The Sundance Company – Boise Valley Commercial Real Estate

There are lots of ways to use design to increase focus and productivity in the workplace, and here are a few good ones:

Lights: Study after study shows that humans are meant to be exposed to natural sunlight during the day. Exposure to bright lights in general — but particularly to natural sunlight — keeps our minds and bodies more alert and active, which can increase productivity and focus in the workplace. Consider adding skylights, and even adding in natural lights rather than florescent lights can make a big difference in workplace focus and productivity.

Walls: Traditional office spaces use cubicles with high walls, and it can be a problem. Workers feel isolated; they’ll be more productive if they feel they’re part of a community. Conversations are louder; workers have to raise their voices to talk between cubicles. Installing clear glass walls between cubicles is one excellent solution for this, but many offices are also starting to lower cubicle walls to create more of an open, community feel.

Meetings: One design idea to fix both of these problems is to build in several small meeting spaces along the edges of the office. Stick with the open feel by giving them soundproof glass walls. The rooms don’t need to be very large – just enough to hold five or six people comfortably for an impromptu meeting. Soundproof walls keep the other workers from getting distracted, and several small rooms allow for groups to meet whenever they need to.

Breaks: When your workers go to the break room, they should be able to actually take a break and unwind. Give your break room all the essentials – such as a fridge and microwave – but also add in some homey extras, like a couple of comfortable couches, bar-height tables for small lunch groups, and relaxing décor.

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

As new advances in technology continue to drive changes in today’s workplace, it will be interesting to see how the office looks in 2015. Office furniture designer and manufacturer Teknion thought so as well. They recently released the results of “Workplace of the Future” a survey of approximately 30 U.S. large employers and design firms. The survey findings indicate that, by 2015, workplace utilization is expected to increase from levels between 35% and 50% today to 85%, as the desk-to-employee ratio is addressed and space is reapportioned. Strategies that companies are employing to accomplish increased space utilization include:

▪ 77% – Open, collaborative workspaces with fewer offices

▪ 62% – Densification of workspaces

▪ 54% – Reduce square footage footprint through disposition

▪ 46% – More employees working remotely, from home, satellite or client sites

▪ 31% – Mobile working programs including desk-sharing, hoteling or coworking spaces

So what do you think about the workplace of the future? Any ideas or thoughts on what your office might look like in 2015?

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Do you have an eccentirc boss? Or perhaps a normal boss who has culitvated an eccentric workplace? Check out this interesting read on Inc.com about what one CEO did to foster creativity and innovation in his company. And it involves a tree house. But you already knew that thanks to the title of the blog. Enjoy!

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Now that we have bid farewell to 2011, what are some of the things we can learn from last year? Well The folks at G+(not to be confused with Google+) have developed an infographic on the top technology trends of online for 2011. The list is topped with Group Buying, a technology that exploded earlier in the year and has now become a feature that virtually every community has copied and incorporated into their strategy. Geolocation applications, tablets, cloud-based productivity apps, online video in Enterprise, Online Q&A, Crowdfunding, and Mobile Photo Sharing Apps also topped the list.

In other words, all we want is to do more and enjoy more, absolutely everywhere we are. That’s seem reasonable, right? For the full list of 2011′s tech trends, check out the infographic below.

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Are you going to disconnect from work over the holidays? It is not so easy thanks to mobile technology.

Well that was the question posed on the LoopNet blog recently, and you might be surprised at the answer. Turns out that a lot of folks in the commercial real estate industry are finding out it is quite the tool in conducting everyday business. Follow the link to read the rest of the story, http://blog.loopnet.com/2011/10/ipad-becomes-essential-tool-for-brokers.html

Do you use an iPad to help with your commercial real estate business? Are you considering using one after reading the story?

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

As a real estate agent, your success in attracting listings is going to be faster if you have a lot of signboards placed on properties in your local market. Quite simply, the more the local people see your name on signboards the more they will identify with you and remember you when the time comes to sell.

No vendor wants to list their property for sale or lease with an agent or salesperson that is unknown. For that reason when you start off working in the industry or when entering a new area you should do a lot of work in the first few months to build your name. It’s called personal branding. The most successful salespeople have it. Most other salespeople have little of it.

When you start to build your brand you should regard it as an ongoing task that will not stop. The bigger your personal brand, the better things will be for you.

It sounds simple as a base concept in territory management and selling real estate. However such a principle needs to be stated again here as it is overlooked by so many. In absolutely all respects your success in real estate sales is almost totally up to you and how you market yourself.

