If you own a commercial property, your building can either be a great asset, or a ball-and-chain that limits your ability to succeed. Building environments matter. Whether you are competing for employees or for customers, your building needs to compete with the buildings your competitors offer. What can you do to give yourself a competitive edge?
What are some of the factors that can make a difference—regardless of whether it’s your company occupying the space or a client who is leasing from you?
- Utility Costs: These days companies look at every area of doing business to see where they can trim costs. Utilities costs are no longer simply a “cost of doing business” that gets overlooked. As utilities are typically the 2nd largest cost in a building after labor related to your business. If the building you own has higher than usual costs for utilities—that can be a game-changer.
- Working Environment: There is much more to providing a good working environment than just nice-looking spaces. There are plenty of studies that show the relationship between “common comforts” such as adequate lighting, reliable power supply, comfortable working temperatures to make your Business more productive. Once again, just having adequate space and a good location is not enough. Does the building you own provide a better working environment than your competitor or peers building?
- Financial Advantages: Out-spending your competition to provide a great workplace environment isn’t always a good strategy. As a matter of fact, it can get you into big trouble. Smart improvements, however, are a different story. You can take advantage of programs such as Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), which is an innovative mechanism for financing energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements on private property. PACE programs allow local governments like Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, state governments including Ohio and Kentucky, or other inter-jurisdictional authorities, when authorized by state law, to fund the up-front cost of energy improvements on commercial properties, which are paid back over time by the property owners.
Enervise can help you evaluate your existing systems and walk you through the steps to making upgrades that will make your property more attractive and competitive—without having to access capital you need for other purposes.
Make sure your commercial property is giving you a competitive edge—and not holding you back!
