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Business Start
source by: businesstown.com
Moving on Up!
Space When considering how much commercial space to lease, add some extra space for growth to the total square footage of the space you are currently occupying. Determine how many employees you expect to be housing by the end of the next year. Determine what furnishings and office equipment you will need in order to accommodate them.
Decide whether or not you will need a reception area. Decide on the image you want to project through the layout and design of your space. Determine your need for conference and/or demonstration rooms. Try to project two or three years out from the start of the lease—will the new space accommodate your anticipated growth?
Location Where you locate your business is very important. If you locate in an upscale suburban neighborhood or a fashionable area of downtown, you may attract consumers with plenty of disposable cash. But you will also face high rents or leasing costs, and that puts you at risk for business failure. Less upscale areas may offer tax incentives or spaces with attractive lease options. However, these areas may have high crime or vandalism rates. And how about the commute? How far is it from your home to your new office space? All of these considerations need to be carefully examined when deciding where to locate your business.
Parking You should determine what both your employee and customer parking needs will be. Does the space you are considering offer enough parking for your needs and the needs of surrounding businesses? Is the parking underground or on-street metered parking? Is handicapped parking available?
Tenants Check out the other tenants in the building or office complex you will be leasing in. Find out how long they have occupied the building. Ask if they are on good terms with the landlord. Find out if their experiences as tenants have been largely satisfactory. Inquire about insurance premiums, building security, and cleaning services for the building.
Handicap access Check to see if the building you are considering leasing in meets with handicap access regulations, including appropriate bathroom facilities. Make sure your office space has been designed so that physically challenged employees can easily move around and are afforded an opportunity to be fully productive. Public transport
If on-street or off-street parking is limited or unavailable, locating your business in close proximity to public transportation takes on added significance. Public transportation accessibility can even be used as an advertising tool to attract customers.
Expansion If you are attracted to a particular office space but envision remodeling that space to suit your needs—building partitions for work cubicles or removing walls to open up a reception area—make sure the landlord has no objections. Get permission in writing. And see if you can negotiate a reduction in the lease payments in exchange for doing the remodeling work yourself.
Utilities Find out what the typical costs are for heating, electricity, and air conditioning in an office space similar to the one you are considering within the same building. Ask either the landlord or other building occupants for copies of the last six month’s utility bills. Inquire about required new account deposits from each of the utility companies you will be using.
If you have a prior billing history with any of the utility companies, you may not need to submit a deposit. You have three basic choices in office floor plans: division by partition, open office, or individual, closed rooms. A combination of any of these floor plans is also a possibility.
Partitions Open offices divided by partitions were in vogue at many large corporations in the 1960s and 1970s. The advantage to this space design configuration is that its flexible nature offers the chance for change while, at the same time, affords a moderate level of visual and aural privacy. No one is looking directly at another employee and conversations can be conducted without fear of being overheard.
There are a wide range of partition systems available. They can be extremely elaborate and complex or inexpensive and simple.
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