Setting Up Your Office

One of the critical steps in putting together a new business is setting up your office – every place where a company is going to reside is going to need certain things, and depending on your line of work you may have need of specialized equipment or special supplies and resources. There are also a number of different options regarding how you can get the kinds of materials that you need for your new business location – from purchasing things outright, to leasing and renting, you can get all kinds of different deals on the prices of your business equipment. Here is an overview of some of the things that you should consider when you are going to move into a new office location.

First of all, think about what kind of business you will have and make a list of all of the things that you need to run your business – start with the processes that the business will carry out and the jobs which each of the employees will have to perform. Now write out a list of each of the things that the employees are likely to need as they go about these tasks. When you are putting an office together you are going to need to think about basic needs that all of your employees will have as well as specific needs for specific workers. Usually, an office will have a supply cabinet which the staff will have access to, and it is best to set up some kind of sign-out sheet so that people can write down the time and their name when they take something from the master supply. This allows you to keep track of the current levels of inventory, know when your stock of something is getting low, and order a new shipment of supplies. It also tends to prevent people from taking supplies home with them or taking more than they need.

What are the basic supplies required by an office? These are generally things such as paper, pencils / pens and other writing implements, scissors, tape, envelopes and stamps, etc. These kinds of things should be stored in your supply cabinet. There are also other needs that your employees will have, such as the requirement for individual spaces where they can keep their things and perform their work tasks. You may want to go with an open bull-pen style office or an office where your employees have their own walled cubicles. Cubicle walls are a good way to give your employees their own space and create a compromise between the open area and the office without paying for a larger and more expensive building. Cubicles also have the advantage that you can resize them or put them together and take them apart without a lot of trouble, making them adaptable as you move people in or out of the office and whenever you want to redesign the flow of the office space.

Of course, you are also going to need tables, chairs and any other furniture that you need to store the files for your office, such as filing cabinets, etc. If you have a good sense of how many employees you are going to have over the course of the next year you can make your furniture purchases now – this is a case of an office expense where you have options. Often you can choose to buy, lease or rent office furniture when you require it in bulk. As offices grow and shrink and companies come and go, the range of options which you have for your office furniture gives you more room to save money. If you have limited funds for stocking your company with furniture then you may want to rent for the first couple months or until you get your company to be profitable; it you can purchase your office equipment then you will be at an advantage in the long run as avoiding rental fees will lead to savings and you will be able to also factor in the money that you make from selling your office furniture when you move.

Another expense comes from the various kinds of office fittings and fixtures that you need – such as the lighting fixtures. Any lamps or lighting sources for your office have to be factored into the overall cost. When you are shopping for lighting fixtures, keep in mind that you will not only be paying for the price of the fixtures themselves, but for the bulbs inside and the price of electricity whenever they are turned on over the following months and years. By purchasing a power saving type of light now you can save money from month to month on your utility bills.

In most cases, the office space that you move into will have its own existing lighting fixtures. If possible, try to see if you can use them – lighting fixtures which are built into the walls of the office will probably not be taken by a departing previous tenant of the building and will be considered in the overall value of the building when you make your purchase or lease agreement. This provides you with another option when it comes to supplying your office with all of the fixtures, fittings and furniture which it needs – the previous company which inhabited the offices. For a fee which is less than it would cost to buy new furniture, or even old furniture from a distributor (in some cases) you may be able to get the business which occupied an office before you to leave its old things behind. If you liked not only the office space but the furnishings of the space as you saw it when you first visited, this is a good way to save money and time.

There are also other kinds of fixtures and fittings for the office, such as the bathroom / washroom fittings and the fixtures for an employee kitchen. Providing some kind of bathroom for your employees is essential and by providing a basic kitchen you make it possible for people to stay in the office over lunch break and spend more time getting the work done which they need to complete – without a kitchen people will be forced to eat at their desks ordering in food (or bringing it from home), which can lead to spills and clean-up costs, or they will have to leave the office to go get food, which takes more time.  If you can make use of fittings which previously existed in the building that is, once again, the cheapest option.

The most expensive option is to take care of the purchase of all new fittings and their installation all on your own. If you choose to go this route you may need to employ the help of contractors to integrate the new fittings that you have purchased with the utility lines of your office. In the end, this way of setting up your office will give you the newest, shiniest and most professional looking space to inhabit, but it is only really an option for the company which has enough money in the bank. 

If your budget for the new office is somewhere in between, you may want to try to lease many of the pieces of furniture, office fixtures and fittings, computers and so on in your office with the option to buy once you make enough payments. This allows you to put off the large payments that you would need to buy everything at once, and it gives you an affordable option which is more in the price range of renting while allowing you to eventually own all of the materials in the building and possibly have the option of selling them when you decide to move on.

Also keep in mind that whenever you are making enhancements to a building that you do not own outright, you have the possibility of getting your purchases subsidized by the property owner if they then become part of the property and enhance its value. By working out an agreement with the owner of a location which you are renting or leasing you can get the kind of office fixtures that you want and have some or most of the cost of the fixtures paid for you – all you have to worry about is installing the fixtures so that they work right.

Always be on the lookout for ways that you can lower your costs – any way that you can improve your cash flow and save money in the long run by using the right fixtures and fittings or by working out a special way to fund your renovations will pay off as your savings are amortized over the weeks, months and years that you inhabit a place. The decisions that you make now to find the best way of setting up your office cost effectively will prepare you for the decisions which are to come as you continue to grow your business and respond to the changing needs of the marketplace.