According to recent figures, companies owned by women are the fastest growing category in the UK.  Women are really taking the business world by storm.

If you are female, and you are considering taking your entrepreneurial skills to the next level, you are probably already aware of how difficult it can be to start and run your own business.

Many women start off working from home, usually because they have children or run a household, but it is important that you have an office away from the rest of the house.  Using the dining table as an office desk and using a mantelpiece as a filing cabinet is not a good idea if you want to be taken seriously; you might lose important paperwork.  It will also be more difficult to focus, limiting your chances of success, so be sure to set up a separate area as a home office even if that is just a dedicated corner of a room.  You do not need much, just an office desk, office chair and possibly a filing cabinet.

Make sure you have a separate telephone line to take business calls and keep the business phone near the office desk to avoid the family or children answering it.

If you are lucky enough to be able to keep your existing job whilst you start, then continue to work whilst you can.

When you start a business, office furniture is essential, however, you probably want to keep costs down, so cheap office furniture can be a good way to save a few pennies.

Office furniture nowadays is panel mounted.  Panel mounted means that the office panels are the basis of the office design, and office desks or filing cabinets can be mounted directly on panels.

Freestanding office panel systems are also known as office dividing panels.  They can be placed around office furniture to create individual small office sections, ideal if you need to save space.

A panel based system offers flexibility in terms of design and can also be equipped with internal power options.  You can have them taller to give a greater degree of privacy and reduce noise levels.  A great advantage is that they can be reconfigured whenever you like, as your needs change.

One decision you need to consider is whether to have power or not, because powered office panels are more expensive.  However, if all your staff use computers at their office desks, then power in the panels can be much more convenient.

To choose a panel system, check its durability.  They are designed to last a long time, but check they have a good warranty and that the range will be available for a while yet in case you want to add to your office furniture later.

It is important to make sure that the office is not only well ventilated but is kept at a normal temperature. This not only ensures employees are comfortable but are productive too.

The number of office workers has increased substantially with the advent of computers and the internet so it is common to see rooms filled with office desks and computers. When computers are close together, this will in itself increase the office temperature and can become uncomfortable in summer.

Other factors affecting ventilation include office furniture design and layout. There have been studies on the range of office furniture configurations and their affect on ventilation. A few factors make a substantial difference: the present of office furniture, office partition heights and gaps, air supply and the proximity of office desks and computers.

In summary, when you design your office, you must leave a sufficient gap between office desks and office chairs. Do not have partitions too high and ensure your air conditioning systems are cleaned regularly. Ensure that printers, faxes and other office equipment that generate heat are not too close to a workers office desk or chair.

An office party, whether it’s for a retirement, birthday or other special occasion, is a great excuse to decorate the office furniture with banners and streamers to brighten it up.

Not only is it a great idea to celebrate a fellow colleague’s special occasion but it will act as a form of team building too.  Most offices will buzz for a few days before a party with the excitement of organising the party and surprising their colleague.

There are a few factors to consider before you go ahead though.  Firstly, should be venue be at the office or would it be better to move to a restaurant?  Besides that, you can consider having a theme, altering the décor a little, what food or drink to supply and should you move the office furniture out of the way?

A popular agenda item for a party is a slide show or hanging photographs of the colleague on the wall – embarrassing ones of course.  If you opt for a slide show, you can always move away the office furniture and pull up the office chairs so they can be really embarrassed as they remember the good ol’ days.

If you only have limited space, you would probably imagine that the last thing you want in there is more office furniture, however, office dividers are a great way to maximize space.

Office dividers are freestanding walls that can be used to divide up a room into different sections.  This means that employees can not only get a degree of privacy that they would not have in an open plan office, but also if you need to separate departments and have run out of rooms, a divider can facilitate that for you.
To use office dividers, start by measuring the office space and include the individual office desks.  Do not forget to leave enough room for people to push back their office chairs.

Consider how your employees use their workspace when at the office desks.  If they often work in groups and throw ideas around, then they need a more open design.  However, if they are often on the phone or sat quietly working at their office desks, they will need a quieter space and privacy.

Be sure that office equipment, such as filing cabinets, are not too far from reach either.

Many people accept that it is possible to work from home with just a minimal investment, however, it is important to have the capacity to run the business you are thinking of from home.

