Designs, Colors and Eco Ideas for Your Business Office
It all starts with an idea: a dream, a thought, a plan, a business, an office. Although trends are telling us that more and more businesses prefer the virtual office plans, there are still business owners who prefer the good old traditional way. Successful local businesses will always benefit more by having a physical office space. This is part of the overall business and marketing strategy: keeping it local means having a real office building, real receptionists and business lounges of your own. And because traditional spaces require specific care and attention in terms of location, placement, indoor and outdoor planning, here are a couple of design ideas for your business office, as well as a couple of eco-ideas worth considering in the future.
Don’t Let Walls Limit Your Company’s Personality
We all know how important first impressions are in the business world. It is not only about potential clients, but also about potential employees and current ones. So how can you help your employees, clients and yourself to not feel like “a brick in the wall”?
The psychology of colors, according to HuffingtonPost, teaches us a couple of valuable lessons: colors speak more than words and reflect a subconscious reality in which creativity and uniqueness dwells. Is your business traditional and pure at heart? Does the business strategy rely on sincerity? Then white walls are the best choice. But White is a tricky neutral color as it creates a linear routine misconception. So in order to make up for it, you ought to “kill the boredom” in white with specific details such as relief forms, color splashes, paintings or sculptures applied on the wall surface itself or nearby.
But let’s see what other colors speak about our business and company culture:
a) Green and Blue are colors that reflect a calm, relaxed and helpful workplace. Green works both ways for clients and employees alike. It reduces anxiety while being restful for the eyes of those who use computers 24/7. Blue also does the trick by helping calm heart rates, blood pressure and respiration. But be careful with dark tones. While light tones of green and blue can make your employees feel safe and secure and fights your client’s anxiety, dark tones can have the opposite effect by increasing mixed emotions and feelings of depression or sadness.
b) Orange and Yellow can help your employees feel energized in different ways. Orange is a stimulation of enthusiasm and yellow makes the place feel welcoming and stimulates memory recalling. However, it is highly recommended to not paint the office walls entirely in these colors, as too much yellow or too much orange can have side effects such as generating anger, frustration and an appetite for food. Word of advice: strokes and lines or small painted furniture objects can definitely do the trick in creating an overall feeling of positive energy.
c) Red is ideal for increasing brain activity, heart rates and respiration, when used as an accent color. Full painted red walls can have the opposite effect and cause hostility among employees and a feeling of anger among your clients. Pink would definitely make your employees relaxed, but might seriously affect your business image. Except for businesses involving baby, fashion, make-up and beauty products.
d) We talked about white, but what about other neutral colors such as brown, gray, black, cream, mauve? Well, truth to be told, each of these neutral colors are not the best choice for an entire wall painting and it is highly recommended to use the as color strokes or furniture pieces. Never use them as single painting choice because: a) brown signifies illness and it can de-motivate your employees and clients; b) gray and cream colors will not stimulate employees in any way; c) black and mauve do stand out, but they generate feelings of anxiety, sadness and depression among employees. And could definitely de-motivate your business clients in signing a new contract.
Breakthroughs, Literally Speaking
Some of us are lucky enough to live in places where we have sun and warm weather for at least a couple of months every year. So why not break through the office walls and enjoy an open space office? It can be yours, created by your own two hands or a team of experts. Or it can be a co-working outdoor space (who would have thought a couple of years ago that working out in the open can actually increase productivity and motivation?). It doesn’t matter, as long as this keeps the team fired up and the work progresses smoothly.
I like breakthroughs because doing something out of the ordinary can bring that “surprise” element and generate great return on investment, be it in terms of finance or effort. And there’s even more you can do to invest your money wisely in a business office. R-E-C-Y-C-L-E. Yes, you can recycle and encourage the eco-nomy of things. Recycling can be done from furniture you don’t need any more to even PC components and ink cartridges. This is a way to rebalance your business by improving and helping both the environment and other companies – the companies that offer recycling services.
An example is Cartridge Express (website: http://www.cartridgeexpress.net/ ), a UK-based recycling company that recycles ink and toner cartridges. This brings us into an evergreen circle in which one business donates or sells their used cartridges, helping other businesses and the environment, while the recycling company helps the environment by collecting these cartridges, and in the same time, giving a huge help to small buyers and companies who prefer to use recycled materials and PC components.
This is exciting, as businesses find ways to connect with other businesses, but in the same time keep the environment healthy, giving “birth” to a new concept: b2e (business to environment). And this surely is a connection worth exploring in the future.
So let’s save a little money, but also save the environment through small, but steady steps.
Author bio: Article provided by Roxana (Google+), a Psychologist and big fan of the business-to-environment movement.
Category: Business
