Moving from a home based business to an office is a huge step for any business, but it needs to be considered carefully. After all why pay out costs on running an office if your business runs equally as well from home? Having commercial premises does give a more professional impression, more space to expand and the opportunity to take on permanent staff, but have you really considered all the options and impact it could have on your business?

When it comes to staff, if you are looking to take on employees then you will probably need office space. However, think about whether you could utilise freelance staff who could work from home themselves. Also, some people do have employees working from home, especially if there's, say, a converted work space in the garden or garage. Still on the subject of other people, do you deal with clients? If you need somewhere to have meetings then an office could well be the answer, but remember there are cheaper alternatives such as hiring meeting rooms as and when you need them. If, however, you have daily client visits you would need a more permanent base from which to work.

Do your staff use their personal devices in the workplace? While some businesses are encouraging the use of employees' own tech, others are actively discouraging it. In fact over one in three business owners have refused employees mobile access to work resources, amid fears about security.

Research by Filemaker has found that 47% of workers believe that technology provisions in their workplace are less effective than the devices they use personally – revealing a conflict of interest between employers’ security concerns and workers’ desire to manage workloads from their own technology. The speed that technology develops means that staff often have the latest kit, while businesses tend to up-date devices less often due to costs. There are, however, the obvious concerns that technology not approved by businesses is increasingly being used. Security is, of course, the main worry.

Many small businesses will reach the point where they need to think about recruitment. This might be, for example, due to increased workload or a lack of knowledge requiring outside expertise. The problem, though, is that the business is often not bringing in the income required to pay for that additional staff member.

Knowing when is the right time to recruit is, therefore, very difficult, especially in these uncertain economic times when revenues are changing dramatically for many businesses. I know a company who was due to interview for their first member of staff and the day before the interview lost one of their major contracts. In a way they were lucky it happened before they had taken on the employee, but it does show how decisions made one day can be forced to change another. Employing staff is a huge commitment, and businesses need to understand all aspects of the contract between themselves and the employee, and that includes how they can potentially dismiss them.