Many would imagine that working from home is a dream come true; it’s convenient, inexpensive, and in a lot of cases, it can improve the work-life balance. However, it’s not for everyone, and not all businesses will benefit from this way of working. If you have recently started to launch a business or you’re about to, or you have been working from home but now realise that it would be better to have a dedicated office, how can you find the ideal space to work from? Here are some ideas.
Decide What You Need
Offices come in all shapes and sizes – literally – and there are lots of different options. Many people like the flexibility of being able to lease offices that they can use as and when they want to, for example, on a flexible basis. In contrast, others would prefer to rent one permanently. Or perhaps you want to get a bigger offer than you actually need right now because you intend to grow the business and hire more people.
There is a lot to think about, and this is why you need to think carefully about what you need from an office – what is it you’re looking for? When you have listed out the must-haves, you’ll be able to choose a suitable space for your business.
Work Out Your Budget
You know what you need, but what can you afford, and do your needs and budget match up? It’s easy to find a lovely looking office that feels just right and ticks all the boxes, but if you can’t afford it, you’ll either be disappointed and have to start your search again, or – worse – you’ll sign a contract and then realise that your finances won’t cover it. At that stage, it might be impossible to do anything but try to scrape the money together each month, and this will clearly damage your business.
Work out your budget so that you know exactly how much you can comfortably spend on your office space. This will make the search more fruitful and ensure that your business thrives instead of dies.
Find The Right Location
Location is much more important than you might think when you’re choosing the perfect office space for your business. Of course, if you rely on footfall and customers actually coming to your shop or place of work, then having a location in the same place as your potential customers are is crucial. However, what you might not think about is that location is still important even if you’re not customer-facing.
The location of your office needs to be somewhere that is easy to get to, otherwise you’ll start to dread your journey to and from work each day, and you might even find that, when you hire people, they are put off because of where their place of work would be or the lack of nearby parking or public transport options. You could miss out on some excellent candidates because of this seemingly insignificant detail.