Archive for April, 2009

How to Spruce Up Your Office Space Without Spending a Lot

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Is your company outgrowing your small office space? If you are like so many businesses who would like to repair their office space or move into a new one but can’t financially do so, or get the line of credit necessary to make these changes due to the economic climate, there are other options for you. Here are give ways to improve your office space right now.

  1. Shop Discounted Stores, Online Deals or Thrift Stores For Great Steals on Furniture, Cubicles and DĂ©cor -including Paint

If you have ever scanned online discount stores, auction houses or craigslist’s in the “free section” you would be amazed at what you can find! Entire office furniture sets for less than half their retail price or free! Paint, doors, carpet and even art is all available online for complete deals. Thrift stores, garage sales and warehouse stores are all great places to look for great furniture at rates you can afford. Even though you can’t afford to get a new office space and furniture now, you can get pretty close to it and at least get what you need.

  1. Initiate a Work Clean Up Party

So you cannot hire a cleaning service, painters or carpenters to help remodel your office but that doesn’t mean you can’t spruce things up with the resources you have at hand. Have a mandatory cleaning party at work. Pay your employees, provide lunch and drinks and crank up the music. Draw names for cleaning duties or separate yourself into cleaning teams. With some positive energy and dome good elbow grease, you can have a shiny new office space in no time!

  1. Out of Space? Allow People to Work at Home

If your staff is growing and your office is shrinking- the desire to relocate may be strong, but since credit lending isn’t exactly happening right now, you may have to think of creative ways to use your space. Doubling up two people to an office may sound like a good idea, but offering the chance for people to work from home is not just a great idea for desk sharing, your employees will appreciate the offer as well.

  1. Too Much Stuff? Throw it Out

One of the easiest ways to appreciate your office and make a big change for the better is to throw out what you don’t need. Broken doors, broken cubicles, torn furniture and clutter can immediately make a manageable office intolerable. Borrow or rent a truck and get rid of all your useless stuff! It’s just taking up space that could be used for so many other things. Don’t forget, many of those things you want to throw away could be recycled or donated.

  1. Trade Services

Does your business have a service or product you could trade in return for painting, carpentry or new desks? Perhaps your marketing services, hotel or travel services or free cases of your energy drink that you produce could be in exchange for another company’s painting, carpet or landscaping services.

It’s possible that moving to a new office space isn’t foreseeable any time soon, since you are trying just to keep the lights on in the one you are currently occupying. There are plenty of things you can do to make due with your office space today while you while wait for things to change financially tomorrow.

About the author: Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity For more information regarding, office space go to Royal Commercial.

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Breaking into the Real Estate Market – Commercial or Residential?

Monday, April 20th, 2009

While the current economic climate might not make many run to the real estate market for their top career choice, for some, it can be a lucrative business. If you’ve decided to enter the real estate business consider the varying specialties that might help you to succeed. You may want to start as a commercial real estate agent, someone who specializes in selling commercial real estate. You may also consider becoming an appraiser, the person who determines the value of the home being bought or sold; a broker, who assists buyers with the actual transaction; developer, a person who improves land by adding or replacing or fixing up buildings; property management, someone who manages the property for an owner. With all these choices when becoming a real estate agent you are bound to find something that will be the perfect fit.

When deciding whether or not you’d like to do commercial or residential real estate consider these major differences.  Obviously, commercial real estate agent will focus around office space or other types of commercial properties that are mostly income producing. Most homes will simply be by their owners.  Commercial real estate can encompass leasing office space, owning an apartment complex or selling real property to name a few of the areas that you might be working in.

It’s also important to note that the paperwork involved is very different between the two areas of real estate. Residential deals are given much more consumer protection than commercial deals. Disclosures common to residential are not necessarily required. Commercial real estate buyers are going to need to ask about zoning laws, whether or not the area is suitable for their business, among other business decisions. As a real estate agent you’re going to need to have the skills necessary to meet different needs for the consumer.

No matter the type of real estate you decide to specialize in, each requires a different level of skill and a different level of knowledge. The type of person you are going to be dealing with in residential real estate is going to be quite different than the person you might deal with in a commercial transaction. Consider the types of customers you would most like to work with when comparing the two. Consider the types of goals you have and the types of needs you like to meet for others. It can be exciting helping the first time homebuyer discover and purchase the home of their dreams. Does this get you more passionate than helping the savvy business owner find the perfect space for leasing, a space that can help them meet their business needs. While there are two different goals, helping people meet those goals can be very rewarding.