So now let’s go back to the point of putting lots of signboards into your real estate market. Here are the rules to the process:

1. Getting them placed on properties located on main roads is very important as it will give you free advertising.

2. The signs have to be of similar branding and colour to build consistency and image.

3. Always put your name on the sign boards and include a mobile phone number for out of hours contact.

4. Keep the signboards free of graffiti as that will send the wrong message to the other vendors in the area.

5. Within reason use the maximum signboard size that the local council will let you use.

6. Put some property reference number on the sign so the person calling can easily identify the property to you.

7. The sign has to be located in the best position on the property so it is seen by passing people and traffic.

8. Make sure the sign is secure so you do not have a damages claim from a falling sign.

9. If possible use a photo sign that features your photograph as well as some photo from the property. This will also help with your personal branding.

10. When something is sold or leased, make sure you get a label placed on the existing sign so the market knows of your success.

When correctly approached your signboard strategy can go a long way to helping you build market share for your real estate office and you personally, and that signboard will attract more listings and inquiries your way.

About The Sundance Company

Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Going “green” might sound expensive, but it actually can help save your business time and money in the long run.  Plus, being eco-friendly is easy and could be a fun activity for you and your employees.  Here are a few easy things you can do to help save the planet while also reducing your overhead.

Cut down on paper - Use note-taking software. During a meeting, nobody in the room should be filling up legal pads with pages of notes.  Note-taking software offers an easier way to take notes, which can help save a ton of paper.  An example is Microsoft Office OneNote, which comes with MS Office suite.  A favorite is currently Evernote, which is compatible with Mac OS X, iPhone, Windows XP/Vista/7, Windows Mobile and Palm Pre.  Also, you might want to check out new technologies like Netbooks, Kindles and iPads, which make note-taking much easier and speedier.

Get rid of the fax machine and fax online - Faxing online does not require paper or toner.  It doesn’t even require a fax machine!  Online fax allows you to send and receive PDF faxes, which means that you can pick and choose which faxes you’d like to print and which you’d like to delete.  Not only will you save paper and toner, but you’ll also save energy required to run a fax machine.  This will keep your energy bill low, and you won’t need to spend money maintaining a piece of hardware.

Order mini-cards or business cards printed on recycled card stock - One way to cut your paper consumption in half is by cutting your cards in half.  Instead of ordering regular business cards, consider buying mini business cards.  They are small, inexpensive, and light-weight.  Nobody has any room in their wallets to carry extra cards anyway, so make it easy for yourself and for your contacts.  You could also order business cards printed on recycled paper and/or find a company that prints with soy ink, which requires less energy to produce than petroleum-based ink.

Make recycling easy - Put office recycling bins in strategic places – People will want to recycle, as long as you make it easy to do.  Putting a paper recycling bin next to the office printer can have a dramatic effect.  You can also stick a recycling bin for glass and cans in the office kitchen or break-room.  Create handy signs and reminders to help point people to the bins.

Designate a box for old electronics and one of ink cartridges – Don’t throw the defunct junk away; put it in a box and take it to an authorized e-waste recycler.  A lot of corporate chains now have recycling programs and allow you to drop off your old electronics and ink cartridges to be recycled.  Some places will accept electronic brands like Dell for free, or they may charge a nominal fee to take your old office equipment.

Reward employees for going green - Reward employees who choose to walk or bike to work. If you’re employees aren’t driving, then you don’t have to pay for their parking.  Put the money you’re saving back in their hands by giving them a bonus for green commuting.  You can also get your office excited about walking, running or biking by entering in a local marathon or race for charity.  Healthy employees are happy employees, so encourage green commuting in your office.

Ban Styrofoam and initiate contests for best office mugs/lunch boxes/dishes – Styrofoam is bad. It can’t be recycled, and worse, it doesn’t biodegrade.  Avoid buying disposable cups and plates for your office. Instead, buy washable mugs and cups.  You can also ask employees to bring a personal mug to work and turn it into a contest for the best/funniest office mug.  You could also try this contest with lunch bags or dishes.  Reward the winner with a cash prize or voucher for free lunch.  You might be spending some money on the prize, but in the long run you’ll save a whole lot more by not buying disposable items.

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Your business name is the first impression you get to leave on your customers. It’s no surprise that people spend a lot of time and money on selecting the right business name. A bad name can make you the butt of people’s jokes (e.g. iPad), or worse, it can scare customers away. Make sure you choose the best name possible by following some of these rules:

1. Choose positive words. The first rule of creating an appealing business name is to choose words that have a positive connotation and make people feel happy inside. When brainstorming, you’ll notice the difference between warm and fuzzy words and words that fall flat. For instance, there’s a self-service dog wash called Mud Puppies that is rather popular. Consider the difference between Mud Puppies and Mud Dogs. The place services dogs of all ages, but the word “puppies” is infinitely way cuter than “dogs.” The denotation is the same, but the connotation is different. Mud Dogs has a dirty connotation, while Mud Puppies has a cute, playful connotation.

