Each business has different needs concerning the premises.
You won’t require the same kind of facilities if you’re a carpenter than if you’re a restaurant, neither if you’re a call centre instead of a design agency.
You should consider two criteria: Do I have external clients that will use the premises or do I only need to have a space for my employees? And also, do I have merchandise to stock to carry out my professional activity?
In the following lines, we’ll explore these two points as well as the possible solutions to find the most suitable facilities for you.
WILL YOU RECEIVE PUBLIC IN YOUR FACILITIES?
First of all, by “public” we mean the people outside of the company itself. This involve, for example, your clients, regardless of the permissions they have to access your facilities (paid, free, restricted, etc.).
In case you only host your own employees with only punctual meetings with your clients, the type of establishment you need is what is known as a “bureau” in France, which is an office in the most traditional sense. To determine the size of your office, you need to take into account the number of employees that will have an in-house position. Although the French law doesn’t impose a minimum space, there are recommendations in that regard: the minimum space should be at least 10-11 square meters per worker. In addition, if you have a business which involves constant phone calls, then the space per worker should be either bigger or individual. In the case of open spaces, the recommendation says that each worker should have even more square meters (up to 15), although in reality, they have been commonly used to reduce the amount of space, not to increase it. In the case of having meeting rooms to receive your clients, you should calculate three square meters per person.
If receiving clients constantly is part of your business, for example, if you have a restaurant, the kind of facilities you need are known in France as “établissements recevant du public”. Such establishments fall into a category that goes from 1-5, being 1 the one with the most capacity (over 1,500 people) and 4 the one with the least (less than 300). The category 5 is reserved to other kind of establishments such as hotels or exposition rooms. In this regard, you need to choose your facilities according to the amount of people you expect to receive and the nature of your business. There’s a minimum space for each and security measures such as the number of exits that you have to consider.
DO YOU NEED TO STORE MERCHANDISE?
If your business requires a space to stock up your merchandise, what you need is called “local d’activité” in France, and it’s mostly thought for industrial and artisanal activities. They often combine warehouse and office spaces.
Additionally, your activity may involve the storage of hazardous or dangerous materials. In these cases, you will have to request an authorisation and will normally be subject to inspections.
In order to store merchandise, there’s also the option to externalise it and hire a logistics service to take care, in which case you should think that, in general, you won’t be able to work in the storage place. However, it’s still an option if you don’t need to.
CONCLUSION
In order to choose the right premises for your business in France, you need to pay attention to factors like the size of the company, the nature of your activity, and your need to store or not merchandise or receive your clients. To avoid making a bad choice, you can ask for advice.