Transitioning Your Home Business Into An Office Space? Use These Tips

If you're someone who is transitioning from a home business to one that you've set up in an office, things can become hectic right away. With the addition of freshly-hired employees and more clients, you may become stressed and unsure about how to take on all the new responsibilities you have. These tips should turn your growing business into one that operates productively and efficiently.

Get a Productivity Suite

You have probably already been using a particular spreadsheet program or to work on presentations and databases. However, now that you've got employees, you need to ensure that everyone is using the same software and can properly download and open documents that you all use. Having a good productivity suite for the entire office is essential.

Many of these suites, such as Office 365, contain programs that are familiar to you and will typically help you with spreadsheets, reports and other documents. Some suites will also offer cloud storage and web-based versions of their software. This is especially important if you deal with a lot of client information and don't have adequate hard drive space to download many programs on your network computers.

Create Employee Manuals and Training Programs

To get everyone on board and up to speed with what you expect, a manual is vital. You need to lay out rules that you have regarding showing up for work, sick time, reporting conflicts and other issues. You may want everyone to sign a simple document affirming that they've read and understood all the guidelines. This will ensure that there's no confusion about how things should function.

Training may also be needed at times. You may want to train everyone to use the productivity suite you're using, for example, perhaps with an experienced consultant. It may help to offer weekly or monthly training sessions to ensure employee skills are adequate. This will save time during the workday and make everyone's work better.

Network with Other Professionals

There will be times when you're stuck and aren't quite sure about how to move forward with one of your business decisions or employees. That's when you'll need the assistance of other entrepreneurs. Whether you meet up with your town's Chamber of Commerce or join an online forum, being able to ask questions and learn more about how you can keep improving your business is important.

The road to a successful company may not always be smooth, but when you're using these office suggestions to lay your foundation, success is easier. Talk with others as the business grows and seek out an office 365 consultant for more assistance. 

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