Moving To Your First Commercial Premises? Image Credit

When you first start a business, there is a significant emphasis on keeping your spending as low as possible. After all, it’s an unfortunate fact of the business world that 20% of all new enterprises fail within their first 12 months.

Running a startup from home and outsourcing is one way to keep costs down during those crucial early stages of running a new business. But, there comes a time when an organisation needs to move into commercial premises as it expands.

If your business is making the transition from a home-based concern to an office-based firm, there are some points you should bear in mind before you sign up for a lease. Here’s what you need to know:

Location

The first thing you need to think about is whether the location of your new business premises is likely to hinder what you do.

For example, let’s say that the majority of your clients are in the city. If you have many face-to-face meetings with your clients, it will make sense if you also have an office in the city.

But, if most of your business activity occurs remotely, such as via the Internet, your physical location won’t matter in the scheme of things.

Interior design

For the most part, when people move from a home-based business to commercial premises, there will be one glaringly obvious fact that faces them. Most commercial properties are nothing but bare shells!

That means there is no furniture, nor is there usually any designated rooms or offices. You are paying for a big space sheltered from the elements. To that end, you need to consider your interior design – and how much it’s all going to cost you.

Before you do anything, the first thing you’ll need to consider is your commercial painting requirements. You’ll need to have those walls and ceilings painted before you get any new carpet fitted and furniture occupying the vastness of your business premises.

Division of space

How will you end up dividing the space inside your commercial premises? Your lease might not allow you to carry out major renovation work. The good news is that, in those circumstances, you can use non-permanent room dividers to create separate spaces.

There are many options open to you, ranging from privacy boards through to full-length room dividers that reach the ceiling.

Telephone lines and networking

Another consideration to make is your telephone and network cabling requirements. Some small businesses get on fine using mobile phones and 4G mobile Internet access.

In such cases, you can even pay for a ‘virtual’ geographic landline number that gets diverted to a mobile phone. Of course, some growing businesses may need conventional telephone lines and network infrastructure at their business premises.

Business rates

One final thing to consider is how much your business would have to pay for business rates. In some commercial premises, local authorities offer reductions on business rates for small businesses and even startups.

Be sure to research how much you’re likely to pay before you decide upon a commercial property.