Regardless of whether you’re just starting out in your first office or whether you’re just moving office there are a lot of things you have to take into considerations; these are of course the things that you will have to have dealt with in order for business to start or continue effectively. However, with all the stress of dealing with the office, designing the office and arranging things for employees and clients to make them aware of the location and so on and so forth it can be very easy to forget some of the most important things.
First things first; you’re going to need to set up the working environment. This means that you should ensure there is space for all of the employees, make sure they have a desk, comfortable enough chair and of course the correct computer equipment they will need. If your business is going to have specific requirements or you’re just not 100% comfortable setting up the computers you will be needing there are plenty of companies that will find you the computers you need based on your business requirements and ensure that they have all the software and hardware you need fully installed and ready to go. This will make things much easier for you a little later down the line when you would otherwise be trying to get staff members to work on machines that aren’t properly set up yet.
Installing the phone line is a particularly essential part, otherwise how would your customers get in touch? You need to be sure that the phone line has all the right extensions and you would be far better off installing a better range model and cable modem system, something that will provide constant and reliable service throughout your time in the business. It is very important that your phone systems are set up properly and you know how to use them, not only is it unprofessional otherwise but it is also a problem in terms of communication, lack of understanding or capability of the system will result in more problems than its really worth,
It is very easy to forget additional things like cameras, scanners, printers, photocopiers and fax machines but they are important and well worth the purchase. You will find that while working you do use them a lot more than you would expect, regardless of what business area you’re working in and they are basically a useful thing to have around. It is important that you present yourself with professionalism, so forgetting about it and trying to get a customer to fax you a document will do you no good at all. In a similar way you should also make sure you have a business website and of course business email addresses are also very important, these are the best possible way of ensuring that you can be contacted, as well as providing you with a way of advertising and marketing your business and informing your customers. Be sure that you keep these up to date and check them frequently, it may also be useful to employ a company that will monitor activity and security, this will protect you if something goes wrong and means that you have someone you will be able to turn to for advice.
Things like stationary, display boards, white boards, and filing systems are all important if you want to be sure that you keep everything organised and efficient. Having these items around the office makes it easier for everyone to understand what tasks have been designated to whom and follow the progress of projects, it is always very important that you and your employees know what is going on, so having displays where this can be shown as well as appropriate filing systems ensures that everything is on track as it should be. As an additional note you should be sure to deal with all the key business needs; business licence, insurance, bank account, business plan, and so on an so forth.
This post has been contributed by Kate – currently writing for office storage company Modular Systems.
