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January 31

How do you set up an office at a new location?

A business sometimes needs to set up an office at a new location where it didn't have a presence before. It'll probably be someone in upper management who is given the task. I've never been involved in a project like that (and I'm not involved in one), but I imagine that quite a varied bit of expertise and local knowledge is involved. Among the tasks I can think of:

finding a suitable office space at a good location
finding providers for various supplies and services (telecom, cleaning, coffee, office supplies, ...; maybe banking, legal, & accounting as well)
coming up with floor plan(s) for the office space, and hire contractors to build/modify the space according to the plans
furnishing/equipping the office
complying with applicable laws (permits, inspections, registrations, certifications, various filings)
staffing the office by recruiting from the local labor market

On top of doing all these, the project probably needs to be done reasonably quickly.

If the company is large, I can imagine hiring all kinds of consultants to help with the project. But if the company is not very big, how can the executive tasked with the project know how to do all those things? Do business schools teach how to handle practical matters like the above? Is there a kind of consultants that specialize in this kind of projects? Am I imagining it to be more complicated than it really is? How is it usually done? -173.49.17.60 (talk) 14:29, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Facilities management is the appropriate discipline, and there are consultants which specialize in it. That being said, the tasks you list shouldn't really be beyond the competence of anyone in a management position, and a smaller move probably wouldn't justify getting in a specialist contractor to supervise it. Tevildo (talk) 16:36, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

One shortcut is to rent an office that's more of a turn-key operation. That is, it's already provided with furniture, cubicles, utilities, security, etc. Then, instead of hiring all new staff, you can move some over from other offices. Some of those moves may be permanent, while others are only until the new office is up and running. This gets past the problem of trying to start an office with all new staff. In some cases, there may be enough laid-off employees from previous cut-backs to fully supply the new office from that pool. Presumably those employees would need less training. StuRat (talk) 16:42, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed - see serviced office. A serviced office is quick and simple to organise, plus it avoids the risk of taking on a long term lease and capital expenditure for a new location that may not be successful. Of course, the tenants pay a premium for this convenience. Gandalf61 (talk) 09:59, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Good link. Some of the older readers might remember The Bob Newhart Show (that's the one where he was a "shrink", not the owner of a Bed and Breakfast). That appeared to be such an arrangement, where various self-employed professionals worked out of the same building, and they had a shared receptionist (Carol, I believe). StuRat (talk) 20:47, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Off-topic Tevildo (talk) 23:23, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Close, the request is either hypothetical trolling or a request for professional assistance; either way, we don't do it. μηδείς (talk) 22:31, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@μηδείς: I am the OP and I resent your hair-trigger propensity in calling legitimate questions requests for advice. Let me be clear: I did not ask for advice. And if you paid attention to the notice at the top of the Reference Desk pages, you would notice that it only mentions legal or medical advice. Have you given much thought to what "advice" is? I asked the question because I've heard of companies sending executives to open offices in new regions or even foreign countries. I've not been involved but am interesting in understanding where those executives acquire the expertise from for those projects, and whether there's a service industry segment that help with these projects that I was not aware of. Why is that not a legitimate question? I know my motives for asking the question; you can only speculate at best. I am offended at the suggestion that I was a troll. I am emphatically not! You have provided no convincing arguments why the question was inappropriate; you only made an unexplained determination. I have undone your edit. If you want to insist that question was inappropriate, cite me the relevant policies and show me a convincing analysis why the question violated the policies. I'm open to being convinced. Other respondents gave relevant responses to my question and didn't seem to have any problem with the appropriateness of my question. I don't see why I, or anyone else, should value your judgment over that of other reasonable participants of this Reference Desk. --173.49.17.60 (talk) 23:12, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm with Tevildo, it was an odd and long-winded question that almost answered itself from an anonymous poster (why so?). I think it was reasonable to regard it as trollwork. "I don't see why I, or anyone else, should value your judgment over that of other reasonable participants of this Reference Desk." I like that, must remember it for future use. Richard Avery (talk) 15:01, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(The "trolling" remark was from μηδείς. I fixed the previously-corrupted attribution to make that clear. There's meta-discussion, in a more appropriate forum, about the propriety of the original question. Follow this link to see that discussion. --173.49.17.60 (talk) 15:58, 1 February 2015 (UTC))[reply]