The recent upheaval caused by the pandemic and the disruption it has caused to the workforce has given a lot of people pause to consider how they make their own money. A lot of people made the transition from working a job to running a business from home and, now, plenty of those home businesses are ready to grow after earning a profit. If you’re looking at moving into an office, what exactly do you need to consider? Here, we’re going to look at some aspects of scaling that you should be thinking about.
When should you do it?
Perhaps the most important question is “when is the right time to move the business into an office?” There are a few signs that it might be time to move your business. Chief amongst them is that you simply can’t handle the day-to-day by yourself anymore, and you need to accommodate the growth of your business with more people and the tools and space they need to help. Some can instead go the path of running a remote business, but many still find the answers of having an office, such as building a good workplace culture, getting away from the distractions of home, and having somewhere to invite your future clients.
Let’s start with the office premises themselves
The actual office that you’re moving into is going to be one of the biggest choices you’re about to make. You might want to start relatively small and flexible by looking at co-working spaces that allow you to temporarily lease space where you and a small team might work with others, but the traditional route of renting or buying your own office space is still the most popular option. The size of the office, as well as how well it can accommodate whatever tech you need to use, might be the most important aspect, but you also have to seriously consider the location, especially when it comes to how easily you can connect to your team’s commuting routes, as well as any suppliers you might be inviting.
Inviting people onto the team
Perhaps you’ve already hired people to work with your business, so you might have some idea of what it entails already. However, for some, working in an office space alongside those individuals requires a slightly different approach. Make sure that you’re choosing the best candidate for the job, not only by looking at their skills, experience, and the attitude they have about work, but think about how well they fit the culture that you are trying to create in the workplace, as well. A workhorse might be all well and good but if they bring some toxic or negative behaviours with them, it can start to influence the whole office. Of course, make sure that you’re only hiring for roles that you’re certain you need, too.
Getting your tech setup right
If you have been running a business from home, then you might well already know just how important having the right tech is. However, your needs are going to increase exponentially once you’re out of the home. It’s not just about getting more digital tech like PCs, laptops, and printers. You need to think about your network, communications such as VoIP, how you handle and secure data, as well as the benefits of things like automation and Cloud software. To that end, it’s a good idea to find relevant outsourced IT support services and to have them help you early. You need more than just a team that can fix things, you want to make sure that you give your team the tools they need to work as efficiently and securely as possible.
Adapt your brand and approach
Since you’re scaling the business, it’s a good idea to reconsider the identity of the business as it stands. You should always be mindful of your unique value proposition, but the story and voice of the brand might change. You’re no longer a sole individual running a small business from home, but a growing team out and moving in the world to provide products and services from an office. That should reflect in your branding. Adjusting your branding should be done with care, so you might want to consider outsourced marketing agencies to help you transition.
Consider learning more about business
There’s a good chance that you’ve already got some business savvy if you’re growing fast enough to demand that move into an office building. However, the bigger a business gets, the more complex it gets, with a need for further planning and more adaptability from you, the owner. As such, business administration courses could help you in terms of learning how to run a business with multiple people, organizing their efforts as best as possible, while managing their needs. You don’t necessarily need formal business education to learn about business, either. You can look at the role a mentor might play in your entrepreneurship, as well, for instance.
Make sure that you can afford all of it
Before you pull the trigger on any of the things above, you have to budget it all and ensure that you have the means to pay for all of it. You might need to take out a loan to afford everything initially, but it’s the loan repayments and overheads added that you need to make sure that you can pay off, at a minimum. Don’t rely on projections from your current rate of growth, you can’t tell the future. Invest in your business as much as your current rate allows right now, and not any more. A lot of small businesses fail to scale because they spend more than they’re able to pay.
Scaling your business is always a tricky and daunting task. Before you start investing any money, you need to make sure that you have a good idea of what you need, how you can afford it, and how to roll out the process in the safest and most reliable way possible.
