Mauritius is the perfect launchpad into Africa and an ideal place to set up business headquarters. TBE Mauritius is fully equipped with Private, Co-Working, and Virtual Offices. There’s a solution to fit businesses of all sizes.
For more information about office space to rent in Cyber City Mauritius, view our Mauritius Office Space page. The Business Exchange in Mauritius is located in Ebene, Cyber City.
When you’re an entrepreneur and the end of the year comes around, it’s often difficult to switch off and wrap things up. In a conventional office and corporate space you have bosses and an HR team deciding on when the business closes for the holidays and insisting that you take leave. When you’re on your own, you might find this difficult. But it’s imperative that you somehow wind down for the year and take some sort of break so that you can start the new year off with a refreshed mind and new goals. Below David Seinker, founder and CEO of The Business Exchange, shares five questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves in order to wrap up the year.
1. What were the biggest successes?
Everyone must have a success story or two for the year. Identify what yours was and why these were your biggest successes of the year. Make a note on what you learnt and how you can use this to grow your business in 2020.
2. Where were the failures?
Try to identify about three failures or shortcomings that occurred in 2019. Ask yourself what this taught you and how you can avoid these failures in 2020. Perhaps you had hired someone who turned out to not be a good fit for your team? The lesson here could be that a more thorough interview process is needed going forward. Or perhaps you lost a client due to non- or late-delivery of services? Here the lesson could be that you possibly bit off more than you can chew.
3. Who helped me in my business this year?
Identify the clients, staff, friends and family that helped your businesses this year. Perhaps they helped by supporting you through difficult times or perhaps they stuck with you even when times were rocky. Thank these people and hint at some positive new plans for the business for 2020. If it’s a client, thank them for their business and let them know that you are looking forward to working with them again in the year ahead. This feedback will not only make everyone feel good, but it sets you up for a strong start to 2020 and it makes people want to help you again in the future.
4. What are my goals for next year?
Goal setting is important for business growth. Figure out what your 2020 goals are and work out how you plan to achieve these goals. Every business – big or small – needs focus and goals. Perhaps you want to grow the team? Identify the roles you need and how you want to create these jobs. Or maybe you have your eye on a big contract for 2020? What’s the plan to land it? Have a clear set plan that takes you closer to meeting your goals.
5. When should I end this year and what’s my first working day of next year?
Set a definite end date to your work life in 2019 and a start date for when you plan to be back in the office in 2020. Once you have these dates, let your clients know (I am sure they will understand) and put your out-of-office on. If there’s an emergency, you can be reached on your cell phone. With some downtime over the holidays, you can start 2020 feeling relaxed and ready for what the year may bring.
Why WeWork fell so hard and so fast, and what this means for the future of co-working space. David Seinker, CEO and founder of The Business Exchange, believes that WeWork stalled for two reasons. To find out what he had to say read this article here.
David Seinker, founder and CEO of The Business Exchange, has a few tips on how to wind down 2019 so that entrepreneurs can start off 2020 with clear goals and renewed focus. Read more about it Here on Biz Community
Co-working giant, WeWork’s is making headlines in recent weeks, David Seinker, CEO and founder of South African co-working company, The Business Exchange (TBE), believes that WeWork stalled for two reasons. Find out more about what he said in the article in the online tech magazine, Gadget here.
November 2019 – Small businesses form the backbone of an economy. This understanding allows The Business Exchange (TBE) to help smaller companies establish themselves in a world where they often battle to negotiate the same benefits as larger companies, particularly when it comes to office space.
“It becomes highly problematic for small businesses in early growth stages to find themselves caught in a lengthy lease or situated in the wrong location,” says David Seinker, CEO of The Business Exchange. “We recognise the real struggles that entrepreneurs face and in line with this, offer them easily-scalable office space with a highly flexible lease.”
Tenants taking up small office space rentals at one of The Business Exchange’s prestigious locations are afforded the same benefits as tenants who lease larger offices. Some of these benefits of fully-furnished office space at The Business Exchange include;
Even if your company only needs a small office space to rent, you and your employees will enjoy free business networking events, on-site meeting rooms to rent, complimentary refreshments, coffee bars, private whiskey rooms and on-site gyms.
