“Where do you work?”
“I work THERE”.
Your facility says a LOT about your organization, your vision, and your standards.
When it comes to choosing your facility and spending money on it, remember it is part of an overall business strategy.
How do people feel walking in and being there?
Payroll is your largest expense. If you can reduce employee turnover, get a bit more productivity out of them, and improve their attitude by just a bit – you can pay for the building. Most of these things are hard to measure, but they are real.
Some facilities shout “You can grow here!”.
I remember when I moved to our first building in Seymour CT. in 1997 I had outgrown my 20,000 square foot steel building and had moved from my 900 sq foot house to rent a 3,000 sq. ft. space to buying a 8,000 sq ft building to buying a 20,000 sq ft building – all in 11 years. I was tired of moving which is very disruptive and expensive. I looked for the biggest building I thought I could afford.
I found a beautiful 80,000-square-foot building with huge parking lots, beautiful office space and an elevator! The seller was motivated as it had been empty for over two years. I sold my 20,000 sq ft. Steel building for one million dollars and bought this one for two million! Boom! Wow!
This building tells people who we are. People talk differently to us and about us.
Today, we have an 11-building campus in that business park with 450 employees.
Bend the future into reality – get the right space for your vision.
An awesome story! Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks Larry! Great post today!
And the best part of this success story is that you enjoy your life, too.
As someone who works in that beautiful building, I say thank you..
Certainly is a beautiful place! I’m sure the employees appreciate it as well!
Good timing and insight as I consider the purchase of our next location. Thank you for your on-going inspiration!
Consider your building part of your marketing strategy. You are sending a message out into the world with it.
I’ve given this advise to many young people looking to get into manufacturing or working in machine shops. “When going on an interview, look at the parking lot first. If it’s full of old, beat up, junk cars, walk away. They clearly don’t take care of their employees, or the employees have no pride in themselves.” Great post.