so you can adjust your size if your company grows or shrinks.
Where Can I Look Into Portable Offices?
As the demand for a portable office has increased, many companies have sprung up around the creation of mobile offices — either from converting them from old steel shipping containers to creating truly new ones themselves. You can even purchase a whole “fleet” of mobile offices, if you so choose, and many companies will have an array of sizes, custom designs, and other comforts for you to choose from. Since they’re portable, your office may even be able to be shipped to wherever you intend to install it, if you can’t find a place that sells portable offices locally. Some mobile offices can even be used as additions to existing offices or be built on top of each other.
As what we do changes, so too must our workspaces. Mobile offices are just one step on the road to changing the way the workplace landscape looks. It’s a definite plus for many small businesses who can’t afford the steep rent prices or simply don’t need that much space, or for businesses who travel frequently.