Empty desks or empty floor space - which is best?

[TonyRPH]

I work for a small business which is aiming to attract investors.

We have some potential investors visiting shortly, however...

50% of our main office space is occupied by empty desks (with chairs - no computers) - but one of our directors thinks that it would be better to leave empty floor space and store the desks out of sight.

Spreading the occupied desks / users out into the space is not currently an option.

So I would like to garner opinions on this strategy - empty desks or empty floor space?

Which is the best?

My personal opinion is to place some some small plant pots on a couple of these desks, and maybe some office artifacts e.g. scanner / printer.

There are 12 (1m) desks in 2 banks of 6 if that makes any difference.

[Mr Overheads]

Take them out and stick a pool table in, to show it's a fun place to work (good for employee retention, which might be a concern to investors)

New partitions for "meeting rooms"

[TonyRPH]

Mr Overheads said:

Take them out and stick a pool table in, to show it's a fun place to work (good for employee retention, which might be a concern to investors)

New partitions for "meeting rooms"

Great idea but not practical in a call centre environment!

[ewenm]

Shows the investors you've already got the space to expand, so their funds won't be spent on rent/desks but on IT equipment/people/training instead.

Pitch it as "We rented this place despite being a small team to the moment to allow expansion of the business".

[Rangeroverover]

Tell the investors that you will be renting out desk space on a month to month basis until you require the space for your expansion

[anonymous-user]

Rangeroverover said:

Tell the investors that you will be renting out desk space on a month to month basis until you require the space for your expansion

Assuming their lease allows for subletting.

Personally, i'd leave things as they are, no smart investor is going to make a decision based on whether you have unused desks or floor space, they will be more interested in why you are in a bigger premises than you need.

[Vaud]

Inkyfingers said:

Assuming their lease allows for subletting.

Personally, i'd leave things as they are, no smart investor is going to make a decision based on whether you have unused desks or floor space, they will be more interested in why you are in a bigger premises than you need.

And profit, sales pipeline to fill that capacity, market differentiation, etc.

[bazza white]

Dedicated area maybe ie training area.

[davepoth]

TonyRPH said:

Mr Overheads said:

Take them out and stick a pool table in, to show it's a fun place to work (good for employee retention, which might be a concern to investors)

New partitions for "meeting rooms"

Great idea but not practical in a call centre environment!

The problem is that lots of empty space looks bad on an initial look - a half full office doesn't feel like a busy office.

Stick some walls up, but don't even attempt to lie about it - just tell them there's room to grow. They'll get the positive vibe from the "busier" office but still will appreciate the extra space available.

[mph1977]

davepoth said:

TonyRPH said:

Mr Overheads said:

Take them out and stick a pool table in, to show it's a fun place to work (good for employee retention, which might be a concern to investors)

New partitions for "meeting rooms"

Great idea but not practical in a call centre environment!

The problem is that lots of empty space looks bad on an initial look - a half full office doesn't feel like a busy office.

Stick some walls up, but don't even attempt to lie about it - just tell them there's room to grow. They'll get the positive vibe from the "busier" office but still will appreciate the extra space available.

good plan

dvidiers if you dont put partitions up and a some training / 'breakout areas ' ( even though that sounds like buzzword bullst bingo ) and leave some space at the far end ...

[98elise]

Stop throwing away old paperwork, and start piling it in the corners of the empty desks

Get some temps in for the day and a bunch of cheap noisy keyboards.

Instant busy office

[rek]

TonyRPH said:

Great idea but not practical in a call centre environment!

Plenty of the call centres I vistit are seasonal, and it's not unusual to have empty desks in that environment. If the investor knows call centres they'll probably know this too.