Before I get started I just want to clarify, when I say bring "health and fitness" into your office, I am not suggesting that you need to make room for a treadmill, I am strictly speaking of bringing the "health and fitness" mindset into your office.

Why I'm qualified to write this blog post - I hold a B.S. in Adult Fitness from Cortland State, have worked in the corporate fitness programs of several Fortune 100 companies, was the managing partner in a 30,000 sq. ft. health club and for over 17 years have been a personal trainer to hundreds of clients just like YOU.

So in no particular order, here are 10 reasons entrepreneurs MUST bring "health and fitness" into their office:

1) Stress Relief - As an entrepreneur, it is inevitable stress and you will become intimate coworkers. How you manage this stress will have a direct impact on your ability to perform at work, your general health and your sanity. A 30-45 minute exercise session is one of the most effective ways to keep your stress at  manageable levels.  (i.e. walk, jog, run, hit the heavy bag, hit the weights, go for a  swim, whatever)

2) Productivity - Let me guess you work long hours and don't have time to fit exercise into your day. Some of the most successful/busy clients I have ever worked with were able to fit exercise into their schedule, but you can't? I cry Bu** sh**! You need to re-organize your schedule to make it fit.

An hour spent exercising before, during or after your workday coupled with a proper eating plan can help ensure that you have a generous amount of energy during the day and sleep more soundly at night. Two important commodities for entrepreneurs...so its worth organizing your day accordingly.   

3) Monkey See/Monkey Do - Whether you like it or not, you are a role model (the head monkey) to your employees.  If your employees see that you are passionate about health and fitness, it is very likely they will follow suit. The result: more productive/creative employees, less "sick days" and possibly a better looking staff picture.

4) Self-Confidence - Your ability to sell your concepts, products and even yourself will often boil down to the level of self-confidence you are able to portray. Regardless of the starting fitness level of clients I have trained, one thing always held true, a noticeable improvement in self-confidence after only a few weeks of consistent exercise.  

5) A Direct Connection Exists Between Exercise and Brain Performance - In today's challenging business environment, the slightest competitive advantage could mean the difference between a homerun venture and Chapter 11. Over the past several years, several research projects have delivered indisputable proof that exercise and brain performance are linked. Perhaps doing something (such as exercise) to strengthen the "noodle" can ensure you fall on the homerun side of the equation. For more on this topic you should read Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brainby John Ratey.

6) Improved Morale - A company that exercise together...well never mind that. The fact of the matter is that exercise often serves as a good opportunity for employees to get together outside of the workplace. I am convinced that one of the reasons many personal trainers are so well liked is they are in contact with people at a time when the beta endorphins are elevated. If you buy into this train of thought you can see how exercising together might result in a more cohesive staff.

7) Reduced Employee Turnover- Personal trainers often work with the same clients for years as their clients become dependent on the motivation, attention and direction offered by the trainer. If your encouragement has resulted in a workforce that feels good about themselves due to exercise, don't you think they will think twice before leaving you?

8) Improved Creativity - Many a great idea has been conceived on the treadmill. Regular aerobic activity improves the efficiency of the circulatory system ensuring more oxygen rich blood is delivered throughout the body..this includes the brain. Aerobic Exercise = the electricity to power the "light bulb" over your head.  

9) Consistent Energy Levels Throughout The Day - Without getting into a scientific explanation, eating small meals (low in simple sugars) spread throughout the day will improve the likelihood that you will have a consistent level of energy throughout the day. Very big meals will often leave you feeling sluggish and unable to concentrate.

10) You Will Help Prevent Cardiovascular Disease and Other Illnesses Caused From Inactivity - I recently came across a funny cartoon, a doctor is standing with his patient and says "What fits your schedule better, exercising one hour a day, or being dead 24 hours a day?" The daily stress we face as entrepreneurs can result in severe consequences to our health. Embracing "health and fitness" as a lifestyle can help prevent many of these illnesses before its too late.

Some actionable advice- I highly recommend hiring a personal trainer for 2 or 3 sessions every 6 months. Be clear that you are looking for an organized program that you can do on your own. Exercising with proper technique and intensity levels will help prevent you from getting injured and improve the chances you will see results...and stick to the program.

Time to put my entrepreneur hat back on and focus on making Open Office Space one of those homerun businesses.
 

Whether your company is looking for its very first office space or your current lease is ending and you are looking for some new digs, it is very important that you first carefully assess your office space requirements both from a short and long term perspective.

