Owning and growing a startup brings lots of stress - not only do you have to do your day-to-day work, but you also have to work constantly to build your brand and reputation and attract new business. There are plenty of positives to offset those stressors, though, the main one being that you are your own boss and you can set your own working patterns, behaviours and hours.
Gone are the days when you had to answer to someone else’s ideas of how to run a business, or sit for hours at a desk in an open-plan office listening to your colleagues talk too loudly or eat smelly food! Now you can also choose where to work, and what kind of workspace will help you be most productive, efficient and comfortable!
Creating a creative workspace at home
In the early days of your startup, you may be able to accommodate your workspace at home. Perhaps you have a
spare room that can be used as an office, and a garage to store your stock.
For your home-based workspace to be functional, you’ll need:
Ergonomic furniture.
This could be a kneeling stool, a standing desk, or just a really supportive office chair. If it’s important to be able to scoot around your office between workspaces, consider removing the carpet and replacing it with hard flooring or vinyl so that your office chair’s wheels don’t snag and tip you over.
Good lighting.
Choose a window that offers the most amount of natural light, and fit adjustable blinds to block out any direct sunlight that affects screen visibility or comfort during the day. Supplement with a lightbox, to simulate natural daylight during the darker months, and lamps.
Temperature control.
Choose a room that you can heat or cool relatively easily. Are there radiators? Can you open the windows to get a breeze? Consider any additional equipment you’ll need to maintain a comfortable temperature.
You’re unlikely to want to spend a lot of money on an air conditioning unit (as, hopefully, your business will outgrow your home soon enough), but you can buy relatively inexpensive air coolers. These are basically fans with an integral ice compartment that you refreeze overnight. You could also just freeze a box/bottle of water and place it in front of a normal desk fan to blow cooler air over you while you work.
During the winter, to save on electricity and gas, consider investing in an electric throw to keep you warm, and gloves with touchscreen-friendly fingertips.
To decorate your office in a way that enhances your creativity.
Everyone achieves a state of creativity in different ways - some need vibrant colours and visual stimuli everywhere, others need a calm,
clutter-free environment. Furnish and decorate it in the colours that work best for you, and consider adding an ‘inspiration board’ to pin ideas up (or to keep you organised with lists and important information). Our eyes quickly become used to our surroundings, so try to refresh your decor (pictures, accessories etc) every month or so.
To find space to store your growing inventory
It’s important to be able to switch off from work outside of normal working hours. This can be really difficult when working from home, and more so when you work for yourself because you may struggle to relax knowing that time spent not working is time spent not earning. Your workspace needs to be somewhere you can literally close a door upon (such as the spare room), but
as your business grows your stock and equipment may start to encroach on the rest of your home.
If you find you no longer have adequate space at home, consider using a
self storage unit that you can rent by the fortnight, so that if your stock levels drop again you can easily switch back to storing them at home.
Investing in a garden office
Another option if you have outdoor space is to set up a garden office. This can be an expensive outlay, but it’s something you could keep and use for a long time, even after your startup has moved onto bigger and better things. (You could convert it to a hot tub room or relaxing summer house to enjoy after work!)
You don’t need planning permission for a garden office as long as the dimensions fall under ‘Permitted Development rules’. These state that your garden office must be at least 2m away from your property’s boundary, and be no taller than 2.5m above the existing ground level. Otherwise, you’ll need planning permission which can cost time and money.
Once your startup outgrows your home
As your startup grows, you may find that your home is no longer the best environment for your creative workspace.
Flexibility is important when creating a workspace for a startup, because you don’t want to commit more money than you can afford to a permanent office or storage facility in case business slows down again. The first three-to-five years of a startup are usually regarded as an ‘evaluation period’ while you’re still establishing a name in your industry and carving out a secure share of the market. Long-term commitments to buildings and leases are not usually recommended at this early stage.
Where can your staff work?
Virtual working
Allowing staff to work virtually requires trust, but it can work well - staff may be far more efficient working from home than they would be in an office environment where a chunk of time may be lost to chatting with colleagues. Set reasonable expectations of what work needs to be covered over the space of each day or week, and keep communication flowing with regular online chats and meetings to check progress and pick up on any concerns your staff may have.
Renting or sharing office space
You could rent office space for the day, as a one-off or on a regular basis, to host in-person meetings with staff, clients and customers. We have
office space to rent at many of our stores, so you could show your stored stock to your potential customers or do an inventory check with your staff and then meet in your rented office to discuss options.
You could see if there are any other local startups that may be willing to rent out extra space they’re not using (for far less than you’d pay for your own space). Alternatively, you could look into local facilities designed for co-working. For a monthly membership fee, you can reserve desks and use the facilities and utilities.
Unfortunately, you can’t be very creative with your workspaces in a shared workspace or co-working arrangement, so they’re not ideal long-term solutions.
Depending on where your business is located, you might find support from the local council; many have schemes designed to provide finance and practical support to startups.
Where to store your growing startup stock
You may have initially
rented a small self storage unit for a couple of weeks at a time, but if you now think you’ll need it for more than a year we can offer a discount for long-term storage. You can also move into a larger unit if you need more space, and furnish it with shelves to keep it organised.
If you need to post stock out to customers, you could visit your unit daily to package up the stock and send it via our on-site DHL Service Point, or arrange for your chosen carrier to collect it from your unit. Deliveries can be sent direct to your chosen store, where our team members can keep it safe until you arrive to transfer it into your unit.
Long-term options for creative workspaces
Once your startup is an established business, you’ll have more security and freedom to create your ideal workspace. Before now, you’ve had to work within a limited budget with short- to medium-term accommodation and storage space. Now, you can set up the workspace you’ve always wanted.
A creative workspace ought to have everything you need to be comfortable and productive throughout the day. You could consider installing a kitchen and lounge area: fitting stud walls is relatively cheap and simple. Separating relaxation areas from work areas will keep noise levels down and allow colleagues to switch off from work for a proper break.
Just as you did at home, use ergonomic furniture, and make sure the lighting and temperature in your new offices are comfortable. You’ll never achieve a temperature that is perfect for everyone, so offer individual cooling fans or electric throws for each worker to adjust to their own needs.
Can we help?
If you think a self storage unit would benefit your startup, please get in touch and one of our team members can give you all the information you need about pricing, availability, sizes and locations that will meet your business’s needs.
Needing additional storage space for your startup is a good sign that your business is growing, and hopefully you’ll find the flexibility of our self storage units works well for you as that success continues!