Developing your business and making the leap to a new commercial property

If you're like most people who manage a business in Australia today, you're not content just to settle for the status quo and achieve the same results year after year – you want your company to steadily grow and achieve bigger and better things. You want more customers, more sales, more money, more of everything.

If and when this happens for you, you might also want more of something else: real estate. As your company grows larger, you may find yourself needing a bigger space to house all your employees and the work they're doing. Is your company growing fast enough to merit getting a bigger space soon? How will you know? And if the answer is yes, how will you plan to make this leap?

Measuring the growth of your business

Has your business been growing significantly, to the point where you're now ready to lease commercial property? This can be a tricky question to answer. According to Business Queensland, you may have to consider a wide variety of factors:

• New business opportunities: Have you built any new partnerships with key allies in your industry?
• Additional offerings: Do you have a product or service available that you didn't before?
• More robust numbers: Are you working with more customers? Making more money? Employing more people than you once did? 

Growth is a combination of all of the above factors. You'll need to use your own judgment as you weigh them.

Planning for the costs ahead

It's often difficult to judge whether you have enough cash on hand to take the plunge into office leasing on the Gold Coast. Sometimes, the price of making such a move isn't exactly how it looks. Sometimes, there are hidden costs involved, such as land tax, council rates and water connection rates.

What's important isn't just the amount you'll be paying each year, but instead the total occupancy cost of the building you're moving into. The difference is often significant; it's not uncommon for a company to pay, say, $50,000 in rent but $80,000 total.

Continuing to develop as you move

Once you've already committed to moving into a new building, that doesn't mean you have to stop developing your business. In fact, beginning a new lease on a piece of commercial property represents a great time to continue making improvements. As you're moving your company's equipment, think about what upgrades you can make to your infrastructure.

Are there computers that are outdated and can be replaced with newer models? Are there worn-out pieces of furniture that you can afford to phase out? As you're moving into your new facility, take a look at your inventory and look for ways to make reasonable, cost-effective changes. Doing so should help to invigorate your employees and make your office an exciting, engaging place to work again. This should in turn lead to future growth – greater business opportunities, more robust sales and so on.

Getting help from good property managers

Industrial leasing in Surfers Paradise should be a two-way street. Ideally, tenants would be happy with the properties they leased, and landlords would be pleased as well. At the Ray White Gold Coast Property Management Centre, we seek to do what's right for both sides.

We do so by being reliable and detail-oriented. By managing over 250,000 rental properties internationally, we've proven our ability to deliver results time and time again. If you're looking to lease a new building for your business, we'll be ready to help.