If your business can't grow in the kitchen...

One of the benefits of being self-employed is that you no longer have to worry about the wrong sort of leaves on the line hampering your journey in to work. But when you do give up the daily commute, other problems may emerge.

One of the benefits of being self-employed is that you no longer have to worry about the wrong sort of leaves on the line hampering your journey in to work. But when you do give up the daily commute, other problems may emerge.

Face-to-face contact remains the lifeblood for many a small business, but inviting clients to your home and maintaining a professional image can be tricky.

The answer to the problem might be to buy an apartment with shared business facilities. The newly completed Blake's Quay in Reading, where apartments sell from £334,995, has a business meeting room as well as a residents' gym. The cost of the room is included in the service charge.

In another development, at One SE8 in Deptford, south London, the entire 10,000 sq ft ground floor has been turned into office space for the exclusive use of residents. As well as a staffed reception, meeting rooms and boardrooms, there are workstations, break-out zones (for brainstorming) and refreshment areas.

Staff answer calls and greet guests using your company name. "These facilities are not normally available to small businesses," says Martin Crick, sales and marketing director of the developer, St James Homes. "[Residents'] service charge covers management costs, broadband internet access, telephone line rental and a call-answering service. Use of meeting rooms and the hiring of workstations are charged on a pro rata basis."

The apartments start at £195,000 but they are an expensive option if you don't make full use of the serviced office space. St James sees its market as entrepreneurs starting up as independent consultants.

For some people, an office on their doorstep - no matter how well equipped - will always be too close to home. But there is another option: the virtual office. The Weston Business Centre in Stansted, Essex, which opened last year, offers telephone answering and post and fax services, either individually or as a package. This allows you to work from home while your calls and post are directed elsewhere. And if you need to use an office, you can take advantage of hot-desking facilities and meeting rooms for hire by the hour. Post-meeting, you can entertain clients on-site, as the centre has its own chef. A virtual office costs from £45 to £99 a month, with meeting rooms priced from £12 an hour.

Flexible space without commitment to a long lease is also a feature of Argyll Business Centres. For £225 a month, clients can use one of Argyll's Mayfair or Belgravia addresses and a telephone answering service. Meeting rooms, costing £40 an hour, cater for up to four people; boardrooms seating 20 to 34 people cost £80 an hour.

Consultant John Brophy (no relation to the author) advises small businesses trying to reconcile working from home with a lack of facilities. "Different solutions have different tax implications," he says. "All expenses for the use of a serviced office area within an apartment block, for example, would be allowable, as would those for renting an office. But if there is no charge for a meeting room in your apartment block, it is unlikely you could reap tax benefits."

Mr Brophy is quick to stress that tax is just one factor to consider: "Don't get carried away and end up paying for services you rarely or never use. Choose the option that offers you maximum flexibility."

Contacts: Argyll Business Centres, 020 7665 5580 or www.argyllbusinesscentres.com; Blake's Quay, 01189 591514; One SE8, 020 8469 0077 or www.onese8.com; Weston Business Centre, 01279 873333

A FRESH LEASE OF LIFE

Nick Warren and his business partner Mike Gillett run their consultancy-based new media company, Semantic, from a business unit on the Chilworth Science Park in Southampton.

Mr Warren initially ran the business from home but that arrangement became impractical when his wife gave birth to their first child. The advantage of the office space he now rents is that it is on a three-month rolling lease.

"The leasing system suits our needs," says Mr Warren. "Most office leases are slow and inflexible - outside the Science Park, a three-year lease was all we could find. Yet we're in a rapidly changing industry and have no idea where the company will be in three years' time.

"We now have access to meeting rooms, kitchens, copiers, projectors, even picnic tables, as required, without having to own them. And it's an attractive as well as a practical setting for receiving clients."