qprev_HBB Manual 2.qxd - Small Business BC

What About Premises and Facilities?Premises means real estate. Facilities arebuildings.Physical SpaceA business needs an appropriate place towork. Assess the space you have and the spaceyou need.• What physical space does your business need?• Is that physical space available in your home,or in buildings on the premises – such as thegarage, shop, or shed?• Will your work space have to share otherfunctions? What effects might this have onboth activities?• Are renovations needed to make availablespace useable?• Will any renovations involve upgrading power,changing plumbing or wiring? Do the costsmake these renovations realistic?• Is any new construction required by thebusiness? Researching construction costs inyour area should give you a cost per squarefoot that you can use to guide buildingdecisions.• Do renovations or buildings require buildingpermits?• How convenient is the space for deliveryof materials, or for a customer to enterand leave?• Will household noise, smells or activitypose problems?• Will customers ever come there? Will they becomfortable in the business space?Planning a Work SpaceSit with pen or pencil and graph paper in thephysical space you’ve identified for the business.Draw the workshop or workspace, showingfurniture and equipment. Connect those withlines or arrows showing the lines of production,how work flows. Use your drawing to decide onthe location of telephone lines, electrical serviceand plug-in’s, lighting and fire-proofing.Production equipment poses special challenges –can you work available space into production andhousehold routines?Take the time to draw up different layouts forproduction space, again paying special attentionto the flow of production. Will a certain layoutmean unnecessary steps in the productionprocess, or have people doing different jobstripping over each other? If you can’t makeexisting space fit production needs, reconsiderevery option before trying to make things workin too small a space.Organizing a Work PlacePeople often say organization can wait becausethey think other, more important things have tobe done first. When organization waits, successoften waits too. If you organize yourself and yourwork space from the beginning, and you budgetthe time to keep it organized, your home-basedbusiness has a greater chance of succeeding. Yourpersonal stress and frustration will also bereduced. As you get bigger, you get busier, sonow is the time to organize.• What kind of image does it present?• Can distinct functions of your operation bedivided from one another if necessary?solutions for small business home-based business 57