TBE offers all sizes of workspaces for professionals who are serious about getting their business done. TBE’s highly trained support staff live by a set of strict values and take the time to understand their tenants’ needs – no matter the size of their office space.
These fully-serviced private and shared office spaces are cost-effective and accommodate companies with a staff complement from 1 up to 100-strong.
By creating an inspirational workspace which exudes collaborative energy, TBE enables its tenants to foster business relationships with each other that inspire success.
Whatever size office space you are looking to rent, even if it is merely a virtual business address, TBE has the right workspace option for you.
Contact rent@tbeafrica.com for further information.
The evolution of Mauritius discussed by David Sienker on digital media source of news and content Business Chief. Read this article here.
BY: David Seinker.
Much is being written about the rise and potential demise of international co-working space company WeWork but there is light on its horizon, and the industry would welcome it, believes David Seinker, CEO of The Business Exchange.
So, what went wrong at WeWork? There has been much speculation in the media, from the sudden fall of its nearly US$50bn initial IPO valuation to US$10bn, and corporate governance concerns surrounding the business and lifestyles of its then CEO, Adam Neumann. But what really went wrong is that it didn’t stick to its proverbial knitting. A common business mistake which can take down even the largest of giants.
It definitely wasn’t the company’s business model – providing serviced offices – that took it down. We do that here at The Business Exchange and multinational corporation Regus has been offering the same since it launched in Belgium in 1989. Together with a number of other international brands under the same holding company, Regus is now part of a network of 3 300 workspaces, employing 10 000 people who service another 2.5 million people in over 1 000 cities across more than 110 countries. The model can clearlywork.
The fundamental problem with WeWork is that the company’s top executive team had a plan to see themselves not as a property services business, but instead as a technology business and, by positioning themselves in this way, they began raising huge money from investors at ever-increasing valuations. Valuations based on around 25 times the company’s actual revenue. Investors rejected this, much like they did with true technology businesses, the likes of Uber, which has fallen by 30% since listing.
The company believed it could position itself as a technology business because it housed a lot of tech tenants, as well as the fact that it was developing software to “better understand densities” in its workspaces, and “understanding where people wanted to spend time”. The founders had a plan for tech company-type growth and, ultimately, they would have to list to sustain the growth. But the market rejected their valuation, which saw this plan collapse in the end. It’s why, when you read about the company cutting staff, it’s the product managers, engineers and data scientists that now stand to lose their jobs.
Plus, WeWork expanded phenomenally fast. Having gone through massive growth about three years ago, offices popped up around the globe with the company also looking to expand here in SA at the rate of knots. As it is, the company is already the largest office occupier in New York, and the second largest office space occupier in London.
With former CEO Adam Neumann now having stepped down, and two astute new co-CEOS in Artie Minson (once a senior executive at Time Warner and AOL) and Sebastian Gunningham (who ran Amazon’s marketplace business for more than a decade), the company may well get its house in order. Financial press across the globe agree that the company’s very public IPO may now only be postponed until next year, rather than shelved completely. At a far more realistic valuation, of course.
And it’s good news for the industry, should the company survive. Not because of the damage that its folding could do – as I’ve said, the business model is a strong one – but because of the one very good thing it did for the marketplace: it educated it and put co-working spaces on the map, particularly in the corporate world. WeWork did a huge amount of marketing around the concept that it’s far more economical for corporates of up to 100 staff to be accommodated in a more flexible work space – companies can save up to 70% of their lease investment if choosing a flexible office space.
The same applies in South Africa. These days, if a company is looking for anywhere to acquire and fill between 300 to 400m2 of space, they’re in for around R3 million before they blink, even with a contribution from the landlord. Add to this end, the fact remains that there are also new accounting regulations that now require businesses that sign long leases to disclose those leases as liabilities on their balance sheets. This could negatively impact a company’s credit profile, which will concern investors and partners.
To illustrate the power of co-working spaces done right, at The Business Exchange we’ve just welcomed Expedia, with a staff of 40 into our Rosebank building, and in the past month alone we’ve had around 10 large corporates – between 30 and 50 people – making enquiries for space.
