Although it’s a big milestone when you need to rent office space for your business, it’s not always easy to know how much to request. If you’re working with a realtor, he or she has probably asked the approximate number of square feet and extra rooms you need. Knowing this information before you look at the office space in-person help you to make the best possible rental or purchase decision.

Who Needs Office Space and How Big Should It Be? 

While every business has unique needs, you can consider the following chart a rule of thumb when renting or buying office space:

  • 400 square feet for company president 
  • 200 square feet for company vice president 
  • 150 square feet for each manager  

Depending on their role and how much they need to spread out their work, some employees could end up needing a cubicle larger than other employees’ offices. Here are a handful of common examples for recommended cubicle size by position:

  • 175 square feet for engineers 
  • 150 square feet for accountants 
  • 125 square feet for secretaries 
  • 125 square feet for programmers 
  • 125 square feet for customer service representatives  

Don’t forget that you will also need to account for open floor space. For example, employees in the data entry department and other general clerks would probably do fine with 125 square feet available to them with an open floor plan. Temporary employees can also sit in this open floor plan area since it tends to represent more transient employees.

One of the last things you need to decide about office space is how much square footage to devote to separate rooms. Here are some ideas:

  • 200 square feet each for storage and file rooms 
  • 125 square feet each for mailrooms and separate work rooms 
  • 100 square feet for the reception area or larger if it’s common for several people to wait in the same area 
  • 75 square feet for a lunch or break room 
  • 50 square feet for each conference room  

If you need more assistance with office space than this guide provides, please don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment with Alternative Capital Source.