AS A SUCCESSFUL small business owner, you may soon find yourself in the enviable position of outgrowing your current office space. Staying put in a cramped office is not a solution. A smart business owner knows when it's time to trade up and move somewhere with more breathing room.

Here are 10 sure-fire signs that it's time to move or expand your office:

1. People are sitting on top of one another. Face it: your employees need their space, especially if being on the telephone all day is part of their job. Nobody wants to listen to every conversation his or her neighbor makes, which can be very distracting while trying to do other work.

2. The break room is "standing room only." If your on-site lunchroom or break room is always full, employees may start going elsewhere for their breaks, which can mean extended lunch hours. Remember that happy employees are productive employees, so don't scrimp when it comes to providing them with adequate space in which to recharge.

3. Workstations are cramped. If your employees practically have their computers sitting on their laps (and they're not laptops), it's time for roomier office space. People need to feel physically comfortable to do their jobs effectively.

4. The conference room is now an office. Stashing a few employees in the conference room is a convenient, short-term solution to office overcrowding. But it's also a red flag for any business owner, indicating that it's time for a more permanent solution to your space issues.

5. The mailroom is swamped. Don't waste time and energy trying to operate with a mailroom that has long outgrown its capacity to service your office. If your mailroom is becoming a bottleneck due to overcrowding, it's time for a bigger one.

6. Filing cabinets are overflowing. Yes, it's important to save paperwork. But if your filing cabinet doors won't shut because of the amount of papers and records crammed into them, your office is getting too big for its britches.

7. There's high employee turnover. While a steady exodus of staff can be indicative of a number of problems, it may also be your wake-up call, telling you that your office is not a comfortable place in which to work.

8. The hallway is the new storage closet. In addition to being a fire hazard, using the hallways as storage takes away the professional appearance of your office. If you let the physical space spiral into cluttered chaos, that can reflect upon your employees' work, which may become messy and unfinished.

9. Parking has become a challenge. If you're starting to overhear complaints about the difficulty employees have in finding an available space in the parking lot, it may another sign to look for new digs.

10. Your business has increasing needs. More employees, new equipment, and other resources may be necessary to meet the increased demand of your business. If space limitations are preventing you from adding such necessary resources, you may be limiting the potential growth of your business.

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