Most entrepreneurs want to see their business grow but gone are the days when big business meant a massive office in a key area of the city.
In many major cities, real estate comes with prohibitive costs, so office space can be a large expense even for profitable businesses, not just emerging ones.
In response to the high real estate prices, business owners discover that downsizing office space is a fast way to cut costs. In this article, we will explore the most common practices that your company or start-up can adopt in an attempt to save on office space rent and utilities.
1. Declutter
Before downsizing you need to know exactly how much space it's necessary to have for your business to run smoothly. This is why decluttering is helpful. After a few months or years of business operations, stuff will pile up. Take time to check everything in your current office, including cabinets and desks. Get rid of tools, equipment, devices or papers that are no longer necessary.
2. Change the office design layout
If you want to move your office to a smaller space but worry about being able to fit desks, devices and other equipment, you can start by reconsidering your office design layout. It's common to sprawl as much as the space allows, but by rearranging the desks and the equipment more effectively, you can replicate the impression of spaciness of your current office in a much smaller space. An interior designer can help you with advice and tips.
3. Separate Your business assets
Some businesses need a lot of physical space for equipment or supplies. If that's the case for your business, remember that you don't have to keep everything in one place. Instead of paying an exorbitant price for a large office space, you can pay a much smaller sum to a local storage facility and keep there all your non-essentials like inventory, raw materials or assets that you don't utilize as frequently as others.
4. Allow Remote Work
The interest in remote work has accelerated recently, with more companies becoming open to the idea that employees can maintain productivity levels even when working from outside the office. In the process of downsizing your office space, allowing remote work can be an important step.
For this to be effective, you can implement a rotation system for telecommuting, where only a number of employees come to work on a specific day. Since they don't have to be in the office daily, they will not need individual offices, which you can replace with a comfortable common workspace.
5. Move meetings to co-working spaces
Co-working spaces are booming at the moment. While they're most popular among freelancers and remote workers, many of them include conference rooms and meeting rooms which are perfect for business owners whose interactions with clients and partners happen occasionally.
Instead of paying huge rent to have a meeting or conference room that you rarely use, you can schedule your meetings outside the office in a conveniently located co-working space. There you can pay on an hourly basis, yet enjoy a professional setting and privacy.
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There are many effective solutions to downsize your office space and cut costs with rent and utilities. Choose the options that work for you, your employees and your clients.
