When you have a traditional home office or a home office as part of a network of offices, you need to consider the legalities. You need to look at:
ZONING
Is your home in an area zoned for business? What type of business can you operate from your home? Check out your local zoning ordinances to make sure you don’t have to get any special permits or licensing, or have any restrictions on what you can do from your home.
TAX ISSUES
If you want to claim a home office, the IRS has specific requirements to follow. So, if you’re working from your dining room table, then you probably can’t take that home office deduction. Contact your tax accountant or attorney to find out the laws as they pertain to your situation.

Thousands of people now work from home or a virtual office. Through good planning, communication, and outside technical support when needed, your home or virtual office can be an enjoyable and successful option.
Renting Space
Due to the size or needs of your business, you may decide to rent office and/or warehouse space rather than have a home or virtual office. Although the overhead is higher, the advantages may outweigh the cost concerns.

HOW MUCH SPACE WILL YOU NEED?
When deciding what purposes you need your office space to fill, think about your expected everyday activities. For instance:

• Will clients be visiting your office space? If so, you may want a reception area, good parking, and perhaps a conference area.

• Will you have employee meetings? If so, you may want meeting rooms that have computer hook ups and other meeting options such as white boards, overhead projection systems, etc.

• Will any of your employees work from both home and office? If so, you may want central workstations where anyone can plug in while in the office.

• Will you be working as a team on different projects or to create different concepts? If so, you may want areas separate from employees’ offices where several employees can discuss and brainstorm without disturbing others.

• Will employees need to use the phone or be performing tasks that require quiet or privacy? If so, you may want to have private offices for these employees.

• Will your employees need a break room? If so, you may want a kitchen space.

• Will your business need a loading and shipping dock area? If so, you will have to find space that allows for this. Also, consider future products that you are not currently offering but plan to offer later when making this determination.

Once you know what you will use the space for, you will need to determine how large the space needs to be. According to OfficeFinder.com, in typical office scenarios, you can estimate 175-250 square feet per employee. However, if you know that you’ll need a couple of large executive offices, then you need to estimate more square footage for those. Typical executive offices range from 150-400 square feet while administrative spaces range from 60-110 square feet.

Other areas include the meeting room space and the reception area. Typical allowances for a meeting room are 25 to 30 square feet per individual using the room. Reception spaces need to be 200 square feet if you typically have 3 to 5 people arriving at a time and 300 square feet for groups of 6 to 9.
WWW.OFFICEFINDER.COM

You should compare the benefits of leasing versus buying your property from a cash standpoint, as well as the more obvious needs standpoint, such as long term space requirements and expansion possibilities. While there are benefits to both options, for startups there appear to be more benefits to leasing than buying. Cash flow is, of course, an issue and buying takes a larger portion of your hard-earned cash up front.

LEASE ISSUES TO BE AWARE OF
Many leases have something called an Escalation Clause. This is an annual increase built into your lease from day one. The landlord accounts for inflation, market value increases, etc. These increases can be fixed or based on a percentage of the consumer price index. In most cases, these are negotiable.

Be sure to read the fine print. If you don’t, you may find that what you hoped to do can’t be done. Check for things such as:

• Business hour limitations
• Alteration limitations
• Lease renewal restrictions
• Common area maintenance
• Administration charges
• After-hours utility costs

The most important thing to remember is that the lease is written for the benefit of the landlord, not for you. Therefore, it is important that you read everything and have your attorney read it as well.

I’d like to hear what you’ve got to say about different business settings and formats. Please leave a comment…