Taking Care Of Your Business Premises: What Every Business Owner Needs To Do
It gives you a physical location, which both boosts your professional image and gives you a bit more legitimacy. Customers like knowing there’s a real name and address behind the business they’re shopping with.
But on top of that, it simply gives you a real space to run your business. And with the average cost of commercial real estate amounting to around $50 per square foot, it’s a valuable, tangible investment to have at this stage in your business journey.
However, it’s also an expensive one. You need to know how to take care of your new premises in the long term, as maintenance and upkeep are the two things that’ll make your workspace last. Plus, a clean and tidy office is simply just a nicer place to work!
So let’s go through the kind of long term care you should put into your business environment. Now you’ve got real estate to look after, what should you really do to keep it a valuable, working condition?
Focus on Health and Safety
Health and safety helps you to look after both your premises and the people working inside. These rules aren’t only there to keep everyone working well, but they also offer good practice ideas for day to day working on top.
That’s why every single business owner out there needs to make sure they take health and safety seriously. No matter the governing body of your city, state, or country, there are going to be certain health and safety regulations you cannot ignore.
It’s best to research these before you invest in any real estate, as you might need to consider the structure in your health and safety policy.
For example, if the windows are screwed or welded shut, and as far as you know, there’s no working AC in the building either, you could run afoul of comfortable working temperature guidelines.
Above all, we recommend thinking of health and safety as preventative maintenance. With health and safety signs and posters set up around your premises, you can prevent accidents/incidents that could harm employee health or cause long term damage to your space and equipment.
Conduct Regular External Maintenance
External upkeep is a task that a lot of business owners don’t take seriously enough. Because it’s easy to see there’s a mark on your sign, or that the front door to your office is becoming loose.
The trick is to notice, repair, and prevent these issues before they show any symptoms.
From outdoor clearance of the road, guttering, and any visible drains, to landscaping of any greenery outside the front windows, to the simple presentation of your entrance, curb appeal matters just as much in the commercial world too.
So, make sure you’re regularly running external maintenance drives. Quarterly inspections of your premises can work, but depending on the type of business you run and the level of use your worksite gets, you may need to run monthly or weekly inspections instead.
Have a Daily Cleaning Schedule
No business space should be left overnight without a proper clean. No matter the amount of people who’ve come in and out throughout the day, there’s going to be dust, skin cells, hair, droplets, and germs all over the place.
Daily cleans eradicate this build-up in its tracks, which could turn into a health and safety risk if left for too long. Infection control is all about consistency, and once-a-day cleanups after the main team has gone home is the most convenient way to stay on top of things.
Of course, you also need to know that your premises are actually clean once the cleaning team is done for the day. No matter how much you trust your staff, it’s best to use a cleaning inspection app to track and verify the cleaning that’s been done.
A one-stop inspection app also allows other senior management to verify cleaning tasks, and the following morning you can double check that the inspection was properly signed off. And try to make sure these checks form part of your regular business routine.
Trust us, when you get into work, loading up last night’s cleaning report is pretty crucial. After all, this is where the team may have reported a broken toilet, a leak in the pipes, or new scuff marks on the office floor. These are all issues you need to know about ASAP.
Record Your Upkeep
Yes, we’re sorry to say that keeping your business premises in good condition is also going to require a bit of paperwork! It’s something you can’t quite get away from when you’re a professional.
But all jokes aside, it is important to record any upkeep you do. Try to include details of when it happened, what was inspected, and by who. If you had to call in an outside professional to give something the once over, make sure their business details (and the cost of the service) are included as well.
Not only will this give you a point of reference for how much upkeep you need to invest next month, but it makes submitting your tax records a bit easier too!
Physical Premises Care: The Main Takeaways
Taking care of business premises tends to form part of your innate working checklist. It gets easier and easier to stay on top of maintenance as time goes on, simply because you’ve already laid the groundwork for checks, repairs, and reports.
However, it’s the initial set up that could cause some trouble for you right now. You know clean and tidy is best, but how do you get to that point? Keep the list above in mind, as the more you know now, the easier it’ll be to coordinate the long term maintenance tasks you’ll be needing.