When you have a mental image about your working space, only then can you translate it into numerical values. What should be kept in mind is what kind of space is needed in the office, a boardroom, a kitchen or a meeting room.
The recommended space per employee is 100 square feet, but when considering this, you need to consider additional amenities like meeting spaces and kitchens, etc.
Given below is a rough estimate of how much office space is needed for the additional facilities.

1. 100 square feet space is required for a small meeting room for 2 to 4 persons.
2. 150 square feet space is required for a large meeting room for 4 to 8 individuals.
3. 400 square feet space is required for a board room accommodating 15 to 20 people.
4. 500 square feet space is required for a training room or a conference room accommodating 20 to 30 people.
5. 100 square feet space is required for a kitchenette.
6. 70 square feet is required for a small server room having one server rack.
7. 200 square feet is required for a large server room having 4 server racks.
8. 100 square feet space is required for the manager’s office.
9. 200 square feet space is required for an office for a senior manager, having a small meeting table.
10. 260 square feet space is required for the director’s office having a conference table with a seating of at least 4 people.
    

Few Factors to be considered while choosing an office space for a rental

1. Dimensions of the office
It is important to keep in mind the dimensions of the office because a few square metres of space can account for corners that are shaped awkwardly and floorspace that is not used. Hence the amount of office space that is usable can most likely be less than the stated office space. You need to consider the height of the ceiling as well because low ceilings cannot accommodate the desk, hence spaces with low ceiling height are not appropriate for office spaces. When you are estimating the office space for employee, the space occupied by any furniture or storage should also be taken into account. If you do not want your employees to have to work in cramped spaces with dark corners or headrooms, then you need to aim for a workspace that is evenly shaped and has balanced distribution of light all through the day.

2. Cost Calculations
You need to find out the price of your office space per square shot show me your real estate agent. This can help you to identify your key priorities and to insure that the place where you are looking to set up your firm is financially viable. When you acquire an office space, keep in mind that you would be signing the lease that would tie you to the rental for a minimum of 2 to 5 years. Hence, if you are looking for potential growth, you need to increase the total square footage office space that you already have by at least 10 to 20%. Bear in mind that the extra space you have in reserve will cover the cost in case you need to end your lease early and also cover the expenses of transferring your office after a short period of time.

3. Work Environment
You need to consider the work environment while choosing the office space for a rental. A small workplace is adequate if you spend the major part of the day in the field on assignments, site visits, in meetings or in consultations. However, a small workspace can cause discomfort among employees who spend most time in the workstation as they might feel entrapped in a small workspace. A larger workspace is required for certain job functions, for instance those which require frequent meetings in the workplace or which call for use of multiple computer monitors for jobs like consultation, research and writing.

4. Nature of your business
The nature of the business needs to be considered when choosing an office space. Whether you are a legal firm or a fledging tech start-up, your business might need different areas for workspace. Legal businesses or travel agencies usually require privacy and confidentiality and require most of their operations to be conducted in private office suites. However, tech startups usually have co-working desks which saves on space as well as cost.

5. Business stage
The stage of your business is a very crucial factor in determining how much office space you need. Is your business just a one or a two person operations or is it expanding to 6 or 7 people? Perhaps your business already has 30 people in the team. Due to advancement in technology, a lot of businesses have downsized their manpower, resulting in reduction in space requirements. Hence, if your team has less than 10 people, it does not make sense to lease a dedicated office space.

6. Expanding business
If your business is expanding, you need to ensure that you rent a property which allows flexibility and the option to upgrade to a larger space if you need to. You need to adopt strategies that allow you to have a core space with options are flexible, or to have a hybrid combination of both fixed and flexible features of an office rental. This can allow your team to either scale up or downsize according to your business growth.

7. Seating arrangements
The size requirement of every workspace differs according to the nature and the job scope of every team member. Usually, one person requires 60 to 70 square feet of workspace. However, software engineers or financial analysts might require more work space as they might need more space for their inventory. A CEO requires even more office space than a software engineer. Many workplaces have introduced the concept of a hot desk instead of fixed searing for every member of the staff as it helps to save space.

8. Ancillary space
You need to consider the facilities that your team need in your office like meeting rooms, board rooms, pantry or lounges. Is it really necessary to include all these facilities in your own workspace. For instance, a reception is not relevant in the present workspace environment. Consider factors like whether your reception will have a full-time employee or if the board meeting room is properly utilised by the employees.

9. Alternative storage
You need to consider whether your business needs a lot of storage space and if this space is necessary in today’s environment where most of the documents are digitally secured and stored in the cloud. A lot of businesses outsource storage space at off-side locations at low and competitive prices.

10. Using Internet of things tools to determine the efficiency of your workspace. You can use IoT and analytics data to manage the air conditioner, the lighting operations and to determine the frequency of the utilisation of the portion of the office space. After deriving the data from the tools, you can eliminate the excess space and plan the optimum storage space you would require. One needs to deploy these tools before moving into a new space, so as to determine how much actual storage space one would require for a monthly office rental.

It is very important to plan ahead to make sure that your office rental workplace fulfils your demands both at present and in the future, as one cannot keep on moving to a new office frequently. Factors like increase in staff, whether you will enter a new market that demands for a specific area for special tools, or if you are looking for a special location to store the inventory purchases that you will make the following year need to be kept in mind when choosing a monthly office rental. It is advisable to rent office spaces so that the company restriction is reached at least three quarters of through the total length of the contract, Planning the growth of your company ensures that you can move without incurring any financial setbacks. This is not a necessary requirement if you want working arrangements that are more flexible. Many organisations can consider office spaces that cost less, but this must not come at the expense of the happiness and output of the employees. You need to be sensible about what space you have available before renting an office rental and avoid designing a floor plate that is densely packed. A suitable working environment can be created with an average of 100 square feet per person. Ensure that the workstation you choose for your employees is appropriate for them and is suitable for the tasks that they would be performing. Make sure that the employees can escape their workstations quickly and safely in case of an emergency, hence, it is important to have enough room around the desk and an efficient wire management system as well.

When you embark on the search for an ideal office space, you need to calculate how much space you would need for normal date to day business activities. There are times when many businesses miscalculate or overestimate how much space is needed for their office. Innovative Professional offices provides full service office rental solutions, workspace solutions and furnished offices in Ottawa and Mississauga. We offer premium and beautifully crafted rentals where people can connect and grow their businesses at prime locations across Canada. Innovative Professional offices offer their services to people from diverse backgrounds, like digital nomads, entrepreneurs, freelancers and tech startup enthusiasts. Pleas contact our customer friendly team for a non obligatory consultation. All you need to do is select the type of the office you require and how many people need access to your office space. You need to tell us what features are the most important to your team members. You can leave the details to us and choose our services to upgrade and customise your work space to meet the exact needs of your team. Just sign the contract and leave it to us to worry about everything else, You can speak to our team if you want to make any changes at any time.