How an SME Expanded Across Multiple Cities with a Co-working-Led Workspace Strategy
Published: 03 February 2026
Introduction
A fast-growing IT services and enterprise support SME was entering a critical phase of expansion. The company was soon to enter a phase of critical growth. With the growing number of client engagements in various regions, the challenges of operating from a single headquarters location were becoming more apparent. In order to ensure service quality and response times, the company required teams to be located closer to the clients, as well as a compliant presence in the states.
However, the company’s management also ensured that it did not make any long-term real estate commitments that could limit its flexibility. The expansion had to be accomplished quickly and efficiently while being flexible and not adding the complexity and risk that come with real estate. To achieve this next level of growth,
the company decided to adopt a workspace strategy that was led by co-working, with the help of MyBranch.
Challenge
As the business expanded beyond the boundaries of its hometown, a number of challenges were faced.
The client agreements and legal necessities identified business registration addresses in various states for GST, billing, and auditing. The project timelines also identified that the teams should be functional within a short period of time, making the traditional office setup and startup cycles unviable. The headcount projections also remained ambiguous, with varying team sizes depending on the city and project, making long-term leasing and dedicated office space commitments unviable.
There was also a risk of the management’s attention drifting away from the core business objectives because of the operational requirements of managing real estate, vendors, IT, and facilities.
The question was:
How could the business expand to several cities without slowing down, tying up capital, or increasing complexity?
Approach
The answer to this question was to leverage a co-working-led expansion approach, which positioned the business as an infrastructure play rather than a short-term workspace solution.
Instead of structuring the expansion in each city around traditional office space, the expansion strategy was integrated with co-working spaces that could handle varying levels of business maturity, ranging from emerging markets with new regional hubs such as Vizag and Varanasi to mature markets with established delivery operations.
With the help of MyBranch in workspace setup and management, the client was able to standardize their expansion strategy while still having the flexibility to adapt to each city.
Use of Co-working for Market Entry & Compliance
In the cities where an immediate physical presence was not required, such as Vizag and Varanasi, the client used co-working spaces to establish a formal market presence. This allowed the business to carry out GST registrations, statutory compliance, handling formal communication and billing, and finally creating a formal market presence for clients and partners.
In this way, the company can enter new geographies without opening full-fledged offices in the initial stages of business expansion by leveraging the co-working space.
Co-working as a Flexible Layer for Leadership and Hybrid Teams
As the business grew to new cities, the leadership and sales teams needed to have access to a professional workspace without the need for setting up permanent office infrastructure. This was especially the case since the teams often had to travel between metro cities and new emerging regional hubs such as Vizag and Varanasi.
As a result, the company was able to ensure smooth client interaction and project delivery in various cities while at the same time having a professional presence without the inefficiencies of underutilized offices.
Impact & Results
By emphasizing co-working as a means of expanding, the client has been able to achieve the following business impacts:
Faster expansion in different cities with quicker setup times
Lower risk of expansion with greater agility to scale in different cities
Improved cost optimization without being locked into long-term property leases
Fewer internal resources spent on managing infrastructure
A scalable and repeatable framework for future expansion
Conclusion
By adopting co-working as a strategy for expansion, the client has entirely altered the way it considers expansion. The company’s approach to workspace has become flexible, scalable, and business-friendly, rather than rigid commitments that inhibit expansion.
With MyBranch on board to facilitate implementation and grassroots execution, the company has established a firm foundation for multi-city expansion, demonstrating that co-working, as a strategy, can be an excellent business infrastructure for SME expansion.