Starting up a new business or developing a product and taking it to the market are two of the most challenging endeavours in business, but they are just the beginning.
Setting up a shop, building production facilities, or headquartering your business to help build a client base are important steps that should not be rushed. Get them right, and they can be assets to your success and not liabilities on your balance sheet. Here is a quick guide that should help you take your business idea from a sheet of paper onto the high streets and business parks.
Making A First Impression
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Whether you need a retail outlet, a headquarters for your new business, or a workshop, the buildings your business uses give visitors and potential customers a first impression of your startup. You may be moving into an existing property or building one from the ground up. Either way, you need to place close attention to its outward appearance as well as how the space is organised inside. How your business looks will bring people in, or it can push people away.
No matter what your plans are, you should consult a local builder. They have the expertise you will need to get a high-quality finish, and find materials at better prices which will help save your business money. You can find builders near you at MyBuilder, and all come with reviews from their previous customers and often photographs of their completed work. This can help you create a shortlist of local builders quickly with the skills you need to get a great-looking property. They can build something from the ground up or redesign a building’s facia to suit your business and stand out from the crowd.
Speaking With Design
The design of your property and its signage will say a lot about your business to visitors, suppliers, and potential customers. Never underestimate how important the appearance of your business’s buildings, vehicles, and staff members can be when you are trying to build up a customer base. It is understandable for businesses to be focused on their websites in the digital age, but the appearance of your buildings is just as important as the look of your website and social media apps. It is all advertising.
Smart businesses need a smart look. Take a trip outside and give yourself some time for a critical appraisal of the exterior of your business property. Is it easy to identify? If you have a customer or supplier looking for your workshop or outlet, how easy is it for them to find it? If you operate on an industrial estate filled with identical units, you may be hard to spot.
Retail Outlet, Headquarters, Workshop
Most businesses will need at least one of these three properties. Some startups may buy or rent one large property to fit in all three. Whichever approach you take, you need to take a customer-centric, top-down view of your new property and see where you can add value and maximise your retail customer experience. A retail outlet needs to be more than just easy to find, it needs to be easy to use.
By adding value to your customer experience through your property, you add value to your products and service. Making some investments into the quality and functionality of your property can help you retain customers, and convert enquiries into sales. If you are building a workshop complete with a production line to create your products, the internal construction of your property can have a huge impact on your ability to produce at scale, and consistently maintain a high level of production throughout all year round.
Investing Wisely
Building new structures and altering an existing one can be expensive. You want to get as much value for your money as you can. Invest wisely in additions that will help speed up production, or add something to your customer experience. These will give you a consistent return on your investment, paying you back over time through increased sales and lower production costs. Both of these will have a positive impact on profit.
When designing a retail space, make sure you invest in areas to display your product and even offer some testing. Fashion retail is a good example of this, but the basic rules transfer to any product. Clothes are displayed in customer-facing areas like window displays. This helps to advertise the product and draw in foot traffic. There will also be changing rooms so people can try before they buy, which creates sales. You should have a demonstration area that allows you to give your customers a ‘road test’ of your products or services.
Creating a storefront for your startup or building a headquarters for your new business is an opportunity to design and build a physical presence for your company. It should reflect who you are as a business and the professionalism and quality that you and your products offer. Think long and hard about front-facing design and the customer experience, and make these the centrepieces of your design choices.
