Professional Project Management
Taking on the challenge of upgrading your business is no easy task, but it is often essential to bringing in new clients and customers and for promoting your services and products to them. If you’re unsure whether to renovate your business, we have briefly talked about office space before, but here is a quick rundown of some of the other benefits you might be able to achieve:
Office Space: Sell Your Image
Unsatisfactory office design can have a huge impact on your workforce, leading to more sick days and reduced morale. If your business is mostly office based, this can pose a significant problem if you do not address it in a reasonable time frame. An office space designed with your workforce in mind can bring in a new atmosphere and reduce stress levels, sick leave and increase productivity.
Customer and Client Facing Space
If your shop floor (or reception, restaurant area, etc.) is looking a little tired, it can have a profound impact on your business from the perspective of a customer. For example, if you sell boutique clothes, and your shop floor is not up to scratch, your customers might be put off from making a purchase. The logic behind this is simple: If your shop floor is looking tired, the products you sell will not stand out as much as they can, and it also creates a less than great impression of your business. Through enhancing the look of your shop floor, you create a positive environment for customers which is a good way to impart a strong first impression.
This philosophy also applies to the exterior of your business; if your sign/banner looks a bit worse for wear, you might want to upgrade it so that potential customers have a positive opinion of your business (i.e. it looks professional and well run). If you do decide to carry out some renovation work to enhance the overall feel of your business and attract new customers, it’s important that the work is done right the first time. It can be tempting to take this sort of thing on yourself, but if you haven’t got the experience, it might not go as planned. With this in mind, we have put together a list of why it is essential that any work is supervised with good construction project management by a company that has experience in the field.
Project Management Benefits
Budget – Project management is not something that is learned overnight and takes years of practice to get to a level where you can be comfortable with your skills. If you have never done anything like this before, consider whether you can make sure that it can stay within budget. If you aren’t confident of this, it might be worth hiring a company who will manage your project from start to finish and ensure you stick to the budget allotted. More often than not, proper planning is essential to this part, especially in the costing phase. This is where the expertise of the project management team will shine and highlight any pitfalls before work even begin.
Timeline – In a similar way to the above advice, it can be difficult to organize many different contractors and sub-contractors to come in to do the work in a timely fashion. If you don’t have experience in this, you probably won’t know which jobs are likely to run over or face problems, which can have a knock-on effect to other contractors who are waiting for other jobs to finish before they can begin. Professional project managers will know where to introduce flexibility into the schedule of work, meaning that when tasks for run over (which is often unavoidable), your whole time frame is not knocked out of sync. It’s even more important if your timeline has been developed to open your business back up as quickly as possible to avoid a loss of income. You don’t want to have to postpone the reopening of your business.
Legislation – If you plan on doing some construction work, even if you think it is minor, you may need to get permits and documents approved before that can begin. A project management team would ensure that you get the right permits correctly, on time and that any inspector visits happen at the rights points within the schedule.
For serious renovation work to your business, it might seem like the cost of project management is money you can save by doing it yourself. As we have highlighted above, this mindset can cost much more than you’d save in lost income and money spent over and above your allotted budget.
