Nothing is better than running a home business…after all, who wouldn’t love working on their own schedule and from the comfort of their own home? When you are running a home business, you don’t have to worry about office space, employees or other finicky responsibilities that come with renting or owning a business space.
However, in many situations, as a home business continues to expand, there will eventually come a time where the home space just no longer cuts it. If you find yourself in that predicament, this is the article for you. Today, we have a look at how to transition from a home business to a full office set up, so read on to find out more!
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Gather Your Supplies
Transitioning to a full office set up means the time has come to gather your supplies. When running your business from home, you may be able to get away with using fewer resources and tools to keep your business afloat. However, once you upgrade to office setup, you must ensure you’ve covered all the basics. This means ensuring that you have invested in essentials such as stationery, paper, copy machines and printers.
If that sounds a little overwhelming, don’t worry. You can simply hop on your computer and purchase items such as printer cartridges online and easily get all these resources sent to you in one shipment. An office needs office things, so this is step 1 towards transitioning your business!
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Look Into Your Finances
Finances play a key role when transitioning your business into a full office setup. Now that you are going to be working out of a rented commercial space, you will have to ensure that you have carefully analyzed your finances in order to ensure that you can keep up with monthly rent, bills, and other expenses.
Don’t forget that moving all your stuff to your new office space will probably require movers, so always ensure that you have budgeted for all the components of transitioning prior to making the jump.
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Choose Your Location Wisely
After numerous years of working out of your own home, you may not realise how important a well-located office actually is. Transitioning from working from your living room or home study to a commercial space that you will have to travel to is a huge step, which is why choosing a location that is convenient for you and your business proceedings is so crucial.
Take into consideration that you will now have to wake up, get ready and commute to and from work every single day when choosing your ideal location. Of course, at the same time, you don’t want your office space to be too close to home that it almost never feels like you’re leaving your house. If possible, choosing a location that is 20 minutes away by car or foot offers the best of both worlds.
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Update Your Contact Information
Updating your contact information for both your customers and employees prior to the move is so incredibly important. Always remember to update letterheads, business cards, the contact information on websites and social media, and even send out an email to your database to let everyone know that you’re making the huge upgrade to a full office setup.
This will help to ensure that mail isn’t sent to the wrong address and that people can get ahold of you easily once you have made the move. This will also allow employees to adjust to the new location sooner rather than later!
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Get Some Help
Moving from your home to an office sounds easy enough, right? Well, not really. This is why we always recommend that you use professional movers when making a big shift. Having help can greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to make the transition and can also help avoid accidents and awry situations from arising should someone accidentally drop a printer (or two).
Moving quickly will also ensure that you are able to get back to business ASAP and with as little downtime as possible, which is often a huge concern when shifting locations.
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Don’t Overcommit
Last but most importantly, avoid over-committing. Instead of signing a long term lease, why not start off with a 6-month agreement? This allows you to suss out the profitability of your business in its early days without locking yourself into an agreement that lasts for years.
We also recommend seeking out fully furnished office providers so that you don’t have to commit to buying office furniture early on in the game. Better off renting at the start than spending thousands of dollars in your first month of operation! Always remember that there is absolutely nothing wrong with gradually upgrading, so take your time and stay within your budget.
Transitioning your business from a home set up to a full office set up is one of the biggest achievements for any home-based business owner. We hope that this article has given you the insight you need to make your transition as smooth as possible! Best of luck!