Good news — you’re growing. But you want to make sure your team feels comfortable and can do their work in an idle working space! Sometimes that means relocating.
Finding and leasing a professional office space that meets both your needs and your budget is exciting and stressful. But, it doesn’t have to be. Not if you’re empowered with the right information and tools from the onset.
Read on to find out tips on how to successfully find a good office space for relocation.
We’ve put together the top 9 essential tips you need to successfully find the best office space for relocation:
Typically, a good rule of thumb is budgeting about 1,000 square feet for every four to six employees.
Configure the layout so you are able to squeeze everyone in comfortably. You may need some help doing that. Either ask your real estate agent or even your movers.
Ensure the new space can accommodate your office and also have extra room for office expansion.
Map out where your employees live and from there, seek out an office space that’s relatively convenient for every member of staff to travel to on a regular basis.
“Coming up with a centralized location is the most important consideration in the process. If you make it easy for everyone to get there, you’ll retain more talent.”
If you’re just starting to bring in revenue, but you’re not yet profitable, you might not have enough in the bank to convince a landlord to rent a commercial space to you for longer periods of time.
If this is the case for you, we suggest you sublease your first office space. Shorter term subleases are often month to month and, more rarely, week to week. Some can also last a single year. “If you’re still firmly in growth mode, subleasing is one of the better, more realistic options.”
Be on the side of caution and don’t work with an agent who has never successfully found an office space for someone you know. Similar to when you move somewhere new , you wouldn’t want to leave something this important up to chance.
Once you’ve rounded up personal recommendations, if you feel it’s necessary, do some additional homework.
Look up the agents on allied moving company web site and see what former clients are saying about us online. Many agents out there make promises they don’t keep. They never follow up on searches they say they’re doing for you. That's not someone you want to work with.
Bad landlords are right up there with bad leaders. They can make your life and the lives of your employees miserable.
To ensure you end up with a landlord who is professional and plays fair, talk to tenants in the building (or co-working arrangement) you’re considering renting space in.
You don’t want to move into a building and a light bulb or something worse goes out and the landlord never fixes it or sticks you with it, including all of the materials and maintenance costs of the building.
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to nailing down an office space. If possible, aggressively negotiate the price down to get into a space that you're going to fill in as you grow.
For example, just because the rent for an office is listed as $25,000 a month doesn’t mean it’s actually that. You should always negotiate rent down between 5 to 20 percent below the listed price. You’d be surprised how much people are willing to go down.
We suggest to client to even ask for free rent, depending on the state of the market. For example, for every year you sign a lease, you might be able to score one-month’s rent at no charge. So, if you’re in a one-year lease, request one month of free rent.
For a two-year lease, ask for two months rent-free. While it may sound too good to be true, this is something commercial real-estate agents do all the time. And there’s no reason you can’t do it, too. The worst that can happen is you get a negative reply.
If you’re currently renting a space, have an open conversation with your property manager. Often, they will have something available that they are already managing, and will cut you some slack on your lease terms if you continue renting with their company
Reach out to your clients and ask them for any leads they may have. You can do this by putting information in the signature line of your email. For example, a link along the lines of: "We’re growing and looking for space! Contact us if you know of any available office space."
9.Check Victory Van.
When the time has come we will be more than happy to help yo plan your office move or business relocation. We will assign a moving consultant to your project that will help you with all the logistics, planning, coordination, budget and time for your move.
Give us a call today at 1-800-572-3131 and learn why we are the office relocation specialists in Northern Virginia. We will provide even more information about planning your office relocation.
