business
August Long Weekend
The first Monday of August is a civic holiday and observed by most Canadian provinces. Often referred to as the August Long Weekend, in Ontario, this civic holiday is known in many parts as Simcoe Day. This weekend may also be one of the busiest weekends on the Ontario highways as weekend warriors set off camping or to the cottage to enjoy the much anticipated weekend. This year, the civic holiday (Simcoe Day) falls on August 7th, 2017. Although this is a day off for many, it is not a statutory holiday in Ontario.
Provinces that also celebrate the August holiday are:
- Civic Holiday – Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and in parts of Ontario and Nova Scotia
- Heritage Day – Alberta
- Natal Day – Various parts of Nova Scotia
- New Brunswick Day
- Saskatchewan Day
- British Columbia Day
Quebec, Yukon, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador do not observe this holiday.
D. J. McGauley & Associates Inc. will be closed this August 7th for Simcoe day and will reopen August 8th. Have a safe and happy long weekend.
D.J. McGauley is a dedicated team of professionals providing Design and Space Planning, Renovation, Relocation and Facilities Management services to our clients. Based in Toronto, we provide the same excellent professional and personalized service, whether office relocation is down the street or across the GTA. We work with both small and mid-sized companies to save time and money, as well as enjoy a stress-free corporate transition or corporate renovations experience.
Call 416-239-1931, Email or visit our website for more information.
Good Office Space Designers are Great CSRs
It’s very easy for office space designers to offer their suggestions on how one can improve the look and feel of their office space. However, really good office space designers need to be like customer service representatives–they need to take the time to find out who you are and what needs you want addressed before presenting their solutions to you.
In fact, some really good office space designers actually exude of the traits of great CSRs.
They are great probers and listeners. Great office space designers not only ask questions but take time to listen to their clients in order to gain a full understanding of an organization’s “personality” vision, mission and goals.
Great office space designers are patient when interacting with clients who may not be able to clearly communicate the details of their ideal office space as well as when coming up with the ideal design to make that optimal office space a reality.
Great office space designers are good time managers, aiming to deliver the best office designs for their clients’ approval on time and within budget.
Great office space designers are solution-oriented, developing designs that creatively address the unique challenges and operations of each client they serve.
Great office space designers are client-focused, keeping their client’s vision, mission, goals and “personality” at the core of each layout they develop.
Great office space designers are knowledgeable in their field of design and in the industries in which they chose to serve. They not only need to know how to draw up an office design, but they need to be fully aware of any limitations an office space may have as well as all building code standards.
Finally, great office space designers are committed. They are committed to providing quality solutions to office space needs through their designs as well as all around quality service to their clientele.
So, if your designer exudes the above CSR traits, you can rest assured that you have a great office space designer.
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 – 25,000 sqft 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.
Skimping on Quality Business Furniture Can Hurt Your Business
We see it all the time. Companies looking to change their office furniture will invest in higher quality new business furniture for areas that are often seen by visitors – like the reception area and the boardroom – but skimp on the quality and “newness” of the task furniture for their staff. That may seem like a great economical decision for the short term but in the long term, it could end up being one of the worst business decisions ever. Why?
1. It can send the wrong message to your staff.
While high quality business furniture in the “seen” areas will make a positive impression on your visitors, the lack of quality task furniture can give just the opposite impression to your staff. Think about it—your staff does all the work to make your company operate effectively. Making sure they have high quality business furniture to work with sends the message that you value them and their contribution in the success of your business.
2. Lower quality business furniture can eat up your profits…
(a) Through replacement costs
While investing in lower quality furniture may keep costs low in the short term, the “life” of the furniture is significantly less than that of higher quality furniture and therefore may need to be replaced much sooner or more frequently. Over a 10-year period, for example, you may find that you have spent more money replacing low quality business furniture than you would have if you initially invested in higher quality furniture.
(b) Through increased absenteeism and benefit payouts
Lower quality business furniture does not promote optimal comfort and positioning for everyday business tasks, hence there could be increased reports of back pain and carpal tunnel syndrome amongst your staff. In more severe cases, this could result in staff missing work for extended periods of time and your company having to pay increased disability costs.
3. It can contribute to lower productivity
Low quality business furniture will lessen you staff’s overall productivity. Lower productivity means less competitiveness.
So why take the risk? Invest in high quality business furniture for your staff’s everyday use. The continued success of your business depends on it.
Corporate Space Planning & Relocation Advice 