Are you a small business owner that manages a small office space? Running your own business can be a one-way ticket to success, with your earning potential only limited by your drive, strategy and business nous. Sure, there’s stress, anxiety, and long hours, but if you grind hard enough, you can grow your business from small to medium and potentially to even a large enterprise.
Yet there’s much to consider when working in a small office space. You must utilise the available space and balance it with your staffing requirements. It can be challenging to manage if you’ve outgrown your small office but are not quite ready to move to bigger premises.
Luckily, this helpful article will help you to maximise efficiency in a compact office environment. Read on to discover more.
Engage a Commercial Fitout Partner
You should consider engaging an agile turnkey commercial fitout partner like Workspace 360. These are companies that specialise in making an office fit for purpose. They can work with you every step of the way to transform your small office space into one that is efficient and works for you and your business requirements.
For instance, a fitout company will consult with you on what you need from your office premises, ensuring they’ve fully understood what your organisation needs regarding physical space. Then, they’ll execute the design and renovation of your office, entirely fitting it out and transforming it into a solution for your space problems.
Consider Hybrid Roles
One way you can save space in a small office environment is by offering hybrid roles to your workforce. For instance, for full-time staff, you can offer two to three days working from home; the rest of the time, they are expected to work from the office. You can stagger the days between different staff members, so your available office space is well utilised. For instance, if you have ten staff but only room for five of them to work from the office, roster the days between them so five are on site, and five are working from home each week on alternating days.
Invest in Smart Storage Solutions
Part of the problem with small office space is that there is little room for storage. Items like complex copy files, stationery, office equipment and other miscellaneous items take up room. There are a few solutions to this. As part of your office fitout process described above, you can get custom-built cabinetry that offers additional storage solutions. You can get under-desk filing cabinets for staff to utilise, as their desk space is already factored in, and a wheeled cabinet can easily fit underneath a desk.
Still, Stuck for Storage Space? Go Digital
All that paperwork can quickly stack up, and if your office doesn’t have sufficient space to store it, you might think you need to pay for external archiving. However, you can reduce the amount of hard-copy paper documents by pivoting to digital-only documentation. This is a great way to reduce your storage space requirements and save on printing and copying. You can use affordable, secure cloud-based storage for your documents and invest in technology that allows clients and your staff to sign documents requiring approval digitally.
Consider an Open Plan Design
Office cubicles are a dated and tired office design theme and take up too much space. If your small office environment has cubicles, consider scrapping them for an open-plan office when you commence your new fit out. As well as maximising available floor space, an open-plan office design encourages collaboration and cross-pollination between your staff, as everyone can see and talk to their colleagues freely.
Invest in Whiteboard Walls
Rather than having bulky whiteboards on wheels, as part of your office fitout, you can wall-mount whiteboards to your walls. This will allow your team to sketch and take notes while brainstorming business solutions, which can then be photographed to keep a record, and wiped clean for the following people to use.
Remove Unnecessary Clutter
If you want your small office space to be streamlined and efficient, take stock of all the clutter that is taking up space in your office. If furniture pieces, such as couches and chairs, are infrequently used, you should consider donating them to a charity or giving them away to friends and family. Do this for all odds and ends that aren’t used frequently, and you’ll find you can make heaps of room in your business space.
A Small Office Summary
This helpful article has shared about small spaces and big ideas and how you can maximise efficiency and productivity in a compact office environment. From a custom office fitout solution to storage hacks and removing clutter, this article should help you revamp your small premises to maximise efficiency.