While a small and cozy space might cost a little less initially, if there is a strong possibility your company will need to expand its staff within your lease term, choosing this less expensive space can result in some very tight quarters and severly hinder productivity in your workplace. (#7 on our list of the Top 10 Leasing Misaktes)

Conversely, while it might be fun to have a football catch across the office, taking on too much space can result in a big drain on your company’s bottom line and a potential blow to morale.

Estimating how much office space you will need is not an exact science. The nature of your business, corporate culture, workflow and even your individual preferences might vary significantly from other company’s. These variations make it virtually impossible to standardize a specific guideline that will work for every company.  

As you contemplate the amount of space your company actually needs, it is helpful to understand the difference between rentable and usable space.

Landlords charge tenants based on the number of rentable square footage leased. The rentable square footage is calculated by adding the usable square footage (the amount of square footage to be used exclusively by you, the tenant) to a portion of the common area (areas shared by all tenants such as the lobby, restrooms, shared hallways, etc.).

The distinction between the two is especially important as you estimate the amount of usable space that will best suit your company.

As many leases will lock you into your space for at least 2 years, it is vital to carefully consider your company’s future growth before making a final decision on how much space you need.

Terminating your lease early because your company outgrew its space will cost your company money, time and probably serve as a major distraction from your normal course of business.

OK, good advice but how exactly are we supposed to estimate the right amount of space for our company?

Good question.

Open Office space recently launched Office Space For Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses: An Evolving Guide to Leasing. The guide breaks down the entire leasing process and offers several strategies to ensure you accurately estimate the amount of office space that is right for your company. 

The guide includes an indepth look at the Top 10 Leasing Mistakes, a breakdown of The 4 Steps involved with the leasing process and also includes 50+ ways to streamline office expenses.  

In addition to valuable content, the guide also features two powerful (and FREE) tools to help you estimate and plan the right amount of space for your company:

1) The space planner/floor plan tool allows a user to layout their entire office space including furniture...before the moving van arrives. The extremely easy to use interface features an ability to drag and drop furniture directly onto a floor plan. Finished plans can be saved, printed and shared.

2) A space estimation tool  which will give you a head start with regards to estimating the right amount of office space based on your company's needs.

As an entrepreneur or small business it is very likely that a large portion of your time/overhead will be devoted to your office. With stakes so high, it is mission critical that you take the time to plan accordingly.  

If you do find yourself in a situation where you are left with unused office space, consider posting it on our site and we will do our best to promote it for you.  

 

Today, we are launching a new weekly feature on the Open Office Space blog called Cool Huh?  Every Thursday from here on out,  we will select a new tool, application, website or technology that we think will make at least one entrepreneur or small business person (besides us) say "Holy s...! That could really be helpful to my business. How did I not hear about this before? "

Here's the catch! The selected subject will be featured in 2 parts.

Part 1 will simply mention the featured product or site, include some basic information detailing what it's all about, describe why we selected the subject and then welcome any comments from others who have experienced the subject.

Part 2 will be our review of the subject after WE had a chance to experience it ourselves.

Our first featured subject - Thursday August 13th - Usertesting.com

Description: UserTesting.com uses the Web 2.0 crowdsourcing model to dramatically drop the price of usability testing. It lets website owners easily get pre-screened users to rapidly do usability testing of their websites.

What this low-cost user testing service offers:

• A Flash video of a user speaking their thoughts as they browse your website. Watch a sample video.

• A written summary where that same user tells you what they liked, disliked, and what would have caused them to leave your site. See a sample summary.

UserTesting.com lets you "look over the shoulder" of people in your target audience while they use your website. And makes it fast, easy, and inexpensive, so you’re more likely to do it.

Why we chose usertesting.com as this weeks subject:  Because we know that the overwhelming majority of us plot, plan and strategize our online initiatives in a vacuum. Whether it's because we are too "thin skinned", think we know it all, or simply because we think we can't afford it, we usually launch with only feedback from our inner circle. 

Take a look at the powerhouse list of testimonials and you will see why we have such high hopes for this one.

Just because people aren't emailing us telling us why our stuff sucks, does not mean it doesn't. Most people will just move on the someone else's stuff.

Content and Image Source: usertesting.com website

If I have learned one thing from my 17 years as a personal trainer, it is the importance of getting my clients to put their obstacles, setbacks and/or short term failures in the right perspective. Once a client has been able to master this behavior, the chances that they will stick to an exercise program for the long haul will improve dramatically. 

