You are likely to need office space, no matter what sector your business operates within. The appropriate facilities to carry out essential administration and client contact are essential and having a dedicated space is the best plan to ensure you are able to handle this side of your business.
Offices are one of the most critical company infrastructures and are one of the more significant costs on the budget sheet, so a pleasant environment that you can afford certainly helps make life easier.
How do you decide on suitable office space?
Whether office-based or hybrid working, having somewhere to use or store essential work equipment is vital. Size may seem obvious, but the more employees you have, the bigger space you will need, with HSE guidance recommending a minimum of 11 cubic metres per employee. It’s essential to do your calculations.
Serviced office spaces such as those offered by RTC Business Park are great to enable you to only pay for what you need and grow or shrink as business dictates, without being tied to long suffocating leases. Serviced offices also allow you to only pay for extras such as meeting rooms and conference facilities when you use them.
Think layout
There is nothing more demoralising for employees than a cramped or outdated office space. How your office space looks says a lot about your business, and a well laid out space that includes minimum employee requirements and room for corridors, managers offices (if they need them) and communal and rest areas can require a large area. Around 40% of standard office space will be taken up with facilities other than staff workstations. A serviced office can remove some of these worries. Many business parks and serviced offices offer extras such as onsite catering for conferences, a café, meeting and break out areas, so you don’t need separate areas in your office suite.
Production – if you require additional areas for packing, production or quality control, if you have physical stock or manufacturing as part of your business, then having appropriate available units or combined spaces could be perfect for you. Consider renting offices that offer flexibility to have a combined space or separate nearby facility to avoid the need to spread your business over multiple sites.
Added benefits – the little extras can create a more pleasant work environment. Having plentiful parking spaces onsite for your workforce and visitors make getting to work less stressful. Being able to park easily is really not an extra, but a necessity. Having access to an onsite canteen, mobile food service and meeting and conference facilities and catering will make break times more pleasurable and enable you to entertain clients in a professional environment that shows your brand cares.
And then there are the surroundings to think about, landscaped and pleasant communal areas are always good for team morale. Working in a professional environment is essential to attract the best employees and clients. An easily accessible location by road and rail, which offers easy access to local towns and amenities, is another way to get the best from an office location.
Growth and expansion
We are sure you hope your business is successful beyond your wildest dreams, but that itself can lead to headaches. You certainly don’t want to let a lack of room stifle your growth or ambition. Flexible leases are the answer to allow you to grow and, for harder times, to downsize when necessary promptly. You could soon find that you have outgrown the office space you have bought or even rented, so having flexibility to grow or shrink as business dictates is another reason to carefully look at the lease agreements and not tie yourself into long and challenging to escape contracts.