How many times have people told you not to reinvent the wheel? That’s something so obvious! You shouldn’t reinvent something accepted and working well for the last 2000 years. That’s common sense! Yet, that’s exactly what young George Cayley did.
His purpose to build ever lighter and flying machines made him interested in building lightweight wheels. In 1808 he came up with the idea of using tension instead of compression to build wheels. It was no longer the rim which kept the wheel round and robust. Instead, it was the hub and the wires keeping the rim well rounded and tensioned to absorb the road bumps.
Over time, the wire wheel came into common use on bicycles, cars and many other vehicles. Radial wires pulling from the rim to the hub, like an office attractive to the people going there every day. Why would you choose your next office by comparing prices? Instead, compare the attractiveness of the new office to your team, your customers or both.
You can use these three strategies to choose your next office location:
1. Position your office to shorten your team’s commute time
2. Pick your next office location to get closer to your customers
3. Use distributed offices closer to your customers AND to your employees
1. Position your new offices to shorten your team’s commute
Your colleagues are leaving in a large or busy area, making commutes long and difficult for some. They have to shift working hours when possible or lose time and energy otherwise. You need to consider this before choosing your next office.
Look at the area where your employees live and calculate the closest office location for their commute. This method of choosing an office location gives everyone more time and energy. As a result, your customers will get a better service and your company a lower employee turnover.
2. Pick your next office location to get closer to your customers
Placing an office in locations accessible for your customers attracts them in a similar way the wire brings tension between the rim and the hub. Choose an area where your customers have already concentrated or an area they often visit. A city center comes to mind, a downtown, or a port, depending on your business.
Placing the next office in such locations and providing parking, social events, or competent employees attracts customers and puts you in a position to grow your business. It’s no longer you calling them, they’re coming to you instead. This strategy is even better with distributed offices.
3. Use distributed offices closer to your customers AND to your employees
Why not trying to get closer to your customers, while at the same time placing an office close to a part of your team? In some businesses, it makes sense to open multiple, smaller offices accessible to customers. To complete the strategy, assign to each office the employees living close by, as much as possible.
When your employees live around a big city they can be travel quite far to get to the office. Grouping them in smaller offices where your customers concentrate is a win-win-win strategy for your company. Don’t focus on the cheapest office space!
But the cheapest office space is the best choice!
Yes, for your business it might look like the cheapest the better. But you have other costs, not only for the offices. How much does it cost you to visit customers or prospects from a central office?
Your employees take time from their workday to visit your customers, a time when they cannot work and when they get tired. It also takes time for your customers to visit your office, so they visit you less often.
What kind of organizations use distributed office locations?
Agencies like the French URSSAF have implemented a strategy to open up quite a few smaller offices in somewhat unexpected areas: startup accelerators, co-working spaces and near exhibition centers. This strategy allows them to be present and help to create new businesses, which is part of their mission.
Banks and real estate agencies open offices in the closest office location to their target customers: young and middle-class neighborhoods, business centers or very busy places (like shopping malls).
When this kind of institution put in place a distributed office strategy they can also work on the internal relocations. They can try to assign their employees to the nearest office, when possible and when appropriate for the job.
How to prevent losing money by choosing the closest office location
Lose your team or your core people and your business will suffer or even perish. Keep in mind that good people and good customers are not easy to find and to grow. Try to have at least one of the two happy, if not both.
Instead, open your new office close to your customers and your employees. Your team is running your business for a few years. If the team members live around a big city, you want to place your new office close to most of them.
You can also distribute your offices to target areas your customers often visit. If you can do both, then you keep happy both your team and your customers.
That’s not reinventing the wheel, it’s a better way to organize your offices. Instead of using a central office, rigid like a rim, use smaller offices, closer for your employees and for your customers (like wires keeping the hub in tension and the wheel turning).
Good news! We are building a tool to help you compare your team’s commute to a new office with your current location.