Here is the typical scenario of a client that is NOT able to master this behavior: Client X will have a bad weekend of eating or drinking.  They will then cancel their training appointment at the beginning of the week as they feel like they already blew it and "What was the point!" The occassional Monday morning cancellations will eventually become more frequent and ultimately, Client X would drop out altogether(fail).

As I became more experienced as a trainer, I realized that if I was going to really help my clients to achieve their long term goals, I needed to get them to understand that they could easily move past their temporary setbacks by putting them into the right perspective.

The Right Perspective A bad weekend of eating of drinking is only a temporary setback. In most cases, a few good workouts and a consistent  week of good eating will get a persons health and fitness program right back on track.

All too often, the voices in our head speak much louder than common sense. As a result we tend to give short term failures much more relevance than they deserve, in many cases derailing our chances of long term success.  

As entrepreneurs, I think it is safe to say that the amount of possible obstacles, setbacks and temporary failures can be multiplied by a factor of 10. Whether it is a failed sales call, a denial of funding, a new competitor entering the market, a slow month of sales, etc., there are many opportunities whereby our overall perspectives can become blurred.

By learning to compartmentalize setbacks, obstacles and failures and view them for what they really are, temporary, we stand a much better chance of thinking about the logical "next steps" that will allow us to  move past them...perhaps even grow from them.

As Open Office Space continues to evolve, I find the need to remind myself of the advice I have given many others as a personal trainer - put things in the right perspective. And, when I take this self given advice, I am almost always in a better position to handle a given obstacle, setback or failure.

Sometimes, though, it is a little hard to hear myself over those darn loud voices in my head.

Related Posts

Entrepreneurs - Are your thumbs the most fit part of your body? 

Currently my wife and I are visiting Paris for the very first time. Over the past few days I think it is safe to say that we have walked over 15 miles and have covered many of the "must see" areas according to the travel guides.

In addition to the unbelievable architecture and famous museums, it is amazing how many restaurants and outdoor cafes there are throughout the city. One thing that we find quite unique about Paris is the the seating in many of these outdoor cafes faces outwards. In other words, it is encouraged to sit next to the person you are with and "people watch" everyone that passes by.

Similar to the bar and restaurant scene in NYC, some of these cafes were packed and some did not have a single customer. What was interesting to me is that some of the coolest designed cafes were among those that were empty.

So, what makes a restaurant, cafe, small business, office space, website, blog, social network, etc. have that certain "Je ne sais quoi?" - In english - that certain "I don't know what". For anyone that has not seen Austin Powers, the term is generally used to point out something which is usually undefinable. 

Clearly it's not simply a matter of design.

While I cannot say for sure, it seems to me that regardless of the venue, that undefinable element seems to result in a greater incidence of social interaction, networking and overall sense of belonging.

When I think back to the last few office spaces I have rented, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I preferred the grungy, ripped couch space, to the modern and trendy loft space. While the look of the hip space was what initially attracted to it, the lack of interaction amongst the other space holders prevented it from ever feeling like home.

As a small business, I think it is a good exercise to reflect on which elements of your restaurant, cafe, office space, website, blog, social network, etc. will result in a greater incidence of social interaction, networking and overall sense of belonging of your customers/clients.

Perhaps an attention to that undefinable element will prevent YOU from being the "coolest" EMPTY cafe in Paris.

For 17 years prior to getting involved in the whole technology thing (and even to a small extent today), I was a personal trainer. Throughout my career I have worked with a very diverse group of clients including: professional athletes, CEO's of public companies, stay at home moms & dads, weekend warriors, children, teens as well as basically every personality type you can think of.

While there were many obvious differences between each one of my clients, there was definitely one constant...a noticeable improvement in mood and mental clarity immediately following a workout session. 

As part of another venture I am involved with, I have been exposed to fascinating research detailing the positive impact exercise can have on a persons brain. Spark - The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise And The Brain, written by John J. Ratey MD, is a groundbreaking exploration of the connection between exercise and the brain’s performance that shows how even moderate exercise will supercharge mental circuits to beat stress, sharpen thinking, enhance memory, and much more.  Here are some interesting facts and tidbits from the first few chapters of Spark:

- Chicago's Napperville District 203, consisting on the 19,000 students is one of the fittest in the nation...they are also one of the smartest. They consistently rank among the state's top ten in terms of academic performance

- Napperville students use heart rate monitors to gauge their progress. Their students are graded on how much time they spend in their target heart rate zones during any given activity. Using heart rate monitors to measure progress, as opposed to relying solely on athletic performance, prevents less coordinated students from becoming discouraged and building a lifelong to distaste for exercise.

