Soho

Every year, someone somewhere predicts the death of Soho as a centre for the creative industries. 

They cite that some advertising agencies have moved out, that some of the big production companies have. That the costs are much higher than basing yourself elsewhere, and that as communication technologies improve, the need to be close to other companies diminishes.

Now, I've never really bought into these arguments.

Before setting up a company there, I absolutely hated Soho. I mean really, really detested it. To me it was noisy, dirty, full of annoying tourists - dangerous (friends had been mugged there), and full of rubbish restaurants that fleeced the annoying tourists - and usually me as well.

However, once I started to spend time there and discovered the side that is generally only known to those that work there, all that changed.  It has some of the best restaurants, friendliest pubs and where else are you guaranteed to bump into someone you know round every corner.

Which all makes it sound a bit like an episode of Cheers - but in a way that's not a bad analogy.

It kind of follows on from the post yesterday - about work being fun. Working in production or post in Soho adds a great extra dimension. However, this isn't really a reason to locate a company there - is it?

Time after time you can notice a pattern in some of the clients that come to use creative companies in Soho. And it goes a bit like this:

Arrive. Order coffee. Check on Edit. Open laptop - send enough emails to ensure you look busy. Then send emails to find out where/which restaurants your friends/clients are in. Go to lunch with them. Come back. Check on edit. Find out which pub/restaurant your friends/clients are in. Go meet them.

Rinse and repeat.

Now - first disclaimer - not all clients do this! However, actually, its some of the most successful that do. It's a big attraction that you as a client, know that you can be working for many days/weeks on a project, and yet ensure that you can still carry on the lifeblood of your career - meeting your clients and networking. Being in Soho ensures that all of these people are extremely likely to be around.

Witness someone I know (who is a King among networkers) who'll call at about 4:30 and go - "I'm passing by your place in half an hour - you around?" And because at that point, going for a chat can be infinitely preferable to paperwork, you'll always meet him.

However, this still leaves the cost argument. However, even before rents started to drop out of the sky this year, as a percentage of total operating costs for a facility or decent sized company, rent/mortgage is actually very small. Less than 10%. So, even if you knock a third off the rent, you'll only save 3% on your costs. And is that a risk worth taking when a lot of your clients see the convenience as very important?

And before you have to completely move an existing business and refurb a whole new building.

This might seem as a bit of a love letter to Soho, but yes, I do miss it. 

However, it's triggered by the news yesterday that a Pinewood based facility is opening up an office in Soho - because many of its clients won't go out to Pinewood. And I know they are not the only ones.

This makes me excited. Soho has always thrived on new companies coming in and keeping the market on its toes. And now that rents are coming back down (unless you are the post house that recently signed a lease at £45 per square foot - ouch!) I hope its the beginning of many more.

David