A big hurdle that small businesses must clear when starting is how to deal with physical payments. Then layer on top of that the fees credit cards charge your business for each transaction (looking at you AMEX) and you have to wonder why it is still such a hassle to get a system in place.

But thankfully for small businesses everywhere, a physical payment revolution is gaining momentum. It’s roots lie in the introduction of Paypal long ago. Paypal integrated a payment system with the internet and now we are beginning to see that basic system branch out into mobile devices with the introduction of credit card applications for the Iphone and other mobile devices. Currently PayPal is playing catch up with other integrated web payment applications and is pushing hard to get developers to begin using their API and Software Development Kit (SDK) to create payment applications for the web that integrate with PayPal on the back-end.

Recently, the payment revolution was taken a step further with the introduction of Square, a mobile payment system that allows you to swipe credit cards with the “Square” hardware and any internet connected device that has the most ubiquitous input device around, the headphone jack. The innovations don’t stop there; Square also creates instant paperless receipts and supports cool instant payer verification feature that shows a picture of the person who owns the credit card being used.

Square is being brought to life (still in beta, so not quite “alive” yet) by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey as a way to simplify the process of accepting credit card payments. The service will be incredibly useful for small businesses that need to keep costs low and want to avoid the expensive initial and monthly cost of credit card payment equipment. Usually a credit card terminal will cost at minimum around $200. With Square, the hardware will be given away for free, yes, free. The cost of the hardware will be made up for by a small fee on each transaction; a portion going to the banks, a portion to square, and if you want a penny of each transaction to a cause of your choice.

What really separates this device from other credit card terminals is that there is no subscription fee, you don’t need a merchant account and it also shows the amount that the credit card company will extract from the transaction in real time. This is pretty valuable for businesses who usually have to wait until the end of the month, which is when the banks usually come in and take their cut for credit card transaction fees. Being able to settle to net in real time is pretty valuable to a cash strapped small business who is very budget conscious.

Seriously, this is going to be huge. Imagine being at an electronics store. You found exactly what you wanted right away, and now you have to wait in line to check out with one measly item. But wait! There is a random associate roaming the floor with a Square plugged into his or her smart device. “Let me ring you up right here sir/ma’am”, done. Or you just sold an expensive item on craigslist but the buyer doesn’t have cash. Well, you’ve got square and you take plastic! Done. No monthly fee, no merchant account, no expensive equipment, no problem.

Owners rep and property manager Micah of Metrovation in San Francisco sits down with Rofo and explains why he uses the site to list commercial space online.

What Micah likes about Rofo is that it produces quality tenant leads and is a great platform for listing spaces and connecting with prospective tenants online.

Interview
I’m Micah Bycel, I work for Metrovation. I’m an owners rep and property manager.

Is Rofo a good marketing tool?

Yeah, Rofos been great. It’s given us an ability to outsource part of our obligation in terms of getting our listings out to the world. We’ve found Rofo to be extremely reliable in putting our listings out there.

Does rofo generate quality leads?

Yeah, I think the first three leads we got, two of the three closed deals with us.

Is Rofo.com easy to use?

Absolutely, I mean the interface is really easy to use, so uploading the listings and everything is really easy and then its sort of taken over from there which is great. So, in terms of how it works in the deal, we’ve found it to be very clear and easy.

Does the Rofo craigslist flyer work well?

Yeah, I mean I think Rofo does a good job of walking that line between too fancy and you know, just sort of random text in craigslist. And so I think it presents a presentable flyer, but that doesn’t overload you with information that people don’t care about, and makes it very easy to read.

The future of commercial leasing?

Yeah, I think the commercial real estate world in general has been slow on the uptake in terms of technology changes. I think Rofo is probably at the forefront of it, we’ve been posting on craigslist for a long time, but I think what we’re doing now with Rofo in our overall strategy is sort of figuring out where are the leads going to come from. For example, is Rofo going to take care of internet leads, and the brokers will take care of leads from the brokerage community. I guess the short answer is I still think its just all getting sorted our right now.

Would you recommend Rofo?

