Expanding Your Office Space: 5 Things To Keep In Mind

It seems rare that offices these days are expanding. On the contrary, most offices are becoming smaller and smaller due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on businesses. If you’re one of the lucky people whose business is growing however, you may need to consider expanding your office space. This could be so that you can have more employees, create a store, or have an onsite warehouse. Whatever the reason for the expansion, it’s a big decision to make, and there are many things to keep in mind during the process. We’ll be walking you through a few of them.

What about building work?

The actual act of expanding your office space is the part that requires the most planning since this will be the biggest expense and likely take up a lot of time. If you are in an office building with vacant space, it’s quite easy – simply sign a contract to buy or lease that space. If you have to build the extension yourself – well, that’s where things get a bit tricky. The first thing you will need to do is get an architect or construction company to draw up plans for the expansion. Don’t settle on the first offer you receive; try to get a few quotes from different companies first. 

After that, you need to pick the company that will be doing the building. It’s important that you use a reputable company since you don’t want any hiccups or injuries. Keep in mind that the building process will disrupt the work environment – and there will be a lot of noise from forklifts and other machines. If you are building a warehouse section, be sure to look into forklift dock plates to make the loading and offloading processes easier. 

What is your budget?

As mentioned earlier, expanding your office space is no cheap feat. Sure, it may be worth it in the long run, when you have more employees and customers, but you need to be sure you can afford to invest money in an expansion. It’s a good idea to prepare a cash budget analysis for your business so that you can see how much money you generally earn and spend, and whether your finances will allow this expansion or not. If you can’t afford it right now, that’s okay – your budget can assist you when it comes to saving up money so that you eventually have the funds required to expand your office space.  

Where will your employees go?

We’ve already discussed that the noise and disruption of the building work will make it hard for people to keep working. On top of that, the expansion may require certain changes to be made within the structure that already exists, meaning it will be unsafe for people to work there. These are just some of the reasons why you should have your employees work from home or a different location while the expansion process is underway. If you’re stressed about managing employees from a distance, you can learn more about that here. If you don’t want to leave the office unstaffed at all times, it could be a good idea to have employees work in shifts. 

What is your time frame?

If you need to expand your office space urgently, you may need to consider alternative options, such as moving to a different building rather than trying to expand your current one. That’s because having an expansion build will take a lot of time, and as anyone in construction will tell you, it usually takes longer than you expect. That’s why it’s so important to have a timeframe laid out for when you will need this expansion done. Of course, this heavily relies on the purpose of the expansion – if it’s something like a warehouse, you may be able to wait a while longer, but if you have a problem because you have too many employees and not enough space, it becomes more of an urgent thing. If possible, try to have the expansion done during a season that is generally quiet for your business. 

What possible problems could arise?

No one wants to be negative when it comes to changes, but it is important to be realistic. You, therefore, need to consider what possible problems could arise during the building process. You may need to pay more money than you budgeted, or the expansion may take longer than planned. If you close your business down for a while, you may also lose customers, in which case you should explore some ways to get new customers. It never hurts to be prepared.