A remote first business is a future fit one.
In my experience if you can get a business to operate excellently remotely any physical spaces only enhance what you do.
And then you can think really creatively about that space. For instance, imagine a creative agency (with a city central location) that creates a boutique hotel for employees to live, work and play? Or gathering for an all team meeting in an opulent private dining room?
The office is not the glue that holds a workplace together. It’s a sense of community and people knowing what part they are playing and how they contribute that does that.
I set up my agency as a remote first business in 2013. It meant redesigning the way we operated and a different leadership style from me. But, aside from that the hard work it was really worth it.
My team were highly engaged as we were able to implement fully flexible work. At one point we had the team working from London, Margate, Australia and Colombia as everyone spent time with family and friends or just enjoyed traveling and working.
Our working style was so productive as no one was filling time - there was more motivation to get on to do the job right first time so they could get on with something else in their lives!