Let me explain why office downsizing is your next move:
- You have fewer employees to support now.
- You have workers that want to work from home permanently.
- You want to keep in-office staff healthy.
When the COVID virus hit, and shelter in place orders started, business, as we know, it changed forever as fear of what the future might bring sank in.
In the beginning, there was hoarding. At home, people began hoarding bottled water and toilet paper. At work, companies started hoarding cash, and reserves were held onto tightly. Invoices stopped being paid, and new orders were put on indefinite hold. Non-essential staff were let go, and essential team members were sent home to work remotely.
A global downsizing of companies has occurred.
Some businesses have reduced just a few staff that they knew weren’t a good fit. Others slashed staff by more than fifty percent due to the financial inability to support them.
When the official shelter in place order was issued, we all grabbed our office gear and headed home. Now, months later, we realize that there are a lot of great employees that work just as well at home as they did in the office. And many of those great employees want to stay working from home permanently.
As a business owner, growing the business is the goal. After all, if you grow the business, you grow the bottom line.
But these are extraordinary times, and extraordinary times call for decisive responses.
In today’s business environment, you don’t have to grow your staff count to increase your bottom line. You can quickly improve your bottom line by merely downsizing your office space.
Let’s say, for example, pre-COVID; you had an office of 24 staff. With a typical layoff rate of 20%, you would have reduced your staff to about 19 people. And now that these remaining 19 have spent the past 2-3 months working from home, you and they have come to realize that they don’t need to be physically present to complete their work. Out of your 19 remaining staff, half are successfully working remotely and have no desire to return to an office environment.
Now, take a good hard look at the office you rent.
It was probably over-sized, to begin with, because growth was in the plan. All of a sudden, you realize that you’re paying rent on an office that seats 30. And all you need is an office that seats 8-10.
That’s a 66% reduction!
Or to put it another way,
You’re wasting 33% of your office budget by staying in an over-sized location.
Now is a great time to pivot.
Before moving back in, evaluate your existing office to see if it’s the right fit for the staff that will come back to the office when it reopens. The team you have now, not the team you used to have.
Don’t waste precious cash resources paying for an office that is 3x bigger than you’ll need. Reduce waste by finding a smaller office.
Remote working has become the new normal, and the successful corporate image looks different now. Where once a successful corporate image was a large office in a downtown environment, now it is one of flexibility and adaptability. There is no longer a need to occupy a large downtown office. Look at Coca-cola for example, they aren’t reopening their offices anytime soon.
That flexibility and adaptability are what will keep them successful in the long run. They don’t need for their staff to be in high-rise towers to project a successful image. They just need their team to be capable, happy, and above all, healthy. And so do you.
This is a time in history when “less is more.” Less in-person interaction, less travel, less waste, and less spending. And these all apply to office spaces as well.
The positive side-effects to downsizing your office.
Smaller offices are healthy.
Reducing the amount of in-person contact your staff has with each other will naturally reduce the spread of germs. Reduced interactions used to be considered a negative office environment. But now, with COVID in the world, and so many people having underlying health issues. The less contact with each other, the better.
To limit the unhealthy spread of germs, ditch the cubicle farm, and find an office environment with as many individual offices as possible.
Smaller offices can be closer to home.
Generally speaking, the larger the office space you need, the larger the city in which it’s located. Small communities don’t have a large enough population to support large office buildings, so you’ll find smaller offices in smaller towns.
Now that you have less in-office staff, you can survey where they live and find an office location that is closer to home for everyone. Shorter daily commutes are less wasteful of time and energy, and much less stressful on staff.
Smaller offices cost less.
Not just less rent, but fewer utility costs as well. If you reduce your office space by 50%, you’ll not only be reducing your rent by 50%, but your utilities by 50% as well. When downsizing offices, cost-saving reductions happen across the board.
Spending less on rent means you have more cash flow for other growth opportunities. Having more cash available in reserve helps a business owner sleep at night. Or the newly found windfall can be used for new hires, marketing or community outreach goes a long way for employee and self morale.
Smaller teams collaborate.
When employees are within earshot of each other, they see and feel work happening. Having an office environment with a variety of meeting areas, and a strong sense of community creates an energy that spills over into collaboration.
Want to learn more about office collaboration? Havard Business Review has a list of eight ways to build office collaboration here.
Moving offices is exciting!
A new location can create a fresh perspective and a rush of adrenaline.
Accenture moved from 3 floors and 66,000 square feet to 1 floor and 25,000 square feet. Learn more about their downsizing results from the Steelcase Accenture Case Study Video, here.
Key Takeaways
1. Downsizing your office can be a positive strategic business move.
2. Downsizing done correctly can save your company money.
3. Collaboration increases when companies downsize their workspace.
4. Productivity increases, and there’s a boost of excitement when your office relocates.
Our office building and rental suites check all these boxes.
The building design includes seven individual offices that seat 1-4 people each. All office suites include a private or semi-private restroom. There are both indoor and outdoor meeting spaces, with plenty of room to spread out.
The building is located in the historic district of Kennesaw, a walk-able community with a small-town feel. And we’re closer to home, which will limit commute times.
Check out the details here.
Resources
https://kennesawofficesuites.com/welcome-to-kennesaw-office-suites/
https://hbr.org/2007/11/eight-ways-to-build-collaborative-teams
http://www.inc.com/erik-sherman/5-ways-to-downsize-office-space-boost-collaboration.html
If you’d like to know more about Kennesaw Office Suites, feel free to browse through our website. The three available suites are Suite 610, Suite 620, and Suite 630. They are all on the second floor of the building.
My business, Calbert Design Group, LLC, occupies Suite 600 located on the first floor.
If you’d like a tour of the facility, or are interested in renting a suite, please email me directly at [email protected] or call 404-434-9531.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Rebecca Calbert, Owner
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