Yeah, definitely. We’re using it as part of our platform to get our listings out. We still rely primarily on our brokers to list a space, to get it out in the brokerage community, to do tours and to bring us deals. But, we’ve found Rofo to be a really reliable component to our leasing strategy.

Retail is a tough space to be right now. In the past year the sector was hammered by the down economy, leaving many retail commercial spaces vacant. With all this prime window space available there have been some creative ideas on what to do with it.

One that is catching on is placing advertising in vacant storefronts. This helps generate revenue from a vacant space to offset rent that isn’t being collected. It produces a strange phenomenon with the survivors of the downturn plastering their wares all over the remains of the fallen. According to this New York Times article, it costs about $500 a month to rent a storefront for advertising purposes. That being quite a deal since a comparable billboard in some urban markets can cost as much as $50,000.

If a store owner can’t find an advertiser to lease their window, there are throngs of artists waiting to populate it with their work. In San Francisco, there has been a recent push to revitalize the downtown thoroughfare of Market St. with creative ideas such as art in store fronts, reduced traffic and more space for pedestrians and bicycles. BetterMarketStreet.org is chronicling the attmpted transformation.

Mistletoe on Powell Street from ISHOTHIM on Vimeo.

It can be difficult to know exactly what information to include in your available listing, but we thought we would share some tips. Our customer service team spoke to nearly 1,000 small businesses in October who were searching for space and we thought we would provide some real time feedback for the best way to market available space to these businesses. Below are some tips:

 

·      Price: Absolutely, 100%, every time, price your listing every where on line. The small business understands that if they ask for improvements, the price might increase. If you want to get qualified inquiries and more inquiries, price your listing. The theory that you might get a business to tour by un-pricing a listing and then they will fall in love with the space regardless of the price does not work!

·      Square Footage: List each square footage that you have vacant separately so businesses with specific needs can find your available space. If you have a space that is 3,000 square feet but is divisible, list each square footage that it is divisible to.

·      Pictures: Interior and Exterior and the more the merrier.

·      Floor plans: For both office and industrial users, a floor plan is requested very frequently. If you don’t have a floor plan, describe the layout in the description

·      Description: In the description, discuss the positives of the space and the location. Discuss nearby amenities and companies in your building. Call out specific business types that would be a good fit for the space or who have leased the space in the past. If the building is a great fit for therapists of a gym, add that to the description.

·      Video: There aren’t that common yet in commercial real estate, but more and more businesses are viewing videos already on Rofo.com. It saves everyone time and makes a space stand out. If the space is run down, show it describe the improvements that you would be willing to do. If the space looks great, show it off and help it lease quicker.

·      Reviews: Have your tenants review what its like to be a tenant in your building. Small businesses like to hear from other small businesses and this advice has been consistently asked for by our audience.

Do you work independently or freelance, but occasionally reminisce about the cubicle neighbors you left behind, even though they sometimes annoyed the hell out of you? Does freelancing get a little lonely, or do you wish you had someone to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with? Then Coworking might be for you. Brad Neuberg, a computer programmer in San Francisco, started the Coworking movement in 2005 as a middle of the road solution between working for a soul crushing corporation and working independently. Instead of clicking away at the keyboard on the couch in your undies, Coworking spaces bring likeminded freelancers and independent contractors together into communal offices.

Coworking provides the camaraderie, structure and social interaction usually missing from the freelance lifestyle. The offices usually implement an open floor plan with desks and a few cubicles. Most usually include a communal meeting room and some kind of kitchen area. The prices range from $10 per day to around $400 or $500 per month for your own personal desk space, with many options in between.

It’s a great solution for people who don’t want to commit to an extended office lease since most Coworking spaces operate on a month to month agreement. If you are a freelancer, contractor or consultant, a Coworking space offers an alternative to the sometimes stodgy office suites.

The movement has been catching on, fueled by an increase in freelancers, a prevalence of vacant office space and the grassroots nature of the movement. The whole movement is very connected and the Coworking wiki and blog help foster development of new Coworking spaces. Although the movement began in San Francisco, Coworking offices continue to spring up around the world and exist in most large cities. The basic model is very altruistic and flexible with some spaces allowing people to hang out for a few days before making a commitment. The main idea is to build a tight knit community, where people work and interact, through the shared space.