The shift towards co-working isn’t coming; it’s already here. It’s been around for some 30 years already, and it’s definitely the future, from single-desk entrepreneurs to corporate clients, but it’s how the business operates and the growth plan that will make or break it. I personally spent five years better understanding the market and what The Business Exchange’s clients really want. As a result, we now understand the landscape, our competitors, what makes our offering stand out from the rest, and how pricing and deals with landlords need to be structured in order to create a sustainable, scalable and profitable business.
WeWork focused on revenue and ridiculous growth, like all other tech start-ups do, and, as we can see, that plan failed. There is a lesson to be learnt here for all startups. Deliver value at a profitable price, and focus on fundamentally sound business goals that drive these key metrics – anything else is just not good business.
About the author: From a career at a property group managing a large portfolio of assets, David Seinker established the co-working space company, The Business Exchange, in 2015, which today has four properties in Johannesburg, one in Mauritius, and four on the way across other African cities.
August 2019 – He is young and friendly, but David Seinker is, without a doubt, a young entrepreneur whose ideas are simple yet ambitious and who has already tasted real success through his company, The Business Exchange (TBE), which creates high-end and prestigious workspaces accessible to other young entrepreneurs.
Originally from Durban, Seinker, began his professional life in Johannesburg, where he was first employed to manage a new real estate development company. “I was the first employee hired by this company,” he remembers. “I was in charge of the daily management of the company and its future development. In our seventh year, we had over 200 people working for us.”
This young manager then felt the need to start his own business. He used his existing network of business contacts to find some investors, and with their help, managed to start his own business. “I wanted to offer entrepreneurs a workspace inspired by luxury hotels,” explained Seinker.
His approach is based on a simple, but innovative principle; a start-up must be fully orientated towards efficiency from the start. They cannot afford to waste time and energy on searching for offices, hiring a receptionist, cleaning company, maintenance and security teams, etc. This is the main reason why so many of these young entrepreneurs start their business in a garage or a home-based office.
However, these home environments eventually become insufficient and can even harm the professional reputation of the business.
4 Business Centres in South Africa
Initially Seinker established his first luxurious, all-inclusive office workspace in Johannesburg. The concept was a huge success – not only with start-ups, but also with other more established companies such as Expedia and Standard Bank.
It therefore came as no surprise that TBE opened another three workspaces in quick succession in and around Johannesburg. “I was very quickly convinced that the success we experienced in South Africa indicated that this type of model would work in other African countries on the continent” explained Seinker.
Quick-Start, Luxury Business Centre In Mauritius
He began investigating this prospect and finally settled on opening his first business centre outside of South Africa in Mauritius. “Many South African citizens are already based in Mauritius, so it was easy to translate the business model from South Africa to Mauritius. Its pleasant climate and transparent financial and taxation systems make it the ideal country of choice for establishing a company outside of South Africa.
Given these reasons, TBE Mauritius stands a chance of quickly becoming a popular business centre for dynamic and innovative companies.
TBE also intends to spread its footprint into Kenya and Zimbabwe, once the political and economic situation stabilises.
A New Concept in Co-working” is what The Business Exchange (TBE) – Africa brings to the table.
The inauguration of this dedicated workspace, based in the heart of Ebene’s Cyber City in Mauritius, took place on the 15th of August 2019. With an area of approximately 800 meter squares, TBE has the capacity to provide workspaces for more than a 100 employees.
David Seinker, CEO of TBE Africa, says that the goal is to completely redefine the concept of co-working by making it more similarly resemble the one used in the luxurious hotel trade.
“All the traditional services are put at the disposal of our clients. In addition to these, we also offer exclusive, high quality comfort in a personalised environment”, he adds.
In South Africa, where TBE has already opened four co-working office spaces in major business districts, its concept is breaking new ground.
Corporations such as Etihad Airways and Standard Bank are cited among TBE’s tenants.
“It’s an ideal concept for small enterprises or startups that need to save money. Likewise, professionals who are temporarily residing in Mauritius could use this space for their work, should they be in need of a ‘plug and work’ office area”, says David Seinker.
