Regus helps companies take advantage of the new revenue opportunities in the Balkans by expanding into Slovenia its 92nd country.

Are you interested in the growing opportunities in the Balkans? Looking to start a business in neighbouring Croatia, Hungary and Serbia? Then Ljubljana is the ideal place for your.

The new business centre is located at the heart of Republic Square, a sought after business address in Ljubljana, opposite the national Parliament. Facilities at the centre include meeting rooms, ready-to-use offices, video communications studio, high-speed secure internet, and multilingual administrative support.

The expansion of Regus’s network in the Balkans, and further afield, is a response to the growing demand for flexible workspace, as organisations adopt new ways of working. Over the next three years, Regus plans to increase its worldwide network by at least 75%, equating to over 800 additional business centres.

“Globally over eight out of ten (81%) businesses now offer their workforce some form of flexible working.  This trend is feeding into record levels of enquiries for Regus’s flexible workspace. We’ve opened the new centre in Ljubljana to satisfy that demand.”

—Mark Dixon, CEO for Regus

The availability of Regus flexible workspace in Ljubljana will allow local and international businesses to explore growth opportunities in Slovenia, which is starting to show a gentle economic recovery after being hit hard by the financial crisis of 2008. There are good opportunities in sectors like life sciences, pharmaceuticals and ICT. Businesses will be able to develop their presence in the Balkans, without making expensive, long-term property commitments. Slovenian companies can also use the global Regus network to explore opportunities abroad.

“The latest Regus Business Confidence Index showed that companies that trade internationally feel they have better prospects than those with mainly domestic markets. By expanding our network in the Balkans, and beyond, we’re making it easier for more companies to improve their own prospects – helping them open up new revenue sources and new opportunities for growth.”

—Mark Dixon, CEO for Regus

Four Facts of Slovenia:

• Slovenia has a high GDP per capita and a well educated workforce.
• The Ljubljana Dragon is the capital’s symbol, which symbolises power, courage and greatness.
• The country has great trade links with Austria, France, Germany and Italy.
• Ljubljana has a diversified economy with a variety of employers in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, food processing, banking, finance, transport, construction, and tourist industries.

Do you run a business in Slovenia? Let us know in the comments below.

For more information on Regus please click here

Photo Credit:

Image provided by Leshaines123 via Flickr

Regus opens second Arnhem centre in the Netherlands!


Since its establishment in 1233, Arnhem has come a long way to become a golden triangle of food, health and hi-tech businesses placing the city at an advantage of any upward momentum in the global economy.

Regus Arnhem Park Tower is located in a city that’s already home to many company headquarters and government services, and is particularly strong in energy, environment, healthcare and wellness, fashion and design and tourism. The building Regus occupies is shared with a major power company and an international IT company, and neighbours include banks, ICT specialists and a top dance company.
Regus to invest in the Park Tower Centre, which occupies a high rise in a top location above the railway station in the heart of Arnhem’s business district, is a surge in demand for flexible working solutions including Virtual Office, Offices and Meeting Rooms.

“We have seen an increase in demand for our products in Arnhem, particularly as they support flexible working”

“We expect this upward trend to continue if the pro-business Netherlands embraces flexible working in law, making it an option open to every employee.

— Eduard Schaepman, Netherlands Director at Regus.

Although economic growth slowed in the Netherlands in the second quarter of 2011, the business services sector is recovering and grew to 1.5%, according to Statistics Netherlands. The number of jobs also rose, and the latest Regus Business Confidence Index shows that this trend will continue. Over half (56%) of companies in the Netherlands


Another reason for interest in Arnhem is its geographical proximity to the German border (20km) and its excellent connections to the rest of Europe, which enhances its strategic advantages for business. With its developing new rail station and high-speed train (ICE) link, this location will become of even more strategic importance

The new Regus centre is on the 13th and 14th floors of a highly visible building next to the World Trade Centre in Arnhem. It includes 85 workstations and features a Business Lounge, which will provide workspace for mobile professionals and videoconferencing facilities to reduce the environmental impact of travel to meetings.

Does your company operate in Arnhem? Let us know in the comments sections

For more information on Regus click here for Regus in Dutch click here

Founded in 1993, Red Hat has become the world’s leading open source provider, bringing the choice, collaboration, cost savings and value of open source to enterprises around the world. All software has source code and ‘open source’ software grants every user access to that code, unlike proprietary software. Red Hat began trading as a public company in August 1999, and now operates out of North America, South America, Asia Pacific and EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa). The company employs more than 3,500 staff across 70 offices in 30 countries.

Challenge

One of the company’s main challenges has been keeping pace with its own growth, including expansion in existing markets, acquisitions of other businesses, and the penetration of new geographic territories.

Red Hat builds factual information and trends into its projections and forecasts, puts a small team in place locally, and then takes decisions about future expansion with more knowledge and confidence.

Solution

Regus provides Red Hat with a stepping stone approach into new markets and territories. With more than 1,100 offices in 500 cities and 85 countries, Regus is the largest provider of flexible workplaces worldwide.

Red Hat’s approach is to put a small number of sales people into a market, and then use Regus workplaces and facilities until such time that the company decides to make a greater commitment.

At any one time, Regus workspace represents nearly 10% of Red Hat’s real estate portfolio and is sometimes higher when needed. One of the main aspects of Regus that appeals to Red Hat is the ability to set up and take down workspace quickly.

