When you are rushing to get your new business up and running, setting up the office may be the last thing on your list. To get the job done quickly and efficiently, consider all of your options and hire teams for each component of the office. You should have a design team, a tech team, and a testing team to ensure that the setup is fluid for all departments.
Taking some inspiration from your home office, which is typically designed for comfort and productivity, can help you create a comfortable, productive workspace for your employees too.
1. Consider a Virtual Office Setup
If you are starting off small or as an online retailer, a virtual office may be the best option. It only requires having a central location for meetings once-in-a-while and having an ample cloud system in-place to start small. If you are a startup, you should consider a virtual office to keep overhead costs down and allow your business to scale at a comfortable pace.
A virtual office is the quickest way to get an office setup. Making this choice proves that you are a critical thinker and problem solver, making you strong-minded like an MMA fighter who always has a backup plan when the pressure is on.
2. Create a Blueprint
Draw out a quick blueprint for the design of your office. You want to make sure that the setting is built for productivity. Every department needs to be situated in the right space and should be separated appropriately from all other departments. Once the blueprint is in-place, walk the plan as if everything is in-place to make sure it makes sense.
The team at the Asian World of Martial Arts, Inc. said, “Blueprinting where each department would be placed in the office was the right choice. Putting creative teams together and administrative teams together helps the efficiency and productivity of each department.”
3. Install Technology and Test It
Technology and equipment are important in an office space. You should have professional-grade equipment placed in appropriate locations to have the ideal office space, regardless if you are starting your business in your own home or on a larger scale. You want your employees to have access to necessary equipment that is convenient to their workspace location. That technology should also be fast, up-to-date, and updatable for future technological advances.
Before the entire team of staff starts, your tech team should have all office systems running at the same time and testing speeds of equipment to ensure that there won’t be any hiccups in helping customers or performing work tasks. There should also be a backup server system in-place should the main system slow down or malfunction completely.
4. Funding Matching Furnishings
Your design team should be given a budget that you can afford. This is a quick office setup, and saving money anywhere you can is important. If your business is brand new, you may need a little extra funding with a personal or short-term payday loan. It is important to pay any short-term loans back as agreed since the annual percentage rate (APR) averages 547.5-percent to 999.45-percent, according to statistics from Personal Money Store, based upon the terms of the loan.
If you have proven to be productive in your home office, take a video of your space and offer it as a suggestion to your team. It shows the team that you have designed the ideal home office that is convertible to a larger scale with the same efficiency. You may have an ergonomic office chair that your staff could benefit from, make this a priority on your checklist, and give your team the task of sourcing them in bulk with quick delivery.
5. Test Office Design Functionality
The members of your varying teams are likely to be different. The workspace that you create for each team should allow for separation while maintaining productivity so that different work styles are not preventing one member from completing tasks. This is something you will learn about how to set up your workspace to accommodate contradicting personalities/work ethics.
For example, if one team member voices that he or she works better with more privacy, consider adding to their individual space to allow for more enclosure. There should still be a line of open communication with the rest of the team. Go high-tech and consider a remote controlled partition that can be taken down during team meetings and raised for privacy.
In Closing
Design each sector of your business office for the team occupying the face. If you have a call center section, the walls between each workspace should be taller to block out background noise. Creative departments, such as web development and marketing, should be able to see each other for better communications. Keep these things in mind when setting up an office fast to ensure that your employees are happy, efficient, and meeting company goals.
Featured image courtesy of [at_ignore_tag]Flickr[/at_ignore_tag].
