What a New Business Owner Should Do to Find the Perfect Workplace
The snowballing effect of registering your business and growing into a fully up and running operation can be slow. A little bit of momentum at the start makes you feel like you’ll be cornering the market within a matter of weeks - only for reels and reels of admin to halt your progress and keep you stuck in place.
One of the worst offenders for this? Finding the best place to work. If you’re on the hunt for business premises, it’s likely you’ll be looking for the perfect office or retail space for a good few months yet.
Even when you’re optimistic about the process, and you know the commercial real estate market in your area is solely in the buyer’s or renter’s favor, deals fall through, and spaces may not be as perfect as they looked in the pictures.
As such, we feel a few tips are in order. If you want to find the perfect workplace and you don’t want to be hunting one down for weeks on end, the list below can help. Plus, it’s always best to remember to pace yourself and your expectations; even with the best luck in the world, securing a commercial space is going to be hard work.
Budget First, Dreams Second
You always need to work out what you can afford before you do anything else. So, what will you be able to pay in terms of rent or mortgage on a commercial property? That will help you to immediately narrow down what kind of premises you’re looking for.
You can always fundraise ahead of time to ensure you have an appropriate budget, and gaining long term investment will help you to cover the cost of finding a suitable space. However, if you haven’t been pre approved for a mortgage, and you don’t have any investors already in the bag, you’ll need to account for that in your preliminary budget too.
What will you need to make to stay on top of monthly bills? How will this impact your profit line, based on what you’re planning to price your product or service at? And don’t forget about payroll either; if you’re going to be taking on employees, how many will you be able to afford?
Talk to a Commercial Lettings Agent
The next step after this is to find a lettings agent who specializes in commercial property and ask for their advice. Anyone who works with commercial real estate on a daily basis is going to know more about how to secure premises at a level you can afford than anyone else! And usually, you can contact them and get the ball rolling entirely for free.
Make sure you take their advice on board. They’ll be able to tell you the current availability of commercial property, what commercial landlords are looking for in tenants, and whether or not you meet certain thresholds that will allow you to either rent or buy a workplace within the area. This information can be invaluable to have, so be sure not to skip this step!
How Many Employees Will You Need?
Employee count is going to vary between businesses, and as you get bigger and more successful, you’re going to need to bring more employees on board. That all makes sense, but now you have to factor that into your property decision.
That means ensuring you know from the get go who you’ll need and how often. Some business owners may only need freelance staff to start with, who work remotely and are only sourced when they’re needed. That will save you a lot of money on physical staffing costs, but there’s a high potential that this may not be sustainable long term. You may need to hire your freelancers full time, and that’s when things get complicated.
Think about this now to save yourself the squeeze later on. If you are going to need employees, what’s the minimum number you can work with? This may only be one person, like a PA, or it may be two people, with someone providing customer service and another running your social media. Chew this over for a while before deciding.
Make a List of What Equipment You’ll Need and What Would Be Nice to Have
In order to determine how much space you’re going to need inside your business premises, you need to make a list of the absolute must-haves and the things that would be nice to have, but aren’t necessary. Or if you’re moving from one location to another, think about what can go into self storage for the time being, while you decide what you’re going to need in your new premises.
Either way, if you’re going to plan out the space correctly, you’re going to need a clear idea of what’s going inside it. On top of the amount of employees you’ll require day by day, what items will be required to make business easy to get on with?
You’ll need computers, desks, chairs, etc., of course, but you’ll also need extraneous office equipment. Depending on your digital plans, you may also need server space, as well as clearly defined underfloor access for your wires and cables.
Now, what could you do with but won’t strictly need to get on with things? This could include items like filing cabinets or sofas. If your data is digital, your cloud server will more than serve purpose for now. Similarly, if you have a table and chairs in your break area, you’re unlikely to need any other kind of seating for a while yet.
What Kind of Access Will Be Suitable?
Access needs are a big deal. You don’t want to run into trouble when just trying to get yourself, your team, or your clients in the door! As such, ask yourself some access questions.
Do you want your customers to be able to step in straight from the street? Or will you need more of a private workplace? Will you need somewhere to park your car, or even keep a company fleet secure?
Think About Where You Want to Take Your Business
A quick one to finish off! Give it 5 years; where would you like your business to be? How will you have shaped it? What will you have achieved? This is something to consider now as well, years and years before you’ve really gotten off the ground.
You may need to expand one day, and hopefully you’ll have the funds to allow you to do so, but what if? How long could you reasonably stay in your initial business premises with all the goals you’ve got in mind? This could help you to finally nail down your overall space requirements.
The Perfect Workplace Is Out There
Now all you have to do is find it! And to ensure it doesn’t take you too long and you don’t exhaust yourself before you really get started, use tips like these to secure the perfect premises.
No matter where you’re setting up or what you need from your location, there will be a commercial property that can match. Talk to a lettings agent and get the lowdown, make sure you’re aware of your true space needs, and never forget about the access and visibility.
Narrow all of these factors down to decide what is essential and what you can compromise on. From there you can think about finding new premises in the future, but for now you’ve got a good place to work.