And as well as taking workplaces from Regus, Red Hat also makes use of Regus’ extensive range of facilities and services, including business lounges, audio and videocommunications, and general office support.

In Europe in particular, Red Hat’s local sales people make extensive use of Regus Businessworld, enabling them to work in whichever location best suits them.

“We’ve been working with Regus for more than 10 years to help us grow our business in existing markets as well as new territories. Flexibility is at the heart of Regus, which means we can enter a new country or region without significant cost and risk to our business.”

—Craig Youst, Senior Director, Global Facilities & Real Estate, Red Hat

For more Regus Corporate Case Studies, click here

For more information on Regus click here

Regus has more workspace options than anyone else in the world. View the list of countries we can help get your business going in, here.

StartUp Britain: 6 Months On [VIDEO]

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Visit the StartUp Britain website for inspiration and offers from Regus and many other companies to help you become your own boss.

Regus helps companies take advantage of the growing opportunities in the Balkan region by expanding into Croatia, its 90th country.

Are you looking to base your business in the Balkans? Would you like take advantage of the emerging markets in neighbouring Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia? Then Zagreb, the capital of Croatia maybe the right place for you.

Economic indicators show that business prospects in Croatia have improved in 2011. Croatia was hit hard by the global financial crisis, and struggled to emerge from recession. However, the economy is expected to return to growth in 2011.

“Progress towards EU membership and signs that Croatia’s economy has emerged from hibernation have given rise to a greater sense of economic bullishness. But businesses here have experienced tough times in recent years, and they are determined to keep property costs as low as possible, even as they seek to grow. Our products and services allow them to go for growth without upfront capital expenditure or the risk of high fixed overheads.”

— Mark Dixon, CEO for Regus

The extension of the Regus network to Croatia offers international businesses a new option as they seek growth in the emerging markets of Europe and beyond. As companies plan to boost their revenues they look to Regus to support them with a growing number of centres in various locations. In addition to the Croatia opening, Regus launched its first centre in Serbia earlier in 2011.

Four Facts:

• Zagreb is Croatia’s business hub housing the majority of the country’s companies and generating 60% of the nation’s profit
• Croatia has a well-established and booming tourist industry, recieving millions of visitors on an annual basis, generating billions of euros
• Zagreb not only benefits from tourism but it has a highly diverse economy centering itself in the service industry, manufacturing of electrical goods, agriculture, pharmaceutical, and a hub for international trade
• Croatia is a great transport hub that acts as a gateway to both Central and Eastern Europe, thanks to its proximity to the Adriatic sea and its direct links with Italy, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia
  

Regus Zagreb City Centre

For more information on Regus in Croatia click here.

Photo Credit: first image by Miljenko Hegedic via Wikipedia

Due to the ever-increasing adoption of flexible working, Regus is growing and has invested to expand in its global network. This year alone we expanded by 100 centres, and we are set to reach 2,000 business centres in 110 countries by 2014.

“Demand for flexible workplaces is clearly burgeoning, the main driver of which is growing awareness of cost savings to be made by converting to flexible working, enabled by developments in cloud and ‘work anywhere’ technology. Looking at the research we have commissioned across the globe over the last 18 months, together with independent third party sources, it is clear that flexible, mobile working is the new normal.”

- Mark Dixon, Regus Group CEO

As flexible working becomes the norm this has allowed us to expand operations in: Manchester, Plymouth, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Sydney, Buenos Aires amongst many more cities.

      Manchester                     Sydney                       Buenos Aires

Even in the current market, we are experiencing a record level of enquiries, reflected in an all-time occupancy high of 86.7%. This has helped us expand within the emerging economies and new countries which include Latvia, Uganda and Serbia to name a few.

       Latvia                             Uganda                       Serbia

This is not just good news for us but for the growing number of flexible workers around the globe. It is thanks to this increasing trend, that we are able to expand and allow entrepreneurs access to not only a national network, but the most expansive and exhaustive network of business centres worldwide. Good entrepreneurs aren’t getting caught up with the current negativity, this can be seen with the quadrupling of our customer base in the past three years.

It’s a great time to be in business if you are investing. And some of the greatest businesses in the world today were established in recessions or depressions, in years past. It’s always a good time to get out there and actually do it. If you can raise the money and get on and do it then you should do that — that’s what we’re doing.

- Mark Dixon, Regus Group CEO

The benefits of flexible working trends are not exclusive to corporations and medium-sized enterprises. For years, home workers and start-ups have greatly benefiting from the Regus network allowing them to not only establish themselves, but to expand their workforce and extend their operations abroad. (Click here for an example of how a start-up has re-written rules and manage an international workforce.)

Facts
The benefits of felxible working

• 60% of businesses worldwide state that flexible working costs less than fixed office working, saving tens of thousands of U.S. dollars per employee per year
• 41% also say that flexible working increases staff productivity
• 80% of companies state that flexible working policies attract and retain skilled staff
• 60% of employees say flexible working creates a better work-life balance
• 81% of all companies now offer part of their workforce some form of flexible working
• Today there are over 1 billion mobile workers, predicted to rise rapidly to 1.2 billion by 2013

For more information on Regus click here

How and where does your company plan to grow in 2013/14? Does your business empower its employees to work flexibly? What are your tips for cutting business costs in some areas, in order to spend and grow in others?

Photo credits:

Latvia, by www.guigo.eu via Flickr

Uganda, by Maanskyn via Flickr

Serbia, Jeff Attaway via Flickr