Do your due diligence first. Start with the office location selection. If you’re looking at a completely new space, investigate what’s nearby that’s important to your employees. Is your new workplace close to a gym, top-tier restaurants and cafes? 

When you walk around your office, do you see empty seats because you have salespeople out in the field or staff working from home? Depending on the nature of your team’s roles, you may be able to reduce the number of permanent seats and encourage a more agile working environment where people can choose the space that best suits the work they’re doing – whether it be a hush room to concentrate or a hub spot to collaborate. This may mean that even though your business is growing, you can occupy the same amount of space simply by better utilising what you have.

Determine what your employees or customers actually want and need before starting work on floorplans and look-and-feel specifications. 

When it comes to designing and building your office space, there are a lot of investments you can’t see, such as fire treatments and fire ratings, sound proofing, surface requirements and gas suppression systems, among others. You may need to invest in early warning systems rather than a sprinkler system for example, if you are a garment company and want to protect your inventory from fire/smoke/water damage. 

These often unseen elements need to be considered in your design plans. It’s one thing to have a great looking office but it’s how it functions, performs and insures your most valuable assets as a business that is just as critical.