Interview with the CEO

The facts were there from the end of the nineties but people were choosing not to see them or were expecting a magic spell that would bring back the past days. Throughout the world, economies have crashed and turned around and risen again but lessons have been learnt on the way. Throughout these economies, entrepreneurs and managers have learnt what is the true profit core to their business, they have learnt what is their key expertise and have specialised and cut costs. One of those costs is office costs, and that is exactly what we address at City Business Centre.

We are located in the heart of Nicosia and offer serviced office space to businesses that wish to share facilities to save running expenses and to mix with other professionals and entrepreneurs during their working day. The concept is not new, but yet it is difficult to be accepted especially by the local community. Capital tied up in commercial property simply restricts the ability to adapt or grow whereas business centres elsewhere have proven to allow companies to upsize or downsize or even move on with no long term commitments.

We started operations in 2012 at 27 Michalacopoulou Street initially offering serviced offices to a few offshore companies. Recently we have added a further 500sqm of offices which were fully renovated and furnished with modern facilities bringing our total office space to over 2000 sqm.

Overseas, business parks and business centres are the norm yet in Cyprus people were still obsessed with having their own offices with unmanned rooms and conference rooms that were rarely used. All of that is a waste of resources and equates to loss of profits at the end of the year. We expect more and more people to use Business centres as an economical way to run their business like the rest of the developed world. The revolution started in the creation of large shop retailing, shopping malls, third party logistics and shared warehousing so why not also shared offices. With consistent growth since 2012 we are now the registered office of hundreds of Cyprus companies, charities, clubs and associations and with over sixty individual offices on our premises.

Each client has his own private office with 24/7 access while common use areas and facilities are accessible to all with pass code door entry. All offices are fully equipped with furniture, fast internet and come with an itemised telephone bill from the service provider end of each month. We also have business lounges and meeting rooms of different sizes to meet clients comfortably with smart televisions for presentations. All the utilities including cleaning expenses and freshly ground coffee are part of our CBC service.

Our clients need flexibility in today’s business circumstances and this is exactly what we offer. Low cost to move in, pay as you go and low cost to leave. We offer a tailor made contract for each type of client whether it is a visitor on a short term project, or a start up with unknown needs, or an established business with longer term needs. We meet the client, understand their needs and propose the best office solution and terms. Our philosophy is no hidden costs, no deposits and no cancellation charges. You pay as you go with no upfront investment as would be the case of a normal office set up.

Our offices come in different sizes and configurations with regard to number of work stations. Our base rate for a private office is €350 with rates going up to €750 per month for a 3 work station private office. We don’t charge for use of meeting rooms, seminar rooms and other facilities used.

Depending on their needs for filing, storage of archives, how often they meet, we work closely with each organisation to offer a suitable solution at an economic monthly rate. We have clubs that meet here on a yearly basis and we store their files while other more active associations meet on a weekly basis and are in and out of the Centre on a daily basis doing a few hours work. Our charge is only a fraction of the cost of having their own premises.

We work with local estate agents but most of our clients are with us by word of mouth and referrals by international business people who know us as reliable and trustworthy to base their business in our Business Centre. We also have clients here who opted to move here from other towns or other business centres due to our central location, better rates and quality of service. Our marketing strategy has always been low key because we prefer to attract clients by our reputation.

We expected this support initially but very soon we realized that due to their vested interests this support would never come. Instead we became the competition to lawyers and accountants offering office solutions to their clients. Today thanks to independent business centres clients can choose and check rates for office solutions. Our centre is working almost to capacity so we know our rates are competitive and our service is not comparable.

It was an obvious choice to choose that format for the CBC logo with the square boxes in the letters replicating the offices we offer to our clients. The slogan “More than just an Office” signifies that our purpose here is not just to offer an office with a few pieces of furniture but to offer a total working environment that is efficient and pleasant to produce results. Many of the posters throughout the 2000sqm of the Business Centre are of various Financial Cities of the world. That was intentional, to distract the mind’s of our clients from the Cyprus economy and instead to see the global picture of their business.

Our goal was never profit but affordable rates and quality service within a good working environment. The fact that we are always full and still growing is proof that our business model is successful. We make a conscious effort with monthly office parties to ensure that our clients network and a friendly spirit exists on all floors. Clients seek advice from each other and have started collaborating with each other and even done joint investments. This was the goal from the beginning – to be more than just an office!

Its simple Co working IS the future of work. Cyprus was always too small to be a player in a globalised economy. The Cyprus market has been changing over the last 10 years in all sectors of the economy but not everyone noticed to react in time and either went out of business or is going out of business. After the crash in 2012 the private sector was destroyed, the government was depleted, the Banks were effectively wiped out and the pieces were slowly picked up by wealthy foreign investors, hedge funds, and global players, be it our hotels, our banks, our airways, our utilities, and our supermarkets. The advantage of all this foreign investment is we can look forward to faster development, better and more reliable management, less corruption and less political involvement in the economy and more security of employment for future generations.

We know we must adapt our business model to changes that are head of us. We are looking to expand the business centre with a new location and a new co working concept. According to international trends we are not satisfied that our current business model will cater for the needs of the future working environment. For this reason, we have developed a totally new business model on a much larger scale to the City Business Centre (C.B.C). For now all that I can reveal is that the initials of the new concept will be “A.B.C.”.