| Coming from a commercial real-estate consultant (as opposed to a programmer/startup guru) these are the things many companies would do well to consider when doing office fitout. - Don't put boardroom/meeting rooms against the windows with the best views, leave them internal and put your employees where the best views/natural light is; - Avoid a single monolithic meeting room and go for two smaller rooms with a common wall that can be pulled back. Large meeting rooms for >30 ppl at once tend to be under-utilised most of the time; - If the expected budget is more than US$100k consider bringing on a project manager - they will generally earn back their fees with keeping everything in budget and fixing potentially costly issues as they arise rather than 6 months later; - Don't try to cut costs on anything that an employee touches, sits on or uses i.e. chairs, desks, coffee machine etc. It is almost always a false economy to cut costs here; - Ask the landlord to contribute some money to the fitout (can't hurt to ask); - If you are going open-plan try to avoid offices around the perimeter windows as they will tend to block the natural light from getting into the main office; - Hardwood/concrete floors sound like a good idea but keep in mind they can be quite noisy in high-traffic areas. |