Take an inventory of everything on your first day
The first thing you should do when you move to any new location – whether that’s a move in your personal life, or a brand new office space – is take inventory of everything that has been left for you to use. This should include photographs of the walls and floor. The reason for this is that when you eventually move on, it’s important that you leave the space exactly as you found it, so that you do not face any additional charges from the building provider. Taking photos and a written inventory serves as evidence of exactly how things were on the day you moved in.Check what level of insurance that you need
Just because you don’t own the building that your office is in, doesn’t mean that you don’t have certain responsibilities. As a business owner, you may find that the responsibility falls on you to conduct a fire risk assessment for example, and you may need to have your own insurance. It is important to organise this as early as possible once you have moved into your new office, as insurance is the kind of thing that people tend to forget about until it is too late.Set up a tab with local food establishments
If you are likely to be spending long days in your office building, you are definitely going to require sustenance – at the very least, you’ll need something to eat to power your brain! Look for local food establishments and talk to the existing tenants of the building to find out who does the best sandwiches, or who can get you their hot food the quickest. It’s a great idea to contact establishments that you are going to be visiting frequently and setting up a weekly or monthly tab so that you don’t need to break your workflow every time you want to pick up food – they might say no, but at the very least they might let you know how to get yourself a discount as a regular customer!Don’t make any big changes without checking first
Your first day in a brand new office is incredibly exciting. You have a whole world of opportunities ahead of you, and you are motivated to just get started. However, before you make the office your own, make sure you are aware of what kind of changes you are going to be allowed to make. As a general rule you will not be able to make any structural changes such as moving any walls without approval from building management, as they would need to keep everything safe and complete a fire door survey based on the new layout, but some buildings will let you paint the walls to your office and even lay a new carpet. If you can’t make any changes that are quite that big, some personalised wall vinyls are a great way to inject your personality into your brand new office space/Prepare for every eventuality
The reception team are generally going to be around when you’re at your office building, but if you are likely to be visiting outside of working hours then its important to make sure that you are prepared. Consider if there is an out of hours procedure for accessing the building, or if your access card will work differently. You should also have an out of hours contact for the building management, incase of any building-related emergencies that occur out of hours. Do you rent an office space? What did you need to keep in mind when you were moving in?
This is The Chequers Bath blog, a lifestyle blog mostly focussing on food, travel and general lifestyle posts.
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