For many years, we have been dealing with commercial real estate and property searches. As you can imagine, we have been witness to a number of difficult circumstances for both tenants and landlords, and in many cases, these problems have been caused by not taking the time to think decisions through carefully or being fully informed.
We want to use our years of experience and skills to help commercial enterprises find the right office space for them, and aid them with the process, from start to finish.
In this post, we are going to delve into five frequent, yet preventable mistakes that we see and hear.
1. Picking An Unsuitable Location For Your New Office
If you are going to prioritize one thing in your hunt for new office space, make it the location. You have to think about how it affects your business, not just for the clients and people you work with, but the people who work for you. Your employees have to travel to and from it every day, so make sure that you take their needs and comfort into consideration. While somewhere remote may be cheaper, if your new office is not close to links to the transport system, it will make the commute for your staff much harder and will devalue your asset as a whole. The last thing you want to be doing is to move into your office, realize it is in entirely the wrong location, and have the upheaval and expense of finding yet another new premises.
2. Not Negotiating The Best Terms For Your New Office
While business owners are naturally good at business, they are not always great at real estate or leasing terms. Unfortunately, this means that one thing many businesses find when they move into new premises is that they have not got the best deal that they could have. So that you get the absolute best terms, make sure that you do your research and due diligence prior to your search. Ensure that you understand the current market trends and what similar premises in the area are fetching in terms of rent or purchase price. If it is something that is out of your area of knowledge, take someone that does know all about it with you to negotiate on prices and terms.
3. Not Making Sure Your Broadband Is Up To Scratch
Stop what you are doing and try to picture in your mind how you would run your business without broadband, or at least without effective broadband. It doesn’t bear thinking about, does it? A weak and unreliable service can be the death knell for your enterprise, but still, so many people do not check this out before they move. Make sure that good internet service is available in the location that you are planning to move to, and that it can be installed as soon as you move there, if not before.
4. Not Asking For Help When You Need It
We get it. Budgets are tight and you want to save money at every possible opportunity - that is good business, after all. But if you are spending all of your time trailing from office to office, or sitting in front of the computer looking for new offices for months on end, consider whether that is the best use of your time? Remember, your time is money, so if you are wasting time, you are wasting money. Not only that, but in many cases, you will end up reaching out to the experts anyway, so it ends up costing you even more. Using a professional from the very beginning will save you time, money, and probably a great deal of stress, as well as making sure that you get the best terms, as we mentioned above.
5. Not Accounting For Additional Costs
Business owners are often caught in a trap when it comes to future growth expectations and potential costs. They have the sense to allow additional room for potential growth of the business, but when faced with the costs are understandably hesitant. The alternative is not to think about expansion at all and go with your current business needs. The problem with this strategy is that if you see rapid growth, you could end up moving premises again almost as soon as you have settled in, which is not only stressful but costs. The aim is to seek a balance. Look at flexible and serviced spaces as well as conventionally leased spaces and compare them to see which offers you the best value. Look at your budget for the next couple of years and your forecasts for how your business is going to grow and use this as a basis.