2. Appeal to what people already know/like. This is in the same vein as choosing words with a positive connotation. There are plenty of trends out there for you to draw inspiration from, such as the Do-It-Yourself movement, eco-friendly/green trend or health conscious trends. Again, you’ll have to sit down and brainstorm ideas that appeal to consumer, but you (hopefully) won’t be reinventing the wheel. In addition to trends, music, movies, popular websites and even celebrities offer a source of inspiration. An exercise you could to would be to list your own favorites/likes and see if you can find a gold nugget somewhere.

3. Think local….or think global. If you’re a local business, try getting inspired by landmarks, popular spots and familiar locations around town. For instance, the company 360 Partners here in Austin was named after Loop 360 (Capital of Texas Highway), which runs right by their office. However, beware of picking something ubiquitous or cheesy. (In Texas, you’ll see Lonestar [Something] anywhere you go.) You want to sound familiar, but you also want to stand out from the crowd. Perhaps you’re not a local business. Maybe you have an e-commerce business that serves customers around the country and/or the world. You can still use a locale-inspired name, but you may want to try broader terms that have more universal appeal.

Amazon is a great example of a brand that references a specific location but also has universal appeal. JetBlue is an example of a company that bucks the trend and doesn’t incorporate a location (such as competitors American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines, etc.). Their name works, largely because it paints a lovely, serene picture. Think about what you want your business to say. Is it important for you to emphasize something local and familiar or to have widespread appeal? You decide.

4. Be memorable. This might be the hardest thing to do when thinking up your business name. A lot of companies struggle with the balance between uniqueness and accessibility. Google is now a household name, but virtually nobody knew what a google was until the company made the word famous. A very special or esoteric name may be great for trademark purposes and online search purposes (less competition), but you’ll probably have to do a bit more work educating people about what your company actually does when you start out.

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

Here are some ways to help your organization help foster an environment of innovation in your office. Commit to a few of these today and you might be surprised at the results.

• Remember that innovation requires no fixed rules or templates — only guiding principles.  Creating a more innovative culture is an organic and creative act.
• Wherever you can, whenever you can, always drive fear out of the workplace.
• Have more fun. If you’re not having fun (or at least enjoying the process) something is off.
• Always question authority, especially the authority of your own longstanding beliefs.
• Make new mistakes.
• As far as the future is concerned, don’t speculate on what might happen, but imagine what you can make happen.
• Increase the visual stimuli of your organization’s physical space. Replace gray and white walls with color. Add inspiring photos and art, especially visuals that inspire people to think differently. Reconfigure space whenever possible.
• Help people broaden their perspective by creating diverse teams and rotating employees into new projects — especially ones they are fascinated by.
• Ask questions about everything. After asking questions, ask different questions. After asking different questions, ask them in a different way.
• Ensure a high level of personal freedom and trust. Provide more time for people to pursue new ideas and innovations.
• Notice innovation efforts. Nurture them wherever they crop up. Reward them.
• Encourage people to get out of their offices and silos. Encourage people to meet informally, one-on-one, and in small groups.
• Think long term. Since the average successful “spin-off” takes about 7.5 years, the commitment to innovation initiatives need to be well beyond “next quarter.”
• Don’t focus on growth. Growth is a product of successful innovation. Focus on the process of becoming adept at taking ideas from the generation stage to the marketplace.
• Make customers your innovation partners, while realizing that customers are often limited to incremental innovations, not breakthrough ones.
• Before reaching closure on any course of action, seek alternatives. Make it a discipline to seek the idea after the “best” idea emerges.
• Know that attacking costs as a root problem solves nothing. Unreasonable costs are almost always a sign of more profound problems (e.g. inefficient structures, processes or training).
• A great source of new ideas are people that are new to the company. Get new hires together and tap their brainpower and imagination.
• Get customer feedback before committing resources to a product’s development.
• Seek diversity of viewpoints. Get people together across functions. A diversity of views sparks more than conflict — it sparks innovation.
• Don’t make innovation the responsibility of a few. Make innovation the responsibility of each and every employee with performance goals for each and every functional area.
• Give your people specific, compelling, and measurable innovation goals.

About The Sundance Company

Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and the greater Treasure Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime Boise and Meridian locations. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.