Starting a startup office is an exciting time for you. You have managed to evolve your entrepreneurial idea and you are ready to finally move from your home office. However, finding the right real estate for the office is only a first step towards the perfect startup office.
There are plenty of other aspects to consider because there are factors that can affect your workspace and how pleasant it is, which can greatly influence productivity and satisfaction with your job.
Here are some of the major elements you have to consider in order for everything to be ideally successful.
1. Plan Your Space
Planning your space is essential for a successful startup. However, you shouldn’t do it alone. Collaborate with your employees and coworkers in order to create a blueprint for the office’s future look and feel. Others can give you valuable insight into what they need in order to be inspired to work and to encourage their creativity and productivity.
Also, the point of view of others might help you with the things you may have overlooked during solo brainstorming. Collaboration will help gain multiple perspectives for creating a pleasant workflow and the optimum usage of the same. Your coworkers will help provide information about the equipment preferences, conference rooms and other amenities so don’t neglect their opinion.
You have several ways for obtaining such information. If the startup is rather small at the beginning, you can all have several meetings in the office and start planning. You can also organize lunches or happy hours as brainstorming sessions or you can conduct surveys.
To help conduct this faster, you can use digital services such as Google Forms or SurveyMonkey. It is critical to obtain valuable information from your employees, because they will work in that office and it needs to satisfy their needs as well.
2. Growth Potential
You don’t want to move offices as soon as you add five or ten people into your team. That is why you must take the growth potential into account. As the employees are encouraged to be productive, the business will grow, and as the business grows you will often need more people.
Make a 5 year plan and calculate the potential growth. The figures should give you an insight in how many people you will need and how big the office should be. Consider the furniture as well, but don’t forget to account the energy efficiency elements. Big offices consume plenty of electricity and this can significantly increase your expenses.
Besides planning the space, you need to have a plan for your utilities as well, and the best solution is going green. Incorporate plants, turn off everything that doesn’t need to work non-stop and find different sources of electrical power.
If your startup office has big enough roof, you can easily invest a bit more into solar panels. These panels will collect the needed power from the sun and can significantly lower the bills in the long run, claim the experts at Solar Bright. Be prepared for growth and avoid wasting time and money on moving and restarting almost everything.
3. Design for the Startup
The primary purpose of your office is productivity and functionality. However, this space should symbolize your business brand, overall vibe and culture. So, you need to make sure your office fits your overall image and reflects on the business. The simplest way of bringing the company culture to life is by naming and decorating the conference room.
Provide a bit of fun for the employees in this room and you will manage to supplement the room’s productivity. Gather your team and find a theme that will correspond to your business. Then, find the interesting décor and let the office breathe positivity. This way, you will create a good public image for you startup and your visitors and employees will be more encouraged to work in such a relaxing yet productive environment.
It is a long road towards a successful and perfect startup office, but you have to be patient. Never work alone if you don’t have to, respect the suggestions of your team and this long road will seem much shorter and more fun.
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