By Anita Ginsburg

Renovating the space in your small business takes a little creativity and a lot of planning. It can be intimidating, but renovating your small business comes with many benefits. However, it’s important to prioritize before going through with it. If this is your first time renovating, you may not know what to prioritize. Here’s what you need to know about prioritizing when renovating a space for your small business.

Budget accordingly

You can probably think of a hundred changes you might like to make in the space, but before you start planning them, it’s crucial that you come up with a budget. Even for a minor project, add-ons and customizations can end up costing you far more than you first thought, which can hurt your business in the long run. Look at how much you can afford to invest in the renovation, and calculate the cost of the changes you want to make. Once you’ve got a working budget, make sure you stick to it.

You might find that you don’t have the budget for every alteration you want, so focus on the ones that will fix safety concerns and are most important to the running of the business. It would also help if you got feedback from your employees as well. Not only will it help improve the space, it will also improve morale and productivity.

Focus on safety concerns

While some renovations, like a new counter or a new layout, might be more visually appealing, before you look at aesthetic changes, you should look at safety concerns. Not only are these a hazard for yourself, your employees, and your visiting clients, they’re bad for business. If an employee or customer gets injured in your store due to faulty equipment or loose flooring, they’ll come to you for reimbursement. Additionally, they may spread negative reviews of your business to turn other potential clients away.

Make sure that your electrical systems are up to date and functioning well. Faulty wiring could cause a fire that affects not only your space, but the surrounding offices and buildings, depending on the severity of the issue. Even if there isn’t a fire, short-circuiting equipment or power cables put people at a serious risk for shocks and burns.

Flooring is another area where businesses might not notice a safety concern until it’s too late. Loose flooring can lead to falls, twisted ankles and other related injuries. If you have tile or brick floors, make sure that the floor grouting is solid and doing its job to prevent loose pieces of flooring.

Schedule when the renovation takes place

Whether you’re planning to renovate a portion of your space or the entire area, renovations take time to complete. Obviously, since you’re a place of business, you’ll want to stay open as much as possible during the renovations, but that might not be possible. Talk with your contractor about how long the process will take and which parts you can stay open for.

If you’re able to, give everyone—including yourself—time off for the project. However, if you’re a business who can’t afford to lose valuable time, you and the contractor have to come up with a plan. If the renovations aren’t an immediate necessity, you can schedule them to take place during a slower part of the year or on days that you aren’t normally open anyways.

Let your employees know

Once everything is set in stone, let your employees know what’s going to happen over the next few days. You can do this by hosting a meeting, sending out a memo, or telling them directly. Be willing and available to answer any questions they might have.

On a side note, depending on your business, it might be a good idea to update your clients on the renovation as well. If you’re unable to stay open during it, they should know. Use social media to your advantage and broadcast it, so everyone that follows you will know when you’re open for business again.

Make sure the job is done right

While the job is being done, go and see how everything is going. You might find something that’s not to your liking. If that’s the case, you’ll need to tell the contractor so everything is as you planned.

Renovating your small business can be one of the most important investments you’ll ever make. Doing so can make the area more comfortable for your employees, which can help boost productivity.

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Anita Ginsburg is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn’t writing. You can follow her on Twitter @anitaginsburg.