View Coworking in a larger map

Video continues to be a great way to get the feel for an office space without leaving your desk. Check out some of the videos recently posted to listings on Rofo.

Take a look at the corresponding office space listings on Rofo:

4th Floor Mission Street Window Lined Office Space 959-965 Mission St San Francisco, CA 94103

Rent: $3682 NNN | $1.67 / sqft
Size: 2,205 sqft
Lease type: Direct

160 Pine St. 160 Pine St. San Francisco, CA 94111

Rent: Negotiable
Size: 5,367 sqft
Lease type: Direct

Enjoy View of Berkeley/Oakland Hills, Saul Zaentz Building 2600 10th St. Berkeley, CA 94710

Rent: Negotiable
Size: Various Sizes
Lease type: Direct

60 Pierce Ave. San Jose, Great Affordable Shared Office! 60 Pierce Ave. San Jose, CA 95110

Rent: $1,736 FS | $1.50 / sqft
Size: 1,157 sqft
Lease type: Sublease

Start Up Special! 2150 Trade Zone, Great Building! 2150 Trade Zone Blvd. San Jose, CA 95131

Rent: $0.75 / sqft
Size: Various
Lease type: Direct

Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturer based in Michigan, offers more Cradle to Cradle certified products than any other company in any industry. They make an admirable effort to lower the environmental impact of all their products and manufacturing facilities. The company has partnered with Rofo to offer great deals on Steelcase office furniture to Rofo users.

Cradle to Cradle Design (C2C) is a design philosophy that encourages people to think about the entire life cycle of a product and to make that product’s life cycle sustainable. The goal is to design both functional and ecologically intelligent products. Think LEED certification for your office chair.

The certification program was introduced in 2005 by consulting firm McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) and invokes the precious metal grading scale that marketers love, with ratings of basic, silver, gold and platinum. Click HERE to take a look at the certification matrix (slightly difficult to decipher), which grades products in five categories: Materials, Material Re-utilization/Design for Environment, Energy, Water, and Social Responsibility.

It was as recent as last summer that the thought of leasing a cool office space in Jackson Square for a reasonable rent was near impossible.

Fast forward to 2009 and the world has changed. We recently filmed this office space at 480 Pacific Avenue in San Francisco. If you have a need for a space to fit 20 people this one is well worth a visit.

Rofo caught up with Roost.com CEO Alex Chang to get the latest on life at the office. The residential real estate search engine will soon be vacating their executive office suite South of Market to move in to a Class A high rise in San Francisco’s financial district. Chang shares his perspective on the beauty of the short-term sublease and the increasingly important value he places on location and office ambiance.

Roost.com Office Space Interview with Roost CEO Alex Chang

Roost.com Office Space Tour

What is Roost?

Roost is a search engine for homes. Roost is a way for the average consumer to find their next home to buy, and what makes us special is we give the consumer a really easy and fun way to search through great, comprehensive information that they can trust. So we partner with local Multiple Listing Services, and as a result the consumer gets access to all the current listings as opposed to a portion of the market.

How many employees do you have?

16

Tell me a little bit about about the office you’re in now:

We’re in a Regus office space in downtown San Francisco. It’s a big, open floor plan feel with a few semi-private offices but there are no ceilings, the walls are very thin so you can hear everything that’s going on in the office, which is good we like that environment. It’s on Folsom between third and fourth, which is a terrific location on a bunch of levels.

Tell me why you like the location:

The things that were important to us when we were looking for office space were really location so that it was convenient for our folks from all over. We’ve got a bunch of people in the east bay, south bay and people in the city. We’re three blocks from BART, Muni and a pretty easy walk from Caltrain so it’s a good commuting location and it’s a good walking distances to places to eat and bars. It’s just very convenient.

