How important is the image of your offices?

There are many factors to consider when deciding where to have your offices. One of them should be answering the question “What message does my office space send to employees, clients and potential clients.”

In my view this should not be something that you lightly.

Some time back I read this post by Ben Matthews entitled: The PR of Office Space where he made this comment:

“There is an office that I walk past often on my way to work, and I have to say that due to its surroundings and not in any way its own fault, it suffers from bad PR just by being positioned where it is.”

I absolutely agree. Where your offices are situated including your surroundings and what your offices look like inside play a huge part in how your business is perceived.

Charl du Toit, The Success Academy’s Founder and CEO often says to potential tenants who are wanting to rent office space from us that his mission is to create office spaces where companies can run successful businesses and that when clients, potential clients and employees come into the office park they must make the decision that they want to do business with you as at the office park entrance as a result of the image that is created by the surroundings.

In most cases having the right image for your offices will mean spending more on rent. It’s my view that you should always try and get the best quality office space that your budget can stretch to. Saving money in the short term almost always costs you in the long run in all sorts of ways such as your staff retention, recruitment and morale as well as maintenance costs.

So what do you think? How important are the surroundings of your office to the image of your business?