How To Renovate Your Small Business
In order to take your small business to the next level, there are a variety of solutions as to how your small business can make proactive changes. Whether you are sick of the same old theme, or just looking for a new way to improve your business, undergoing a renovation can be a viable solution. Other than simply remodeling your office space for aesthetic reasons, there are many strategic steps you can take during the process. This can often ensure that a renovation can not only make your office space look good, but it can benefit your business in other tangible ways.
Unless you happen to own or have connections with a construction business, renovations can seem more overwhelming than exciting. If done correctly, an upgrade can provide your small business with extensive benefits. Beyond practical improvements, a well-executed renovation can help your business appeal to new customers, increase employee satisfaction, improve workplace environment, and also boost profits.
Whether you’re refurbishing your current space or renovating a new building, following these tips can help expand your small business.
Align business branding
For most small businesses, focusing on building brand recognition can be one of the most important aspects of the process. When it comes to client-based aspects of your brand, aligning your brand consistently can be beneficial. Strategically renovating your office with these efforts in mind can help further unify your branding strategies. Re-building a brand image can drive consumers to your organization while providing word-of-mouth marketing and customer recognition. You can generate more leads for your business with visible, easy to recognize branding.
In order to align your renovation with your branding, you can paint several walls the same color scheme that’s used in your branding guidelines as well as your logo. Working with a professional sign company can also add some powerful ways to promote your branding, including window graphics, conference room signs, lobby signs and much more.
The sign company can also work with you to design powerful signage to best align with your brand, attract more attention and even provide information to help them in their customer journey when working with your business.
Incorporating elements of your logo into your design plan can further increase brand alignment and even awareness. By combining your branding efforts with your remodeling project, your business has the ability to develop both the company’s physical space and its public image in the customer’s mind. In the end, this helps your small business become recognizable and creates a sense of brand integrity across your entire organization.
Utilize energy-efficient products
Small business owners should be working their hardest to reduce overhead costs and instead increase profit margins. One area that many owners are prioritizing is the amount of energy that their organization is consuming. Building energy efficiency should be a key component within every renovation plan. Over the years, consumers have seen a large surge in all sorts of energy-efficient products implemented in common places, such as malls, restaurants, movie theaters and many other places.
According to Energy Star, the cost of energy continues to grow as the demand continues to grow, showing no signs of slowing down in the future. The best way to attack these climbing costs is to cut energy usage. Small businesses that take proactive measures to control their energy consumption can maintain lower utility bills. Some features to incorporate during the renovation process to decrease energy usage include installing energy-efficient light bulbs, automatic bathroom faucets, and even programmable thermostats. By incorporating these features, you can potentially lower your annual energy costs by a large margin.
Re-evaluate your floor plan
Ultimately, a small business renovation brings with it the opportunity to completely re-evaluate your company’s floor plan. Use this opportunity to analyze the layout and try to come up with ways to move certain departments and employees closer to one another within the company to increase workflow, and productivity. Not only can you prioritize seating arrangements, you can organize where certain rooms in the building will be located such as restrooms, meeting rooms, and other areas of collaboration.
Having a more efficient workspace can maximize employee interactions along with boosting comradery. The more comfortable employees feel within the workplace, the more connected they feel within the company. In addition, an attractive environment can also act as a solid selling point when seeking out new candidates for an open position. Perhaps when in comparison with competitors, creating an efficient floor plan can become the slightest incentive that can draw top prospects to your business.
Acknowledge alternative financial opportunities
This entire process can be a very complicated venture, which oftentimes requires a large inflow of capital for the project. This includes everything from the contractors to the materials with the potential for a range of downtime. The Houston Chronicle declared that purchasing office renovations materials in bulk can reduce your costs significantly, without including labor. The remodeling of your office will require careful budgeting, resource allocation and a focus on resolving any rezoning issues if they arise. However, if you do implement a strategy to use the renovation to your benefit, these projects can generate endless opportunities for growth.
Another way to leverage these projects is to utilize a small business loan from an alternative lender. With quick and easy access to this crucial capital, you can undertake the renovation your company needs to succeed. Opting to move forward with gradual projects over a long span of time will ultimately be more expensive since most contractors provide rates and deals for larger contracts. With the increased capital from a small business loan, you can ensure the renovation process creates much needed added value to your company.
Highlight the project
Take this opportunity in the midst of your project to highlight the beneficial tangibles that will result from the renovation. Opposed to downplaying any disruption or potential downtime that might arise during the course of the renovation project, highlight the potential positives to customers, clients, industry peers and the community. This could be a good way to illustrate that the company is growing, which can create additional business down the road. Use the renovation process in promotional materials and even highlight the project as a social media marketing campaign.
People are always interested when something is undergoing a change, and remodeling a business is no different. The entire project can easily become an accessible extension of strategic social media posts that include progress pictures to show the public how things are coming along. When all of the work is complete, use it as an opportunity to promote the resurgence of your business with a fresh new start.
Looking to attract new clients or customers for your newly renovated business? Working with a professional on a lead generation campaign can give your business a boost.