Choosing your office is tricky.

It can make or break your startup.

Choose the wrong office and you risk being perceived wrongly by customers/staff/investors.

So you must choose carefully.

First, decide what kind of company you are: B2C or B2B.

In other words, do you target consumers or corporates.

Consumers will rarely visit your HQ, so you need not accommodate them other than preferably have high visibility. Having signage within sight of a major thoroughfare is useful.

Corporate representatives, on the other hand, will regularly visit you, so you need to accommodate these visits. Having an impressive reception area and meeting rooms are very important. Public visibility along thoroughfares less so.

The next factor is staff. Where do your staff live? Do they have their own transport? Do they need parking? Do they use public transport?

It is very inconsiderate to choose a geography that is close to the CEO’s home, but hugely inconvenient for staff driving in rush hour or relying on public transport. Also, parking is usually one of the biggest bug-bears for staff.

Think of the income profile of your employees (can she afford a car?), think of where they live (which direction is the traffic, where are the schools?), choose a location that accommodates them.

All things considered, your offices should be comfortably laid out, easy to find, easy too access, and have impressive meeting rooms.

Your office is like your business card. It creates an impression.

It’s a marketing tool.

If you make it inconvenient for staff, traffic/parking/public transport, it means you don’t care for your staff and you’ll find it hard to attract the best people.

If you make it hard to find, it means your customers might give up trying to find you and you miss out on revenues.

If you make it ugly, it means you don’t care what impression you create and risk your company being perceived as unattractive.

If you use shared offices you are saving money, but you are saying you can’t afford your own offices and you risk being perceived as a startup rather than a legitimate, established enterprise.

If you have fancy offices, you are saying you are successful and serious, but you risk being perceived as not frugal. Investors and banks don’t like big spenders.

If you have garrish offices, you risk being perceived as having too much money and too little sense.

It’s like Goldilocks trying to find the perfect porridge:

Not too much traffic.

Not too little parking.

Not too hard to find.

Not too fancy.

Not too poor.

Not too invisible.

Not too far from customers, banks, investors.

And lastly, not too expensive.

Just right.