Many people choose to start their business from home. It’s cheaper and usually more convenient when you’re first starting up. However it can have its disadvantages e.g.
- working at home often means you’ll be interrupted by family or friends as they see you’re at home and are easily accessible to them for a quick chat or to help solve a problem
- you can’t bring clients home with you – it won’t lead to a good impression
- if you’re selling goods and need to store stock your home is likely to run out of space
- when you need to expand and take on new staff where will you interview them and once you employ then where will they work – that’s if they want to work from your home?
For some businesses working from home may always meet their needs; for the majority of businesses who are growing and expanding there comes a time when moving to an office becomes essential. Commercial premises are a necessity of a business looking to grow. This article looks at the reasons we’ve touched upon above as to why moving into office space can help your business move forward.
Business Perception
Without office space, you run the risk of not being taken seriously by other businesses or by your potential clients. When it comes to meeting clients or when taking on new staff you’ll need office space to help make a good impression and sends the message that you’re a serious business.
Apart from being available to meet with clients your office space offers practical things like your own phone system (separate from personal calls in the home office environment) and a recognised business postal address. Each of these are vital as your business grows as they provide you with the infrastructure to drive your business forward.
Brand Perception
Brand perception has always been extremely important. It’s why we stress over company logos and how they look and whether the “reflect” the company image we want to portray. If your business doesn’t have a unique, identifiable brand then it could get lost in the crowd. Moving to an office is very often the best way to improve your brand perception as office space can give your business a professional feel and edge.
You can make your office space say something about you as a business. The style, decoration and layout of how you refurbish your office you can play a major factor in creating your brand’s tone and giving the right message to help you attract clients. JBH Refurbishments have a great deal of expertise in this area and can help with ideas.
Moving To An Office Closer to Competitors and Clients
In a previous article called “Finding the Right Office Space for Your Business” we discussed the benefits of choosing the right location for your office. One of the questions posed was “Is it [the office you’re moving to] close to competitors?” By moving to office space close to your competitors you can take advantage of the location they’ve chosen which is more than likely close to their, and therefore your ideal customer base. This means you can cash in on the work they have already done in establishing the best area to work from.
Improve Productivity
If you’ve taken on staff a move to an office will help improve employee productivity. Having office staff says that you as a company are successful and translates as job security to employees. In fact stats show that moving into an office is considered to be one of the most effective methods available for you to improve employee morale.
When it comes to having your own office space other factors also come into play. Working within an office allows you to bring all of your staff together and enables them to work collaboratively (as well as individually). In many cases collaboration increases productivity as staff can communicate directly with each other rather than through emails or phone calls. There’s no delay in waiting for an email reply and ideas can be brainstormed when they are fresh in the minds of your staff. By pooling knowledge and resources staff can react more quickly to get tasks done or to answer client’s questions more quickly which improves
Implementing Innovative Ways of Working
Implementing new ways of working and new technologies to improve productivity and cut out the more repetitive tasks are far easier to introduce in your office space than in a home office. As your office will be the central hub of your business all of your staff will be able to take advantage of any new ways of working and they will be able to help each other to overcome any issues when changes to the way they are used to working are first introduced.
When you are thinking about moving to an office its worth keeping in mind any new ideas you have for how you want work flow or new technologies to be implemented so that you can use this knowledge to decide if an office space is right for you or if you’ll need to carry out an office refurbishment to realise your ideas. In many instances you’ll have a blank office space to work with, and you’ll be able to put your own company’s branding and style on it.
Having office space will also allow you to more easily move with changing technical trends and to take advantage of the latest technology or working practices to improve your bottom line.
JBH Refurbishments can provide you with office relocation support in London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex to help you with moving to an office. As part of the JBH Refurbishment service we can help you in the early stages of your office location plans. Once you have identified a few locations/office space that you are interested in we can analyse the available space and provide expert advice on which of the spaces will be the most suitable for your business needs today and looking to the future.
Contact us on 0333 207 0339 or contact us via our contact form. We look forward to working with you.
