6 Things to Consider When Choosing Your First Office
In 13 years I've had eight different offices. My company was the commercial equivalent of the army brat that moves every year or two. Usually we moved because we were growing, and every time I tried to make at least one improvement in our physical workspace.
Here are six things I learned about choosing the right office space:
1. Follow the "rule of 175."
Most commercial real estate planners budget between 175 and 250 square feet of usable office space per person. As a lean start-up, you should be able to do much better; strive to ensure that your space per employee doesn't exceed 175 square feet.
2. Good lunch options.
Lunch is the one point in the day where your employees get to bond outside of work, so it's a good idea to make sure your office building is within a short walk of lots of cool, inexpensive places for your employees to grab lunch together. Most of my offices have been around the St. Lawrence Market area of Toronto, which features more than one hundred butchers, bakers, and fruit stands, most of whom offer a lunch choice. Around noon I would start to see groups of three or four people heading off to the market where they could pick up a slice of pizza, a pastrami on rye, or a big salad -- for less than $5. Good, inexpensive lunch options close to the office make people happy at work.
3. Ventilation matters.
My first real office was a tiny 50-square-foot cupboard I shared with one employee. There were no windows or vents; just a door that had to remain open at all times to avoid suffocating. Since then, I've always been obsessed with having good quality air flowing through our offices. I try to find old buildings with windows that actually open, or failing that, a modern ventilation system. The hippest, cheapest office space is not worth it if it makes your employees feel tired and sick.
4. The length of their commute is inversely related to your employees' satisfaction.
A big part of how happy employees are at work is how hard it was for them to get there. If the majority of your employees drive to work, think about where they will park. A nice, big parking lot where they never have to fight for a spot can go a long way to putting employees in a good frame of mind. If most of your employees take public transit, make sure you're close to a stop. In my last two offices I've had a shower installed for people who want to bike to work (me for one!), and I've always been within a seven-minute walk of a subway station.
5. Avoid signing a lease for as long as possible.
Landlords suck. I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, but my experience is that after building owners get you to sign a lease, they go from courting you to avoiding you. In one case where we had the entire floor of a building, the elevator broke in the middle of summer, and then the air conditioning failed. We stewed in our own juices for a month without even a phone call from the landlord, despite the fact that we were paying $20,000 a month in rent.
Instead of committing to a lease, try to go month-to-month for as long as practical. You'll have the flexibility to scale up or down as needed, and you won't be held hostage by a landlord.
6. Whatever you do, don't buy.
It's tempting to consider buying a commercial condominium or small office building when you calculate how much rent you're throwing away; but in my experience, buying and managing a building is a different business altogether -- one real estate management companies get paid well to do. It's hard enough to get one business off the ground; and it's even harder if your time and money is getting pulled into something else. What's more, at this point you have no idea how much space you're going to need. Buy too big a space and you'll be paying more than you should; too little and you'll stifle your potential growth.
Wait until your business matures to a point where you're happy with its size; then you might consider buying a building as an investment -- not as a business strategy.
How about you -- what are your secrets for making your office space work for you?
You can download a free chapter of John Warrillow's new book, "Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You."
Photo courtesy of roeyahram/Flickr