- Napperville's school system is far ahead of the national norm for fitness. Only one out of every 130 students was obese.

- Exercise can postively affect mood, attention, self-esteem, and social skills. The cruel irony is that old school physical education programs, discouraged a lifelong adoption of exercise by alienating shy, clumsy and out of shape students.

- In a 2007 study of humans, German Researchers found that people learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster following exercise.

While the subjects in this book are mostly children, there is a lesson that can be applied to all age groups. I cannot help but be amazed at the amount of 20,30 and 40 something entrepreneurs that are completely physically inactive...except for getting a vigorous thumb workout on their blackberry's. 

The launch of Open Office Space has provided me with the good fortune to connect/converse with new entrepreneurs and small businesses every day.The 3 most common excuses by entrepreneurs for not including exercise as part of their daily routine are time, money and motivation. Here are my quick and dirty rebuttals to these excuses.

Time - Get up 30 minutes earlier, go to bed 30 minutes later or bring your clothes to work and exercise during lunch. You do not need to spend 2 hours in the gym to get results. I would bet that you waste much more than 30 minutes per day on things that are not truly productive. Replace these time wasters with a 30 minute bout of exercise.

Money - You absolutely do not need to pay for a gym to exercise. If you are not sure what kind of exercise would be right for you, pay a trainer for one hour of his time. They can create a workout you can do at home or in the office...for free.

Motivation - C'mon people we are entrepreneurs! We have more motivation than most. If you are not persuaded by the health benefits of exercise, spend a few minutes researching the benefits that exercise can offer you as abusinesseman. Perhaps your risk-reward analysis will produce a different result.  

From my own experience, nothing helps me break through a mental road block, manage stress or come up with creative solutions to tough issues better than a good workout.

I really hope that the fitness intiatives being launched in the school systems today are carried over to the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Content Source: John Ratey MD website 
Image Source: The Wireless Report

A couple of days ago I was channel surfing and caught the beginning of the movie Top Gun...of course that is where I spent my next 2 hours. After the first hour I lost count of how many times I said the word "corny and "cheesy" to describe some of the dialogue.

If you get a chance, take a few hours and re-watch the movie but be prepared for the headache you will get from rolling your eyes.

(Click here for a  funny post titled "Talk to me, Goose. Talk to me" from a 2003 post on Espn.com by Bill Simmons detailing a lot of these corny lines and how it pertained to that years upcoming football season) 

The reason I was watching TV in the first place was because I was working on mock ups for some future upgrades to Open Office Space, hit a BAD mental block and needed to clear my head. 

In the past, instead of watching TV, I would have meandered over to one of the other entrepreneurs in my shared office space and chatted it up until I found the answers I needed to break through the given mental obstacle of the day.

About a month ago I moved into a new office space, and while awesome in many respects, it does not offer the same colloborative environment of the past.

So speaking of "cheesy", here is my segue.

Do you remember the scene in Top Gun where Maverick was rubbing his fallen partners Dog Tags while contemplating whether or not he should re-engage in battle? - "Talk to me, Goose. Talk to me." I am not sure why, but watching this scene made me realize the importance of doing a little soul searching before making a final decision on an office space. The goal being to identify the type of work environment in which we would be the most productive. Ex. collaborative, quiet and isolated, or bustling corporate.

If you are like me and depend on constant feedback, approval, naysaying and often tough love to help guide your business decisions, then a quiet and isolated environment might not be the right fit for your entrepreneurial intiative/small business. Just to be clear, isolated in this case might not mean there are no people around, but rather you cannot lean on anyone for feedback.   

If you spend a few minutes searching the ever growing inventory of unused office space on our site, you will quickly see that the average asking rent has dropped and the amount of affordable spaces have increased. In other words, you can be a little bit more selective in your final decision.

Moral of the story, if you constantly need a "Goose" to lean on for direction or inspiration, make sure that your decision for a new office space is not only a function of the cost of rent but also finding the type of space that meshes most effectively with your individual/corporate personality.

Related Posts

Looking For Office Space? Price is only one of the options you need to consider.