Month: July 2015
Tips on Finding a Good Designer for Your Office Space
Whether you are planning to redesign your current office or are moving to a new one, an office space designer will be necessary to take you through the process. But, how does one find a good office space designer?
Well, the best way to find a designer is through referrals. Your real estate agent may have a few designers that he/she could recommend. You may also ask your fellow business contacts whose office spaces you admire who their designers were.
Once you have a few names to choose from, do your homework to help narrow down the designers you may want to use. A good designer would have the following qualities:
- Experience in commercial office space design– There are two types of designers: ones that specialize in residential projects and ones that specialize commercial projects. You want a designer that specializes in designing the same or similar office space as you have or are planning to be in. So, if you are in (or are planning to be in) a commercial office space, you want a designer who specializes in designing commercial office spaces.
- Experience in higher budget projects – Commercial office space designers could have a variety of experience but you want the one(s) that have experience in higher budget projects or at least projects about the same size as yours. Upon your request, a good designer would be willing to provide you with a sample package of examples, including photos and detailed descriptions, of office spaces they have designed that are similar to your office space in size and/or layout. Note: their sample package is a great way to determine the style tendencies of the designer as well. For example, a designer that many have the tendency to be quite trendy may not be a good fit for a business that prefers to stay quite traditional in style.
- Client-focused – It is in the creative nature of a designer to see a space and immediately begin offering suggestions without learning about or understanding a business’ needs or goals. A good designer would take time to understand your business, your company culture, your business flow or style, your company size, your collaboration and/or non-collaboration needs, etc., before offering suggestions for your office space
One of our client’s invited us to their new office space and said, “We need a private area, reception area, a testing area, bathroom….you figure it out”. Because we took the time beforehand to understand the flow of their particular business, we were able to present a design for their office space that was unique and tailored to them. When the client saw the plan, he responded, “You’ve got it…right on the money.”
My point: A designer with the above qualities is sure to help you design your office space in a way that is ideal for your business.
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DJ McGauley and Associates Inc. is your Office Move, Reconstruction and Reconfiguration Project Management Company of choice for the Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas. If an office move or reconstruction of your 2000 – 25,000sqft office space is a remote possibility, consider contacting us to arrange a no-obligation site meeting. We guarantee that by the end of that meeting you will know all that would be required to make your office move/reconstruction project a successful reality.
Call 416-239-1931, email [email protected], or visit our website to complete our contact form.
Case for Commercial Office Furniture
Non-commercial and commercial office furniture can look good and function well in any office space, but if you were to ask us to recommend a grade of office furniture for your business, nine times out of ten we would likely recommend going with commercial office furniture if your budget permits. Here is why:
Expansion and Moveability. Commercial office furniture disassembles and reassembles well and can survive relocations.
Longevity. Commercial office furniture is built to withstand frequent usage and high levels of business activity, therefore has the potential to look “as good as new” for a longer period of time (i.e. will not delaminate or scratch as easily) despite frequency of usage.
Storage & Sound Barriers. If physical storage space is an important element for your business, then commercial office furniture has physical storage space usually included in its system package and is of better quality. Similarly, if your office space is divided into cubicles and sound barriers are required to lessen interferences with business calls, then commercial office furniture is ideal.
As mentioned in a previous blog, office furniture is a viable asset to your company. Hence, when considering the longevity of your business and your office furniture, investing in commercial office furniture would be a better long-term investment.
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DJ McGauley and Associates Inc. is your Office Move, Reconstruction and Reconfiguration Project Management Company of choice for the Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas. If an office move or reconstruction of your 2000 – 25,000sqft office space is a remote possibility, consider contacting us to arrange a no-obligation site meeting. We guarantee that by the end of that meeting you will know all that would be required to make your office move/reconstruction project a successful reality.
Call 416-239-1931 , email [email protected], or visit our website to complete our contact form.
Commercial vs Home Office Furniture—Which is Best for Your Business?
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Office furniture can play a crucial role in substantiating a business, however, with different grades of office furniture to choose from — namely home-graded vs commercial graded office furniture– how does one decide which office furniture is best for their office space?
First, I should probably clarify what I mean by home-graded vs commercial graded office furniture. Please take note of the chart below:
| Home Graded Office Furniture | Commercial Graded Office Furniture |
| Made out of low-grade laminates with limited colour choices | Made out of higher quality laminates, solid wood, contemporary fabrics, stronger internal hardware, and have a wide selection of colour choices |
| Available at stores catering directly to consumers (e.g. IKEA, Staples, Best Buy, etc) | Available at warehouses and stores that mostly cater to office space designers or interior designers |
| Usually has a lower upfront cost | Usually a higher upfront cost |
| Built to withstand light to medium usage | Built to withstand frequent usage, high levels of activity |
Both types of furniture have their place in an office space, but what is best for your business is typically determined by the following factors:
The Business Itself—Stage, Size, Culture
In our experience, we have seen companies with roughly 25 or less employees utilize home-graded office furniture, whether or not their office space is in a home or commercial space, whereas companies with more employees lean towards commercial-graded office furniture. The differences are usually based on the stage the company is at (i.e. a start-up company versus. a company beginning to grow versus an established corporation), the industry of the business (IT vs industrial), and sometimes the company culture (for example, we have one client whose culture includes having new employees build their own desk the first day on the job).
Business activity:
The amount of business activity involving the usage of your furniture is one good way to determine whether to invest in home-grade office furniture or commercial grade office furniture. For example, some businesses (like IT businesses) function best with just a telephone to make or take calls and laptop at the desk. In our industry, that would be considered a light to medium usage of the office furniture simply because wear and tear on the furniture itself would be relatively minimal …… perfect for home-grade office furniture. Other businesses, however, use their office furniture more frequently for a variety of business activities such as storage and filing, collaboration meetings, conferences and so on. For businesses that have higher levels of business activities that involve more frequent or heavy usage of their furniture, we usually recommend commercial grade office furniture.
Budget:
Budget is a “bottom-line” determinant in choosing the type of office furniture for a business. In short, we have seen businesses with lower upfront budgets purchase the home-graded office furniture for their businesses, regardless of company size or business activity, while businesses with higher upfront budgets are more apt to purchasing commercial-graded office furniture.
The bottom line is that office furniture is a viable asset to your company. So, if your company is small (i.e. less than 25 employees), has a low up-front budget, and is the type of business in which the activity and usage of the office furniture is relatively light, then home-graded office furniture might be the right choice for your company right now. Otherwise, if your business activity involves high usage of the furniture and your budget allows, then commercial-graded office furniture is the way to go.
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DJ McGauley and Associates Inc. is your Office Move, Reconstruction and Reconfiguration Project Management Company of choice for the Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas. If an office move or reconstruction of your 2000 – 25,000sqft office space is a remote possibility, consider contacting us to arrange a no-obligation site meeting. We guarantee that by the end of that meeting you will know all that would be required to make your office move/reconstruction project a successful reality.
Call 416-239-1931 , email [email protected], or visit our website to complete our contact form.
Corporate Space Planning & Relocation Advice 