Moving your company from a small office or a home to a larger office can be an exciting time but it can also be a very expensive time. Office furniture can be expensive and depending on the type of business you are running can inhibit your employee's energy and productivity. I have often found that walking into an office with neon lighting and gray cubicles on all side takes the energy out of me as soon as I move into the room. I feel this is to often the way that companies find solutions for their office needs. With a little creativity and some advanced planning for you move you can setup your office to run with as much efficiency as a traditional corporate atmosphere, and your employee's will be much more enthusiastic about coming into work.
For the small business which has to provide for up to twenty employees I have seen several companies find large houses to provide the necessary workspace for their employees. These offices generally will have a more homey feel and create a great space when you have visitors in setting up workstations throughout the house and using the individual rooms as either executive offices. Also a living room or dining room can be used easily as a conference room and meeting place. Assigning teams that work together a single room to work together in can improve productivity and boost the rate at which
communication takes place.
Another alternative to the traditional cubicle style office is to convert a large studio space into an office. Spreading you employees out around a large central conference table or room give them the ability to have the privacy a phone based business requires. The ideal situation would include some directional lighting and removes neon overhead lighting. The best situation would include some amount of natural daylight coming in through the windows as studies have shown that overhead neon lighting drains employee energy and daylight tends to increase energy and moral.
However you decide to design your next office you should bear in mind that it reflects on you and your company how drab or how creative your office space becomes.