Tell me about the executive suite experience. What are the pros to it and what are the drawbacks you’ve found:

It’s like staying in a hotel. It’s great, the space is nice, it’s a great location, we have a lot of flexibility in the lease period which I wanted to have as much optionality in the term of the agreement as we could have so it’s great on all those levels. It’s a little bit like a hotel in terms of a lot the services are packaged with it and you tend to pay a little bit of a margin for those services. But it’s been a good experience.

Moving? What prompted your decision to move?

I think a couple of things. First of all, we felt like we started to outgrow this type of floor plan. We wanted a floor plan that would grow more with us. And then secondly, some of the things we’re missing here are our own private conference rooms, our own private kitchen, and we wanted to get in to that type of stuff.

When you moved into this space, how many employees did you have? What were your plans for growth?

We’ve probably got just about the same number of employees than we had when we moved in and that’s another reason to move is so that we have more space to scale. Here, we could add 4-5 more folks but not much beyond that. So we need to be able move into a place where we have a little more long-term flexibility.

How did you find the space you’re moving to?

Broker. We used a commercial broker. We’ve used the same couple brokers, this will be our third office space with them. One at a previous start-up and then this company (Roost) was in another space before this.

Can you tell me a little about the space you’re moving to and how it’s different from this space?

It’s class A building. It’s actually the McKesson building at One Post. We’re in a sublease there. The building itself sits on top of the BART and Muni stop which is terrific for all our guys. You don’t have to brave the elements if it’s raining and there’s no walk so that a huge selling point. It’s also a great location in terms of restaurants and bars and all that stuff. The space itself, it has a large war room area that we can use to do big conferences, and the rest of it is open space. So it’s just a nice mix of individual and group space.

How long is that sublease?

Two years. I’m a huge fan of having flexibility. I don’t like to lock into a long term as much as I can possibly avoid that because who knows, we might 10x in size if we really get it right and I don’t want to be locked into a contract that I can’t easily affect.

Tell me about professional services, experts you used along the way…

Our CFO has typically led the charge on looking for space, and we’ve used commercial brokers every time. It’s just felt like a more efficient way to go. We’ve looked a little bit on our own. But typically, in the commercial market, I’ve found that the commercial brokers have access to information quicker and have a better landscape than you would if you didn’t use one. And we always put the contracts through out attorney.

Who is organizing the move into your new space?

A little bit of me, a little bit of our CTO, a little bit of our CFO. We’re a start up so we do it all. I’m taking out the trash too.

Were there any lessons learned from your previous move into this space that that you turned to when looking for this next space.

I’d say three things. First of all, I mentioned flexibility before. When we moved into this one, most of the office spaces on the market, really wanted a three, four, five year deal. I just felt like that was a bad move. I felt like I didn’t want to get locked in for that long and I’m glad I didn’t. I’m glad that I made sure that we had flexibility after 18 months or so because it’s really to know what the future’s going to hold. So we made sure to do that again and did not go to anything that was going to be a three-year deal.

I think the other thing that you underestimate is what’s the day-to-day work environment in the office going to be like. So, as much as an open floor plan is great, it’s also loud. And I don’t know that I’d pictured that coming in so I thought a little more about that when we started looking for more space. What was it actually going to be like when we lived in the space.

And then Transportation. Again, I think if you look at the progression of office space that I’ve moved into with companies, it’s gotten more and more convenient every time. It’s hard to overestimate the value of convenience for the people on your team especially if they they’re working long hours.

In the world of commercial real estate there’s a lot of room for improvement in the area of content and data.  And when you mention data everyone always goes to research and analytics.  What we think of is data and content related to marketing a commercial space.  Businesses want to understand the characteristics of a space before they go see it.  They also want to know characteristics about the space and building in the context of running a business.

Common questions:

How will my employees commute to this space?

Are there local amenities?

How good is the building security?

Rofo is aggressively encouraging and promoting the use of video to market office space. The reason is that we’ve witnessed incredible results for both businesses and landlords when video is used.  Office space listings like the one at 182 2nd Street in San Francisco are getting far more views and inquiries.  We will soon be showcasing the listings with video on Rofo knowing the help it provides to both parties.