Office space is a hot commodity as businesses need a physical location to operate. Many businesses will actually spend their first few years renting an office space. However, if you’ve decided that it’s time to buy your own space, here are three things you’ll want to know first.
Your Future Expansion Plans
The reason that most businesses rent when they first start out is that they grow quickly and they need to be able to expand their physical space with their staff increases. Before you plan on investing money in buying your very own office space, it’s important to consider your future needs. You’ll need a good idea of how much you expect the staffing to be increased and be able to calculate how much space that’s going to lead to. This way, you can ensure whatever location you purchase will be able to fit the needs of your company in the future years to come.
The Longevity of the Build
Before you purchase any sort of property, you should be doing an assessment of it. From understanding pricing to hiring a geotechnical engineer to assess soil conditions, there are various practices you should follow. These will all ensure that you don’t run into any major future issues with your property. All too often, business owners just want to get into a commercial location, and they forget to do the proper research about the property. This leads to issues with soil erosion, sinkholes, and so forth. Do yourself a favor and get the technical analysis done before you buy the property to ensure your long-term prosperity there.
The True Cost of Owning
With so many benefits to owning your own office space over renting, it can be really easy to skip over the true costs behind it. When you own the place, you can’t just call up your landlord and tell them there’s a problem that needs to be dealt with. Rather, you have to deal with the problem. You’ll also need to account for regular maintenance expenses like roof replacement. Take the time to really assess the true cost of owning your own office space as compared to paying rent so you have a clear idea of what you’re deciding to do.
Before you go out to buy office space for your business, you should be doing your research and assessing your future needs. The above are three of the biggest things you should consider in your decision. Remember to take your time to ensure the office space you pick will fit your business well.
Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most of her time hiking, biking, and gardening. For more information, contact Brooke via Facebook at facebook.com/brooke.chaplan or Twitter @BrookeChaplan