As your business goes from a start up to a success, you will probably find your space that was once half empty, is now bursting at the seams with staff, products and equipment.
But, just because your business is starting to succeed, doesn’t necessarily mean that moving to bigger offices or a space with a warehouse is an option.
This may be for financial reasons or because the space simply isn’t available – or both! Central London office space availability, for example, has fallen to its lowest rate in 14 years according to CBRE.
The first quarter of this year saw a 3% drop in office availability to 10.8million square foot, alongside the take-up of 3.1 million square foot. This high take-up and low availability is of course now causing a spike in rent as a result!
So, when you find yourself in this situation, how do you find the space?
Storage
If your business is selling a product, a rise in sales has probably resulted in a lack of space that has come from the rising stock, you originally kept in a storeroom out the back.
You now have so much that a warehouse to store it all in seems to be your only option. But after purchasing a warehouse, you would then require extra staff to work in it, as well as other costs and inconveniences. Have you thought about using self-storage instead?
Somewhere such as Kelly’s Mobile Self Storage will keep your items secure and allow 24/7 access, so you could see it as your temporary warehouse space. If at a later date a warehouse is the right thing for your business, your storage pod can be delivered directly to the door!
Think outside the box for meetings
Do you have a lack of meeting space? Or could the meeting rooms you do have be put to better use, as they are only used about 10% of the time? Then you need to think outside the box when it comes to meetings. You could, for example, hire a meeting room, or hold a conference Skype call if attendees of the meeting are a distance away.
Share/temporary office space
Maybe your lack of space is from a growing workforce. Your original small team has grown significantly and with that comes desks, IT equipment and the rest! So where do you put everyone? A temporary office would provide you with the space that you need, without getting tied into a long-term contract you can’t afford. Another option is to share office space. Team up with another company that require more room themselves or haven’t filled their office, and take advantage of that unused space.
Hot desking
An option, that keeps all your staff in one building, is hot desking. So rather than all members of staff having there own desk, they find an empty desk, set it up for the day and clear away in the evening. Hot desking can cut the running costs of an office by up to 30% and will of course provide you with much needed space, by cutting down on the number of desks that you require.