Having a new office space is one of the few experiences that actually bring satisfaction to everyone involved in the process. That said, this satisfaction lasts only till the furniture has to be planned in accordance with the office space the business has. Everyone wants to have an office in the Central Business District. It gives our business the required social validation and brings you in proximity to several entities such as banks and government offices, that help you run your business smoothly.
The problem is, an office in CBD comes with its own set of challenges and the biggest one is – scarce space. Since the real estate space is limited, the office manager of the business operator has to go through a strict office planning phase before buying office furniture in CBD.
We have been helping such businesses for years now. Thus, when we get started with the furniture buying process, we sit down with the business operators and give them a free office planning and interior designing session. This helps them tremendously, in deciding how to manage the office space.
We bring to you the most common advice we give the managers, for office space management
Think about the capacity you will need overt the next 5 years.
The primary mistake office managers make is taking up the current capacities in the office and going ahead with the planning. Every healthy business grows and requires increased team capacities. With growing teams, comes the need for working space. If you have not planned for it prior, you might end up in a situation of crisis.
An easy thumb-rule is assuming the capacity to be 50% more than what you have currently. This might not always be sufficient and you might have to buy office chairs later on, but this does ease a lot of things.
Make a priority list of the furniture you will need.
One thing is for sure – you might choose to buy boardroom tables, but you will have to be very sure about how you plan to use them. The idea is to have only those pieces of furniture, which actually help you in your everyday job. For instance, you will have to buy office desks because, without them, there is not much purpose served by the office furniture itself. Similarly, you can easily gauge the pieces of furniture that are absolutely essential for everyday work.
Consider an open office.
Some businesses have a tendency to operate in the cubicle culture. It is either the very nature of the business that requires such arrangements, or the decision of the business operator. If in your case, it is the latter – then you should definitely consider an open office plan. An open office allows you to have a more collaborative work culture since people are not tied to their cubicles.
At the same time, it actually requires lesser space and has a minimalistic design, which allows you to change things and increase capacities with ease. For product companies and companies which are built around creative thinking, the decision to buy work stations which help in an office layout can help in both cost saving and productivity enhancement.