When your business is doing well, and you are seeing a lot of growth, you need to start thinking about expansion. You will need more employees, and that usually means that you need more space. But you will soon see the downside of business growth when your overheads start to shoot up. You will be paying more money in salaries and your rent is going to go up if you are renting a huge office. If you want your business to survive, you need to make sure that you manage your spending properly, and that’s a lot harder to do as the business starts to grow.
The monthly rent or the mortgage on your office is one of the biggest expenses that you have, so if you can find ways to cut back, it’s a lot easier to manage your finances. But it’s equally important that you make sure that your employees have a suitable work environment. If they don’t, productivity will take a hit and you will run into financial problems for different reasons. But what if you could have the best of both worlds and cut back on your office space without having to make sacrifices elsewhere? It might sound too good to be true but it isn’t. These are some of the best ways for your business to cut back on office space and make some big savings.
Remote Workers
The easiest way to cut back on office space is by using remote workers. New technology is making it easier than ever for people to do their job from home instead of coming to the office. A lot of jobs can be done remotely, and so many businesses are moving towards this model because it’s best for everybody. Most employees are more productive when they can work from home and set their own schedule, and it saves your business money because you can cut back on your office space. You should assess your staff and see whether any of them can work from home. Then you can move into a smaller office that has some collaborating spaces and a few desks for people to use when they do need to be in the office. However, you do need to be careful because some employees may not be productive when working remotely. It’s important that you choose employees that work well independently and do not have issues with self motivation. It can be an adjustment for you as well, but if you follow these tips for boosting the productivity of remote workers, you should be fine.
Virtual Receptionists
If you have a reception desk and a full-time receptionist, you are wasting space in the office and spending more money than you need to because you could be using a virtual receptionist instead. Rather than paying a full-time employee that works from your office, you can simply pay a monthly fee for access to answering service staff who can handle all of your incoming calls for you. It’s a lot cheaper and you don’t need to find space for a reception desk in the office. However, if you host clients at the office, this isn’t really an option because you will still need somebody on reception.
Outsourcing
There are certain areas of the business that can be outsourced to third party companies, which has a lot of benefits. Firstly, it means that you don’t have to hire in-house staff so you can save on your office space. It also means that you benefit from a team of experienced employees without the cost of paying all of those salaries. Areas like IT, for example, should be outsourced because you will get better coverage and improved security. If you are a small business, you will not be able to afford to pay a well staffed IT department, so outsourcing is the best choice. You should think about where the gaps in your business are and consider outsourcing those areas. It will improve your business and you can cut back on your office space.
Downsize Devices
The desks and computers take up the majority of the space in your office, so if you can downsize those, you can cut back on the amount of space that you need. You need to consider the needs of each employee and buy computers accordingly, instead of buying the biggest monitor you can find for every staff member. Certain employees will need a larger computer, but most of your staff members don’t, so you should cut back on screen size. You should also spend a little more money on slimline computers to save space. If you can reduce the space that your devices take up, and use smaller desks, you can make do with a slightly smaller office.
You should also consider allowing employees to bring their own devices with them because using their own laptops and tablets will save a lot of space. Just make sure that you have a clear bring your own device policy in place, so you can make sure that those devices are secure before employees start accessing sensitive company data on there.
Use Cloud Storage
Secure data storage is a priority for all businesses, but if you are storing your data on local servers, you are wasting a lot of space. You will need an office large enough to hold all of those servers. You will also need to deal with the maintenance of those servers to ensure that your data is secure. But if you switch to cloud storage, you don’t have to keep servers on site and manage their maintenance. You can cut back on your office space in a big way and save yourself a lot of money. Cloud storage is also a lot more secure because you can leave cyber-security to the hosting service, rather than handling it on your own, and they will have more resources to protect your data.
The business world is changing a lot and you no longer need a huge office space. If you want to save money, you should consider some of these different methods for downsizing.
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