Finding the Right Office Space for Your Business

Whether your business is ready for a change of scenery or if you’re simply looking for your first office space, there are many factors to consider when finding the right space for your business.

Ultimately, you spend the majority of your week working, so making sure your office space suits the needs of your business and employees is key.

Below, we’ve shared 6 steps that we believe are absolutely crucial when finding office space for your business.

6 steps to ensure you find your perfect office space

1. Decide whether you need an office space



Since 2020, most businesses where possible, are more flexible with where their staff work, with some employees working from home permanently and others adopting a hybrid working pattern. This means that not every business will need an office or if they do, they may only need a small office space.

On the flip side, you may have found home working to be really disruptive and unpredictable. With Wi-Fi issues, screaming children, drops in productivity levels and difficulty in switching off from work, being just a few problems that you can encounter with remote working!

Office spaces allow employees to have a more structured working environment than at home, where they can have fixed desks, meeting rooms and an environment free from any stress from their personal lives.

Also, it’s easy to forget the value that having an office space has in shaping a successful business, as it’s arguably the most important factor in fostering great company culture. Office spaces can boost team morale, by allowing employees to meet in person rather than only ever seeing each other over a screen. In turn, having employees that feel more connected to one another, allows for great company culture and a more successful business.

Overall, when you’re considering finding an office space to rent, you need to think about whether your business needs one in the first place. However, don’t underestimate the value that office spaces have on company culture and employee wellbeing.

If you’re still weighing up whether you need to rent work space or not, read our blog sharing 5 signs for small business owners that it’s time to rent an office. If any of these signs apply to you, you need to find an office space to rent!

2. Evaluate how much office space you need

So, if you’ve decided you do need an office space, the next step is to evaluate how much space you need.

We’ve broken down the key components that you need to think about when evaluating how much office space you need:

Employees

The core component in deciding how much office space you need, is to work out how many employees will actually come to the office.

If your staff permanently work from home or work partly from home and partly from the office, you might only need a small office space. Whereas if your employees work fully from the office, you’ll most likely need a much larger office space.

If you’re stuck trying to figure this out, take a look at our calculator to help you calculate how much office space you need per person.

Storage

Whether it’s moving house or moving office, storage is always something that tends to be underrated when evaluating how much space you need.

However, it’s a very important factor that you need to think about when finding the best office space for your business.

• Do you have a lot of files? Or are you paperless?
  
• Do you need to store IT equipment and stationery?

Take the time to answer these questions and really evaluate what storage requirements you need from your next office space.

Failing to do this now, could result in you having to move office sooner than you’d like because you’ve outgrown the space due to not factoring in your storage requirements.

Meeting rooms

When looking for your new office space to rent, you need to consider whether you need a meeting room and how many you may need.

Having an office with a meeting room means that you can easily bring potential clients and existing clients to your office space without disturbing the team. Also, meeting rooms allow staff a quiet, undisturbed space that they can have internal meetings in without disrupting everyone in the office.

Meeting rooms can also strengthen your brand image, as having a room that has exclusive use for meetings can make your business appear more professional.

The team at Tanshire Business park can evaluate your requirements for meeting rooms and even construct them for you to create a space bespoke for your needs. Find out more about our bespoke office fit out service.

Recreational space 

Gone are the days where small businesses have a traditional office space consisting of just desks, tables and storage. Many businesses now have offices with more modern requirements, such as breakout spaces, games tables and drinks refrigerators.

So as well as determining how many desks you need to cater for, how much storage you’ll need and if you need a meeting room, you also need to think about how much recreational space your office needs.

3. Determine your ideal location for your office space

Now you’ve worked out how much space your office needs to have, you now need to decide a good location for your office.

Location is critical when finding the right office space for your business, as it needs to be accessible by your clients and employees, as well as being in a good location to attract potential clients.

We’ve narrowed down the key points you need to consider when finding the perfect location for your office. But if you’re still stuck, read our blog on choosing the ideal office location for growing a business.

Where do your employees live?

If it’s your first office space and you don’t yet have employees, you need to future proof your business by making sure your office can be easily accessible by employees.

Take the time to decide whether you need your office to be accessible by public transport or whether employees can access it by car.

However, if you’re looking for a new office space to rent, then you need to ensure your office doesn’t stray too far away from where your staff live. The last thing you want is for your staff who had a 30-minute commute, suddenly having to commute for over an hour to get to work!

