How To Set Up & Refurbish An Office for Your Small Business

Many successful businesses begin at home.

With COVID-19, corporate downsizing, and remote working on the rise, many Millennials are setting up their own home-based businesses.

When you are starting out in business, working from home makes financial sense.

It saves you money on renting an office space, meaning you have more money to invest in the business. 

By not renting office space from the get-go,  you’ll have more money to invest back into the business. 

However, as you continue to grow and need to hire a bigger team, you’ll need office space.

Below are some tips on creating the ideal office space.

What makes a great office space?

A few things are particularly important to Millennials, and can be used as a guideline to very Millennial office space:

1. Provide a range of different workspaces and breakout rooms

Focus on flexibility for your employees.

Having a few options aside from the usual desk – such as standing workstations, comfy seats, and shared workstations – and allowing your staff to freely use these as suits their needs can make a huge difference.

Working all day from one place can get overwhelming, so you need to have a separate space for people to go when they need a break.

Having break rooms means that your staff can have a break from their desks and recharge their brains. In the breakroom, you could have a coffee machine, comfy seats, and a snack corner.

Millennials take great pride in their sense of self and their own personal development. They want (and hopefully deserve) to feel respected, and giving them a choice as to how they go about their daily work in the office shows that you understand this.

2. Buy new office furniture and desks 

If you are planning on refurbishing your office, consider scraping the old office furniture and investing in some new desks and chairs.

Office desks and chairs can get worn out over time, so buying new ones is a simple way to make your office feel updated.

Ask your staff if there are any specific desks and chairs they would like. You could invest in some bespoke desks, as these can be tailored to the layout you have. Bespoke office furniture is a good idea for your business as it will be made to measure and will be completely unique to your office.

3. Make the most of the natural light

One of the simplest decisions – but possibly the most effective – is to ensure your working environment includes a good amount of daylight.

Natural light has all kinds of benefits, not least that it helps us focus, increases our productivity, and can also save money on energy bills associated with heating and lighting.

First and foremost, however, is the fact that bright and sunlit office space is simply more appealing. If you’re choosing an office space, always opt for one with plenty of windows, and bear in mind the positioning of workstations to ensure that no one is (literally) kept in the dark.

NB! Avoid fluorescent lighting, as this can cause headaches and eye strain. 

4. Choose your interior colours carefully

Millennials don’t want to feel like a cog in a branch of a soulless machine, they want to feel like a part of a unique organisation with its own identity and character. The design of your office can make all the difference in this respect.

Pastel shades create a calming atmosphere, which is great if your work environment is particularly stressful. 

The colours around you are super important for your mood, and therefore for your productivity levels. Colourful workspaces raise the mood. Southern Office Furniture company sells brightly coloured office furniture.

PS! If you need to move around large pieces of office furniture in a safe and efficient way, contact Furnibox – which is a great mobile solution for furniture warehouses. 

5. Design with practicality in mind

Regarding design, you should put practicality before aesthetic choices (though one does not exclude the other).

For example, if your employees will be handling chemicals, you should ensure that you use chemical-resistant flooring. There are hundreds of different flooring types to choose from, though most businesses will opt for durable resin flooring. You can find more information about resin flooring here https://impactfloors.co.uk/resin-flooring-london/.

Don’t overcrowd the space. The more simplistic your office is, the easier it will function.

6. Hang artwork on the walls

Cladding Monkey and artwork can tie the room together, making it a more pleasant place.

You should also display your company logo throughout the office, which helps you develop your branding further.

What are the benefits of renting an office for a small business?

There are many benefits to renting an office for a small business, including: 

• An office space gives you more opportunities for expansion. You can hire new staff and work on new projects that you cannot do from home.

• You can begin to experience better workplace culture and develop a stronger relationship with your employees. 

• Having an office is a business expense, which means it can reduce your tax bill

• People may take your company more seriously.

• You can differentiate your home and workspaces, meaning you don’t carry workplace stress to bed with you each night. 

Before moving into any space, you should enlist the services you would need to hire. For example, you can hire the best web design team remotely, and look into a regular professional deep cleaning your office services.