As the owner of a new business, it’s great that you’re looking for an office. It means that you’re ready to grow. To help you find the right building and make the right moves, we discussed several points. Keep reading.
Is It in An Easily Accessible Location?
Where is the office located? If it’s far away, you’ll find it hard to travel. It would not only be hard for you but your workers too. The fact that it’s not accessible may also make it hard to find employees.
If you have to meet with clients, the location would be inconvenient for them, so you’d be lowering your chance of growing your business.
A plus point of having the office in a location that’s farther away would be that rent would be cheaper.
How Expert Are Your Staff?
Your staff are assets – they’d help you grow. Look long and hard before hiring someone. You can get the most talented candidates by offering the best pay. As you’re a small business, you have several other names to compete with. You want to keep your staff from not leaving you, so reward them whenever you can.
Advertising listings on as many platforms as possible. Not many companies make use of social media to advertise job openings, which is a shame. More people would see your placement.
How Much Are You Willing to Spend?
Your budget affects the type of building you’ll be able to rent. With a small budget, leasing a large office won’t be possible.
When dealing with clients, appearance matters. Finding a building that looks good is a must.
If there are not that many offers on the building, you could negotiate and get a lease for much lower than what’s being asked. This can especially be done if you’re smart and take an inspector with you. He could examine the building and find faults in it, which would force the landlord to lower the asking price.
Keep in mind that you’d you’ll also have to spend on furniture and the tech you’d need to run the office.
What Tech Would You Need?
Let’s touch on the tech you’d need. The most obvious would-be computers, telephone lines, and an internet connection.
You might be best off creating a LAN for the space. But to create a Local Area Network, you’d have to invest in premium parts. They won’t have to be replaced shortly then. This would be mean getting something like an Aruba 3810m switch and not a generic one.
As you’re a start-up and on a budget, a tip would be to buy all the tech you’d need from one shop – you’d get bulk discounts. Working with large names like IT Yuda IT hardware supplier would also save money, as they’d offer competitive rates.
Look at The Market
What kind of business will you be running? You might be diving into a very saturated industry. If so, you shouldn’t open shop in an area with many competitors. They’ve probably been in the game longer, so they’d tempt customers away.
Does this mean you should open in a location with no rivals? No way. If customers are not happy with a rivals’ services, they’d be able to walk across the street and work with you instead.
Can You Keep Your Workers Happy?
Touching on keeping your workers happy again, try your best to create a work environment that they would enjoy. This would make them more productive, helping you succeed.
How can you do this? The best would be being friendly and open. They’d know that you’d be all ears whenever they have a problem. Frequent communication would also let them view you as a colleague and less as a scary superior.
Something else that would make them enjoy the office more would be rewarding them for their hard work. The rewards can be anything; it’s up to you. Even verbal encouragement like “Keep up the good work” and “good job” would be enough.
If you want to, you can go all out and reward them with bonuses and promotions. But this would be a personal choice.
Decorate the space in a way that would make the layout more open too. The office would feel less like a prison. Something that seriously helps with this would be increasing the natural light coming in.
How’s Your Landlord?
Is the office in a good location? Are you happy with the rent? The space may seem like the ideal office. However, before you put an offer on it, consider whether you are happy with the landlord or not. If he’s a difficult person, you wouldn’t enjoy being his tenant. You might have to move buildings shortly because of him.
Be smart and research him online. You can see what former tenants might have said.
Is There Ample Parking?
Where will you park your car? Is there enough room for your employees to park their vehicles too? If there isn’t such a parking lot, coming to work would be an inconvenience. Clients would find it hard to meet you as well. If there isn’t proper parking, there should at least be a block to park near-by.
If parking isn’t available, but you’re still interested in the building, you can use this as a means of getting the landlord to lower the rent.
Finding a location for an office is great, as it’s the first step of many for you to grow. It will also be exciting. Just keep in mind everything we talked about, and you’d be able to find the perfect space. From the points mentioned, the most important one to consider would be finding a building that’s easily accessible.
It should not only be a in a location that’s easy to reach, but the roads and transportation system to the spot should be ample.
Make sure to invest in the right staff. Hire experts so that you can grow easily. To keep them happy, pay them well. Creating a work environment that is not stressful is a must.