For example, you might only need some basic office furniture, such as the basics including an office desk, office chair and some office equipment.  In which case, working from home sounds a viable option, however, if you’ll need some staff then you may need to reconsider.

Like most businesses just starting out, you will probably need a bit of capital to get you started.  Even after the office furniture, you will need some stationery, a computer, phone lines and higher utility bills.

Here is a short checklist to work through:

•    Start by examining your skills
•    Develop a business plan, you can pick up templates from most banks
•    Make a list of the office furniture or equipment you’ll need
•    Make a price list of products or services

Running a business from home is not for everybody, but it is something many people desire so worth looking into.

When you first become a manager, you take on a leadership role.  You might already have ideas of the sort of leadership style you want to use, but it is up to you and you must make a choice.

Some lead with authority and tell others what to do and others manage to get consensus from their team.  Consider whether you want to have an authoritarian style or a more democratic, participative style.

Believe it or not, the arrangement of your office furniture is important.

By keeping your own office desk separate from the team, you are seen to stand out and be separate.  Naturally, you will want to stay close enough to their office desks to keep and eye on them and offer support when needed too.

It is important to hold regular office meetings to keep communication lines open, even if that is just all of the team gathered round a couple of office desks, it doesn’t have to be a formal meeting over the boardroom table.

You need to build trust within the team.  It is impossible to strap the team to their office chairs for eight hours a day and strictly control what they do. You need to build that trust and they need to want to work for you.

As you are searching around the office furniture market, you will see that office furniture is far from exempt from the colour schemes we see in other markets.  Especially when a new type of office furniture is introduced, such as the minimalist style introduced in recent years, there will be some wild colours to make sure people remember them.

Most office designers will try to incorporate some colour into the office, to brighten it up and stop it looking grey and dull.  Colour has an important impact on staff and nobody wants to work in a drab office, with the same boring office desk and office chair.  Often the colours chosen are corporate colours, in line with a logo, and they are expanded across the entire office and office furniture.

Colours actually have a psychological impact and so sometimes it may be better to decorate different departments in different colours depending on that department’s role, purpose and the type of people that work within it.

For example, a black office desk can intimate mystery, power and style.  White indicates cleanliness and a pure aspect.  A red computer desk will show speed, strength or bravery.  A blue office chair can symbolize calmness, serious and productive.

Be sure to consider your colour choice carefully when choosing office furniture.

Developing time management skills for the office can take some discipline, but once you have mastered it, you will be amazed at the difference you can feel in all aspects of your life.

For the office, the most common approach that people take is to purchase a diary and kept it either on the office desk or perhaps in the office desk drawer.  Always refer to your diary and make a point of writing down your tasks for the day, carrying forward any that you did not manage the day before.

Recent studies demonstrate that people have an amazing number of interruptions in a day, at least fifty.  Considering that the average working day is eight hours, this is an awful lot of wasted time.  Encourage people to use email where their reply is not urgent and learn to prioritise items.  This can also avoid unnecessary interruptions at your office desk.

Most people struggle with prioritizing their workload.  To solve this, work out the results of each task.  If you did not do a task, what would be the impact?  Do the ones with the greatest negative impact first.
Another idea is to section off certain times in the day when you can hold staff meetings and ask staff to save questions for that time.  This will help to deter interruptions at the office desk.

Everybody experiences stress at some point.  The accumulative effect of daily events can result in stress, and so one of our aims is often to learn how to cope with stress and how to be able to concentrate on the task in hand, particularly at work.

Here are a few tips for how to stay productive in the office:

Before starting the day, be sure to arrive on time at work and spend a couple of minutes sitting at the office desk, taking a few deep breaths.  Visualise every concern and worry dissolving and exhaling your problems away.  For now, you can just relax.

Each time you feel that stress coming on, try to take a moment to sit back in the office chair, take a deep breath and think about a happy event or time that made you smile.

People deal with stress in different ways, but because you are busy at work, do not forget to eat or drink.  A quick drink of water at your office desk will keep the thirst away, relieve tiredness and revitalize you.  Be sure to eat if you feel hungry, don’t ignore the hunger pangs as this will only add to stress and make you feel lethargic.  Just a couple of biscuits from the office desk drawer will make your overall energy level increase.

Do limit the amount of salt, sugar, alcohol and caffeine you intake, and be sure to drink plenty of water.

In your lunch break, be sure to get away from the office desk, even if just for ten minutes.