What to Consider Before Renting Your First Office Space

For growing small businesses, there can be multiple obstacles to overcome as your business expands; from adapting your workload to finding the perfect employees to help your business grow.

Poor management of growth is often the cause for small businesses failure, which is why you should take extra care to use strategies when it comes to expanding. Putting money into the areas you need them most and investing in long term employees are just a couple of the ways you can manage business expansion effectively.

When the time comes for you to find your own premises, you’ll need to weigh up your options to find the best space for your company. These are the things you’ll need to consider before you go ahead and sign a contract.

Accessibility

The location of your business premises is a vital consideration for a number of reasons, not least because your new staff will need to be able to get there.

When choosing a location, consider how far away it is from main roads, public transport systems and, if you have any, your current employees’ homes. Moving to a more inconvenient location will mean that some may struggle to get to work and as a result employees may look for other positions.

Recruitment

Take future recruitment prospects seriously when choosing where you want to set up your business. It may seem like a problem for the future, but if you don’t consider it now, you can set yourself up for trouble in a few months’ time.

Recruitment is a huge factor to consider when choosing any premises, but especially when you’re choosing where you want to settle down and grow your small business. Anywhere too out of the way will seriously limit the potential for new talent, especially if you’re hoping to employ graduates.

Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) reported that a quarter of all UK graduates were in London six months after their graduation. Other larger cities also tended to keep graduates in the area, even luring graduates from small to medium sized cities to larger cities. Take this into account when choosing your new workspace location.

Amenities

When deciding where to relocate to, don’t neglect to consider the amenities you’ll require to be close to your business. If you know employees will be using public transport to get to work, it will be worth making sure that there’s a local shop nearby and if possible somewhere to grab lunch.

It may not seem that important in the grand scheme of things, but for many employees, it’s important to have the opportunity to get out of the workplace for their lunch. If you don’t have canteen facilities this will be even more important, as no one wants to be stuck at their desk for the entire day.

Responsibilities

Before you sign a contract on a new property, you need to finalise a few details and make sure you’re aware of all your responsibilities. This can be as simple as having a flick through the contract to see who holds responsibility for repairs, but sometimes there can be things that need clarifying.

If you have questions you can’t find the answer to in any of the paperwork, don’t be afraid to go straight ahead and ask. If you don’t check now, you may have some nasty surprises later on down the line when the building needs maintenance work.

Budget

As with all small business expenses, having a budget and sticking to it is vital to ensure you don’t underestimate any of the costs.

Don’t just consider what the rent will be when you’re looking to find a new office space. There are other expenses that you may not have considered, so if possible, speak to someone experienced in renting office spaces who can help you. Everything from admin fees to your deposit can cost more than you’d expect, so make sure your figures are accurate before you start looking.

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