How to refurbish your business
For many South Africans, running a business can be challenging. The first challenge is to get your small business off the ground. Once your business starts doing well, there will be technological advances and refurbishments that you would need to undertake.
As a business owner, it is understandable that you would want to keep up with the changes. Technology is growing and changing at an increasingly fast pace and it can be difficult to keep up, especially since these improvements requires money.
If you’re looking at ways on how you can refurbish your business, read our top tips.
Planning Is Key
As a business owner, you know the importance of planning. Refurbishments take up a lot of time and require a large amount of money. You need to think about how big those refurbishments will be and whether it will affect your business operating hours. Perhaps the refurbishments will be lengthy or disruptive and you will need to close down until the refurbishments are complete.
Once you have figured out the duration you need to also think about the cost. Often times business improvements can be quite expensive. Most business can’t afford to use their cash flow for refurbishments as it could affect their business. Therefore you need to create a budget and see how much you will need in order to complete your renovations.
Once you have created a budget you can look for business funding. Many businesses opt to apply for business asset finance in order for them to make their business improvements.
Apply For A Business Finance
As mentioned previously, refurbishments require money. Many financial services and registered credit providers offer small and medium businesses business loans. In order for your business to receive finance for your business you need to have a good business plan.
A good business plan is the first step in getting lenders to trust your business. You should have all your business financial details, and details of the asset you would like to finance. Make sure that you are prepared when going to the lender and you have all your necessary documents which include:
Company registration and VAT number
Banking details and balance sheet information
Contact information and registered address
Contact details of your business partners
Have A Design In Mind
Once you know what your budget is and you’ve received funding the next step is visualising the new design. The new design for your business needs to be well-thought out and innovative. In order to achieve your idea, you need to employ contractors who understand your vision and what you would like to accomplish. Remember that this is a new look for your business, and is supposed to attract new business clients or angel investors.
Creating a good office space won’t only bring in potential clients but it will also boost your employee morale. Happy employees always get the job is done which is exactly what you need. That way they can bring in more for your business.
Renting Vs Purchasing Equipment
Many businesses aren’t sure whether to rent out or buy equipment. However, both options have their own advantages. When applying for vehicle and asset finance you have the option of releasing it. When you rent out a vehicle or asset it has many advantages, including being more affordable and having access to the latest technology.
You can also improve your business cash flow and receive optimal VAT and income tax benefits. When opting for a rental, your business won’t also need to worry about maintenance as that’s only necessary if they owned it. However, the big problem would be that it won’t belong to you.
On the other hand, when you purchase the equipment you have full ownership of the asset or vehicle. The asset is added to your businesses asset register which will improve the equity of your business. Often times purchasing a piece of equipment could save costs especially if it does not get outdated. If you know that the equipment won’t need to be replaced in the next two years, rather purchase the equipment.
When choosing whether to purchase or rent out equipment, you need to think of its longevity. If you know that you won’t need to upgrade and it will withstand the test of time then you can purchase the asset. However, if you’re aware that after two years it will be outdated then the best route would be to rent out the equipment.
Final Thoughts
Renovating your office can be quite time-consuming, however, it is a great way of improving your business, especially with the innovations in technology. If you know which steps to take and when to take them it won’t be as time-consuming as you think. And the rewards will be better over time.