Thinking of taking the entrepreneurial plunge? Here's a little something to get you started: free office space for a year.
Regus, a London-based workplace solutions company, is giving away a fully furnished office in Atlanta, complete with a receptionist, through its "Win an Office" sweepstakes, which runs through March 31. The winner gets 12 consecutive months of rent-free office space from Regus. The space will include telephone and Internet connectivity.
"Living through this last year, it's been particularly hard for our clients and small business owners," said Donna Scott, Regus' Washington, D.C.-based regional vice president. "So we wanted to give back in one respect and have a little bit of fun."
UK businessman Mark Dixon founded Regus in Brussels in 1989. The company provides everything from flexible workspace solutions to meeting rooms, business lounges and one of the world's largest networks of video communications studios. Its U.S. headquarters is in Dallas and includes among its clients corporate giants such as Google, GlaxoSmithKline and Nokia.
The Atlanta winner will be announced right around tax day, April 15. Regus launched the sweepstakes late last year in New York. That contest has drawn about 1,000 entries. Regus decided to extend the contest this quarter in Chicago, Phoenix, the Bay Area of California, as well as Atlanta, where Regus has had a presence for some 30 years.
Atlanta, Scott said, has "been an important market in the past and continues to be."
The Atlanta winner's prize is valued at between $10,000 and $40,000, depending on which among the company's 23 metro Atlanta locations he or she chooses, Scott said.
Given the state of commercial real estate these days, the idea of someone offering free office space may not sit well with the rest of Atlanta's beleaguered office market. At last count, office vacancy rates in metro Atlanta hovered at 18 percent. With millions of square feet of empty office space, industry experts say, it will take more than 10 years for Atlanta to absorb the glut.
"We've worked in the past very closely with the commercial real estate specialists in Atlanta. We don't view each other with any animosity," Scott said.
To enter the Regus contest, log on to regusatlanta.com to fill out an entry form that includes a 500-word essay detailing how the office would help you in your business.
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