Your New Office

Business Insights

06/10/2021

As the country emerges from a global pandemic, demand for smaller office space has been on the increase as people consider their own business start-up or are looking to reduce their overheads by downsizing.

For a new start up business, finding a suitable space to work from is just the beginning of what can seem like a very daunting task. The location, facilities, infrastructure and set up are all key in the decision making process. It is therefore important to plan, review, action and evaluate the most important aspects of your new office to utilise the space and ensure your business runs efficiently.

Furnishing the Office

What are your baseline needs to run your business day in day out? Do you require standard office desks, chairs, computers etc? Or is your industry specialised? Do you need specific equipment to meet your client’s needs?

If you rent space from a dedicated business centre, you often have the option of having the furniture included within the rent. Whilst this is a fantastic opportunity for a regular office based company to get started, it may not work for your business and perhaps taking an empty space, or even asking for the potential of it being part furnished may suit you better.

If you have regular visitors coming to you, how do the Business Centre’s meeting facilities stack up? Do you need them to be greeted by efficient Business Centre Reception staff prior to coming to you?

Communications

It’s important to think about your communications with your staff, external clients, and suppliers and how this will work best for you.

Similar to furniture, quite often the phone lines and handsets are included within the rent when you take space within a Business Centre. You will need to check the call costs involved in calling out but perhaps a voice over IP system will work better if you make more international calls.

Most potential clients and suppliers will expect to be able to contact you via email as standard but you should also consider wider communication requirements including setting up a mobile phone contract. Most of the mainstream mobile networks will offer a variety of tariffs, so there should be an option to suit most businesses.

If you are looking to move to a Business Centre, do they offer an ‘out of the office’ service or a call answering service? Having calls diverted if you are out of the office or in a meeting will help to make sure you don’t miss an important lead or message. Remember, some callers may not like leaving a voicemail, so having a physical person to leave a message with; will assist with first impressions.

Office Equipment

Having the right equipment from the off stands you in good stead and you will find more often than not that computer equipment ends up paying for itself within a short amount of time. If you start off with the correct software, you can achieve a high level of productivity and activity, decreasing the amount of time spent on repetitive tasks. For example, do you need a CRM, accountancy or specialised management software?

Whilst there are a number of photocopier leasing options available, for a new start up, you will need to check the maintenance charges carefully. Are there any minimum usage clauses, hidden extras, call out charges etc? You may find that actually, it may be more efficient to purchase an all in one system for the day to day running of the business and to use specialist printing companies for anything extra.

If you are a business that will be posting a lot of mail, are you able to use the Business Centre staff to assist? There may be a handling fee associated but this would save you of the time of going to the post office each day.

Business Stationery

Your regular clients, mail merges, new clients and suppliers all see some sort of correspondence from you. Whether this be an email, a letter, an advert or they are visiting your website. All correspondence should have the same consistent message and be branded with your company logo. Ensure you review your logo, letter headed paper, email footers, business cards and website messages to ensure they all follow the same corporate theme.