Growing Your Company II



GROWING YOUR COMPANY WITH 4 CRITICAL IDEAS (PART II)

Last week, we discussed location requirements and questions when growing your company. Choosing a location is dependent on your company culture, who your employees are, in addition to who your clients are. It is also determined by where they live, and what they like to do.

Once you’ve narrowed down your location, what’s next? Any lease will do, right? Any size works, as long as you use the correct square feet per employee ratio, right? Well…not so fast. You still plan to grow. In addition, you never quite know when that big contract will finally be signed. In other words, plan for the unexpected, even when looking for space and developing a lease.


Preplanning is Key to Growing Your Company

When managing a growing organization, it’s important to plan ahead. Even floor plans make a difference. For example, it’s much easier to add work stations to open space, than it is to squeeze multiple people into an office created for one. It’s also much easier to put extra restrooms into a space before you move in. Chaos ensues when you try to add them after you’ve outgrown the two stalls you originally installed. No one wants lines out the door because you planned for additional workstations but forgot about restrooms and kitchen space.

The Lease Agreement

And then there’s the actual lease! Ideally, you’d like the right to expand into adjacent space, if necessary. That seems obvious. Less obvious, however, is the often, overlooked sentence giving you only 5 days to make the decision. It takes some people longer than that to decide on lunch, let alone trying to get board or management team approval to expand your space.

In addition, what if the landlord can’t expand your space at all? What if there’s no other space available? You may need to move or expand before your lease expires. Finding a property that can accommodate your growth is key. Prepare ahead to ensure you and your employees have enough room. I recently toured a space where they were so short of space that employees were sitting on the floor. I’m pretty sure, in the long run, that’s not a great recruiting tool!


Growing your company is hard. Finding the right amount of the right space can make that job a bit easier. Find a real estate professional to help you find the right space. That results in your ability to focus on what’s truly important – growing your business. And, at Rise Pittsburgh, we’d love to be part of your team that helps you along the way.

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