Also, you could consider which local amenities are close by for your staff to enjoy, such as coffee shops, restaurants and pubs. It’s even better if your office has a coffee shop or café on site for the whole team to enjoy!

Where are your clients based?

With your existing client base, if they need to come into the office to meet you, you need to ensure it’s in close proximity to where they are based. Having an office too far from your clients could result in them getting annoyed and leaving you as a client.

Where can you attract new business?

Finding the perfect location for attracting new business is important. Having the right office space location can help create brand awareness for you by being close to other businesses.

When thinking about the perfect location for attracting new business, you should consider the following questions:

• Do you want to be in close proximity to a local town that has local businesses?
  
• Do you want to be based within a serviced office environment, where you have the chance to be connected to businesses that could turn into future clients?
  
• Is there good parking on-site for you to potentially host networking events at your office?

All of these questions will help you find the right office space to help you gain clients.

4. Decide which amenities are non-negotiable with your new office space 

Once you’ve decided how much space you need and where you want your office space to be located, the next step is understanding which amenities your business needs to have on-site.

To help you work out what’s important to you in finding your office space, we’ve listed a few questions you should ask yourself below:

• Is there on-site parking?
• If there is parking, is there enough for both team members and clients?
• Are there toilet and shower facilities?
• Is there a kitchen and/or a café?
• Is there high-speed internet?
• Is there any space outside of the office, such as communal gardens?
• Does the building have enough meeting rooms or can you have one in your office?

All of these questions are really vital in making sure you get the longevity out of your new office space. At Tanshire Business Park, we offer our businesses a range of amenities such as kitchens, showers and toilets, on-site café, parking, meeting rooms, high speed internet and more.

Finding an office space to rent allows you greater flexibility than buying a property, as you can easily move to another office within the complex when you need more space.

5. Review the contract and terms of your chosen office space 

Before you sign the dotted line, make sure you read the small print of your office contract and terms to ensure it’s right for your business.

• Is it a long term contract or a short term one?
  
• Are the payments taken on a monthly basis or annually?
  
• Are the maintenance costs included within the payments or do you have to pay for this separately?
  
• Are there any hidden costs?

These are all important questions you need to check before saying yes to renting an office space.

6. Work out the design of your office space 

So once you’ve found your office space, you can work on the exciting part – designing your new space! Try and think outside the box of a traditional office space design, and imagine how you’d like your dream office space to look.

There are many things to consider here, such as ensuring that each employee has a personal working space that doesn’t invade on others too much – there’s nothing worse than having to constantly squeeze past backs of chairs! Also, make sure the desks get a good amount of natural light on them to avoid your staff feeling unmotivated to work.

Also, you need to think about whether you need breakout spaces or collaborative areas for employees to relax at lunch and to foster collaboration amongst the team.

Don’t underestimate the importance of a good work environment for your staff, the more excited they feel to come to work, the better their productivity and wellbeing will be. If you’d like more inspiration, we’ve created a guide on designing an office space for good mental health and wellbeing.

Finding the right office space for your business

Overall, whether you’re wanting to relocate your office or move into your first office space, there are 6 steps you need to take before doing so.

Fundamentally, finding the right office space for your business is key for your business’ success and employee wellbeing. If you need more help, we’ve created a guide to provide you with everything you need to know about renting an office space.

Find your perfect office space with Tanshire Business Park

If you’re based in Guildford, Woking, Godalming, Haslemere, Farnham or Surrey and are looking for office space to let in Surrey, we can help you.

At Tanshire Business Park, we provide office space to rent in Elstead, Surrey. We offer a range of small and large office spaces to let in a beautiful and peaceful countryside location. We’re easily accessible by car and public transport, with it being a 12-minute drive to Guildford station.

We’re proud to offer a range of on-site amenities to small and medium sized businesses, including:

• Allocated parking spaces
• Meeting rooms which are easily bookable
• On-site café
• Kitchens in the offices or to share
• Access control to all the buildings and intercoms for all the offices
• Air conditioning
• Fast internet! We have high speed fibre optic broadband
• Toilets and showers with changing rooms
• A place to store bicycles

Also, we take great care of our tenants who rent work space with us, by having security cameras and on-site management.

Find your dream office space with us today

If you’d like more information on finding an office space to let in the Surrey countryside, check our availability page or contact Jonathan to book a viewing on 07841 397151 or by emailing jonathan@tanshiremanagement.co.uk