Committing to becoming a residential real estate agent or a commercial real estate agent can be a big step. Determining that you want to go into real estate can be a difficult decision, especially when the current real estate climate is shaky. However, in the end, it can be a very rewarding career choice and a very lucrative one, depending on the type of real estate agent you become and the area in which you live. If you don’t think commercial or residential real estate is the right move then consider the other types of specialties that might be just the right fit. You have to spend a lot of time in your career so make sure that you are making a choice that is going to be in your best interest for the long term.

About the Author: Rebecca Beckett is a freelance writer for Innuity. If you would like more information about commercial real estate agent or commercial real estate go to Royal Commercial

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Politically Correct Easter and Passover Celebrations in Your Office

Monday, April 13th, 2009

When it comes to celebrating in your office space, school or even in your retail space if you are a business owner, where do you draw the line on celebrating or offending during religious holidays?

Over the years America has seen a radical switch in how holidays are celebrated in every public place. The term, politically correct in some people’s eyes has gone way too far but for others, the politically correct movement has helped Americans realize there are other people out there who have different beliefs and every right to celebrate how they choose. The double edge sword of being too politically correct or overly sensitive to everyone’s needs means that instead of accepting every culture and religion, public society has decided to not celebrate any of them openly. This can make things far more confusing than how it may have been long before the term politically correct made it so.

Here are Some Ways Your Office or Retail Space Can Still Celebrate The Time of Year Without Offending Anyone

  • Think spring! No one can be offended by the seasons
  • Pastels and polka dots are very spring and non-offensive
  • Decorate with weather, no one can deny that April showers happen, and no one can be offended with umbrella and raindrop decorations
  • Baby farm animals are born in the spring. Choosing to decorate your retail space with baby chicks and bunnies is perfectly acceptable
  • Go green! Decorate with the colors of spring. This means light greens, cherry blossoms, pink and yellows and lilac. Bring in flower pots of silk tulips or blossoms or even small pots of grass to place as displays in your retail space window or in the waiting room of your office space
  • Outdoor exercise- once the weather gets nicer, that means people are going to the park, riding bikes and even going to the beach. Think of outdoor activities as a means to decorate your office, like setting up an old fashioned bike with a basket filled with spring tulips in the window or colorful kites strung up in your office space.

You can play it safe by celebrating the weather, nature, pastel colors and outdoor activities or you could divide up the week and celebrate every day by recognizing a different religious celebration or during the holy week, create a mosaic of religious icons, spring flowers and Easter bunnies all together, displaying that your office or retail space celebrates everyone and everything about this time of year.

About the author: Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity. For more information regarding office space or retail space go to Royal Commercial.

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Making the Most of Your Retail Space

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Look around, are you making the most of your retail space? Where do you currently have your merchandise placed? Are you taking advantage of every little piece of room in a balanced way or could your inventory be suffocating when you don’t even realize it? Even if you have the smallest table at a craft fair or a space the size of a closet at your local mall, there are great ways to make sure you are utilizing all of your retail space in a balanced and attractive way to buyers.

Reinventing Your Space

If you are bored with your retail space, likely others who see it will be too. It’s so important in sales to act like your retail space is new and exciting every day, even though you know every square inch of it very well.  Here are some ways to reinvent your space.

  • Don’t pack it so full that shoppers cannot find what they are looking for, like being in a spice market; it’s hard to even know where to begin. It can be overwhelming to each of your senses and make you want to turn on your heel and walk out from system overload. If you make it hard for your customers to find what they are looking for, or really see what it is that you are selling, you will turn people away instead of drawing them in.
  • Are you still trying to sell certain items year after year and the same ones never seem to move? They are obviously not selling and you need to a)move them to a new location in your store, b)stop selling them or c)reinvent their image with signs, fresh packaging or sell them at an extreme discount.
  • Customers are far more likely to purchase something if they know the price right then and there, instead of you hoping they will love your product so much that they will buy it regardless of the price, or perhaps you think if advertise the price on the item it will scare people away. There are a lot of products out there and a lot of stores, customers will just move on if they have to work too hard to purchase something. The real trick is making it easy to purchase your product.
  • Clean white space is always appreciated. It looks bad to have empty shelves, but it can look really nice to have balanced white space. For example, it’s great to have plenty of open space between racks of clothes and minimal amounts of each item of clothing on each rack, with the other sizes in the back storage room, not everything crammed into one area.
  • Don’t spend more than you can to make it look good. Your retail shop doesn’t need fancy, expensive dĂ©cor and fixtures to make your products look great. Some of the best shelves and decorations are made by hand or found in the Goodwill.

Get creative and re-think your space! Once you start making the most of your retail space, you will find that you will like what you are selling a lot more and and so will your customers.

About the author: Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity For more information about retail space Go to Royal Commercial.

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