An office is an important facet of a business and is the most important marketing tool as it is the “face” of the business as far as a customer is concerned, unless the business operates online or virtually. Organisations rent office spaces to expand their current operations or as their first physical office. Both are important milestones for a business and several considerations should be made when selecting a location to establish an office. This article discusses several considerations that should be made with regards to selecting an office space and in making the decision to establish an office prior to obtaining the services of organisations such as office space for rent Brisbane and taking an important step for your business.

Location

Since your office will be a meeting place for your customers as well as represent your business among the competition, location is a key aspect of selecting an office. This is less applicable if the business model does not rely on the office being the primary place of customer attraction and retention (such as online businesses) or those having the office as a non-customer facing centre. In this case, the location of the office should convenience the members of the organisation as large amounts of time spent on commuting to the office leads to lost productivity and demotivation.

Space

The space should be sufficient for all required activities with a certain buffer for contingencies or expanding operations. The larger the space, the more expensive it is to both acquire and maintain to a cost/benefit evaluation should be performed. Generally, the layout should be planned out prior to selecting a location so the required space can be estimated. Unoccupied space is wasted expenditure and should be avoided, unless it is likely that it would be utilised in the future.

Necessity

Before considering renting an office space, it should be evaluated whether the business is actually in need of one, and whether the need can be serviced by other alternatives such as virtual offices. The expense of renting or leasing a physical office may be too high for certain organisations to justify the cost compared to the returns and may be better served by alternatives which provide most of the same benefits at a much lower cost.

Nearby Amenities

The neighbourhood of a business location also matters to its effectiveness. It may also reduce the necessity maintain certain services in-house. The employees and staff would also appreciate the presence of nearby restaurants and/or coffee shops. These may also be helpful to clients or customers if they are visiting your office premises. Certain services like printing and telecommunication may be outsourced to nearby shops as well, potentially eliminating the fixed costs of maintaining the services.

Security

The local crime rates and neighbourhood security is a primary concern for renting an office space in an area. Since an office houses potentially expensive equipment and sensitive information, the risks of exposing these equipment and information to a less secure neighbourhood would need to be evaluated.