How to Professionalise Your Garage Office

As much as the corporate world around the globe is gradually (and in some instances very rapidly) shifting away from the traditional high-rise office structure and moving more towards sourcing talent for specific projects from the massive pool of so-called “gigsters,” if you’re running your own business out of your garage then you still need to maintain a good level of professionalism. The professionalism is especially required if a good chunk of your customer segmentation is comprised out of local clients who live in your area. It’s only natural for a client to source a product or service from a nearby supplier whom they can visit physically as this comes with the peace of mind of knowing where to go should they experience any problems with what they paid for.

Many start-ups do indeed start out in what is now a classic cliché of working or setting up office in the garage, but if you’re going to be servicing clients regularly, or indeed if some funders, inspectors or potential investors are possibly going to come around to check out your setup, it becomes quite imperative to professionalise your garage office. Professionalising your garage office can also be advantageous to the productivity of your business, making it a place that looks and feels like it’s for nothing more than work. If you have some partners or employees, this will rub off on them too, so you can’t have your mother popping in every so often with a tray of cookies, even though she probably means well.

Furnishing the Garage-Office Space

With some help from the guys over at Slingsby, a specialist supplier of commercial and industrial equipment, pick out some quality office furniture which is very functional but not too comfortable. So you probably won’t have a nice comfy couch like the one in front of your living-room TV, while a few desks and office chairs will do to create that professional feel and perhaps make for a good layout to set up a few workstations. Always have more workstations than the total number of your “staff,” so as to create an air of the prospect of more work to be done and also just to have some extra equipment to maintain continuity should some of your primary equipment run into some problems. If you really must have a couch, it should be placed as far as possible from the main work area, to be possibly used as a mini-waiting area for any clients that drop by.

Otherwise office chairs can be easily rearranged to create a make-shift meeting area setup.

Branding

Be sure to comply with the regulations and requirements of your local municipality, but a professionally-done billboard outside is perhaps the last step you’ll need to take to professionalise your garage office, especially if it’s one of those “permanent-looking ones” dug into the ground. Otherwise a nice branded sign at the entrance and some sort of entry-control mechanism will top your garage office’s professionalism off nicely and give any visiting customer the peace of mind they’ll need to put their full trust in you.