How to Build Out your Office Space
Planning an Office Build-Out
Organizing the build-out of your new office space is a fundamental step in the whole office relocation process. Most offices, unless it's a serviced office space, will be handed over to you as a "shell" which gives you the responsibility (and opportunity!) for deciding how your company wants to most effectively/efficiently use the space so that it can best support your business.
An office build-out is a job that will require you to work alongside an Office Interiors Specialist.. They will be able to guide you through the entire build-out to ensure that deadlines are met, budgets are stuck to and that the build-out is delivered to the agreed requirements.
The first piece of advice for business owners is to ensure that the office space they choose is going to meet their space requirements in the future. It can be tricky trying to work out how much your business is going to grow, but this Office Space Calculator will help you work out how much office space you need. Simply enter the number of employees you have, then add add an additional 10% to account for any business growth.
Before embarking on any office build-out, you need to identify your businesses primary concerns and requirements. Consider issues such as:
- Facilities (lobby, rest rooms, kitchen, comms room)
- Number of private offices or cubicles
- Break out Areas
- Storage requirements - do you want your storage to be integrated with your build out, or as stand alone units (or both)
- Partitioning
- Flooring & Lighting
- Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning
A good Office Interiors Company will talk you through the entire process and provide you with an estimate to carry out the works on your chosen office space. Make sure you discuss with them your available budget and timeline of the move and make double sure that agree to meet these deliverables.
The build-out should be such that it best utilizes the office space, and should also complement your company's working practices and requirements. For example, if your business involves lots of collaboration amongst team members, an open plan layout will work best. It's important that you get your Landlord's permission before undertaking any build out project on the space.
And don't forget that your office lease will most likely require you to modify the space before you leave to put the space back to its original state. Be mindful of this during the build out planning stage as retrofitting can be costly. As with all projects, excellent project management is key to success.
You should aim to hold weekly meetings with your appointed Contractor throughout the build out stage to ensure that everyone is kept updated and any changes to the overall brief is discussed.
For more information on all things "office interiors" we have put together this free Tenants Guide to Office Design.
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