A 5-person office isn’t a small decision -it’s the anchor for the 50-person operation behind it.
Finance teams know how to think about options: a small premium today for the right, not the obligation, to do
something bigger tomorrow. Curiously, almost nobody applies that thinking to the corporate decision it fits best -the first overseas office.
On paper, a five-person office looks like a footnote. Modest lease, handful of hires, easily reversed. That’s the
illusion. In practice, first offices are almost never reversed -they’re grown. The five people become fifteen, the sales outpost sprouts a delivery team, and somewhere around year three, the footnote has become your operating base in the region. Nobody decided that. It accreted -which is exactly why the location should be chosen for the fifty-person operation you’ll eventually run, not the five-person one you’re starting with.
Which means the real question was never “where should five people sit?” It was “where do I want the option to build fifty?” Those questions have different answers. A great city for a tiny sales presence may have a shallow bench for the technical hiring that comes next. The location where your first office lands determines your salary bands, your commute-shed for talent, and your credibility with the local ecosystem -for the operation you haven’t planned yet.
The option framing changes behaviour in a useful way: you stop optimising the premium and start valuing the
exercise. Yes, keep the first office cheap and fast. But choose its location for the growth scenario, because the
switching costs- re-hiring, re-signing, uprooting your first loyal team- are exactly the costs mid-market firms can least afford.
The good news: sizing that option properly takes weeks, not months, if you’re looking at the right data.
That’s the design behind our Essential tier- right-sized location assessment for first offices, built around where you’re going, not just where you’re starting, with government facilitation included. Our Locations Assessment & Facilitation practice would be glad to help you write the option well.
Reach out to us at zoe@nueconomy.co.
Related: The Mid-Market Location Paradox
