When you own personal property, most commonly a house, it is inevitable that throughout the years of ownership, you will need to maintain your property with repairs, maintenance, and sometimes renovation. It goes without saying that this is something that applies to owning commercial property as well. Eventually, if you own a building long enough or you have purchased an older building, you’ll need to renovate part of the property, if not all of it. In this post, we will be speaking specifically to people with a retail space that they are planning to renovate. If renovations are in order, don’t get started until you have taken these three preparatory steps. 

1. Get Some Feedback From Your Employees: When you run a retail space, the people you employ will be on the floor overseeing the bulk of daily operations. Before starting a commercial renovation project, make sure to ask them about how the renovation plans might affect their daily tasks and the overall area that they work in. If you plan to keep your retail space open for business while the renovation is in process, you definitely need to sit down with your employees and confirm that they will still be able to conduct business as usual or with some simple adjustments. Lastly, if you don’t yet have your renovation idea set in stone, consult with your employees to get some input on how they feel the space could be improved with renovations. How can new renovations make their job easier regarding working with customers, organizing stock, and so on? 
2. Distinguish What You Want From What You Need: When you are planning something as complex as a commercial renovation (and even the smallest renovations still require quite a bit of careful consideration and attention-to-detail), you don’t want to confuse your wants with your needs. By not distinguishing what you want to happen ideally and what you actually need renovated, you create the very real possibility that you will go over budget. While you should definitely include some of the things you want for your renovations, don’t prioritize desires over actual needs for your commercial space. Balance of the two is key. It also helps to work with a professional contractor who will help you get precisely what you want while remaining realistic and sticking to a budget. 
3. Pick The Right Contractor: This sounds like one of the most simple steps, and while it is straightforward, it still takes a bit of thought and planning. You definitely don’t want to hire just any person who calls himself a contractor. In addition to that, you don’t want to hire just any contractor either. Really narrow it down. If you are planning to renovate a storefront or other type of retail space, you need a commercial contractor, not someone who only has experience in roofing or working on homes. You also want to narrow it down even more than that by looking at commercial contractors with experience in renovating retail space. This same rule applies to anything else that you need renovated. For example, if it is an entire office floor of a commercial building that needs to be renovated, you want to look for a commercial contractor who can provide proof of their experience doing other office floor renovations in the past. 

Looking for more information on how to properly prepare for a commercial renovation of your retail space or any other type of professional property? Don’t hesitate to contact us today with any questions you might have.