The ability to know in advance when a company is approaching a ‘growth spurt’ is an invaluable tool for many companies working with exciting and ambitious businesses. A period of substantial growth often means that a business is about to move to a bigger office to facilitate its growing needs, perhaps expanding its staff in the process. Apart from office space providers, who proactively seek out these businesses to be the first to offer them a larger working space, movement to a bigger office is also valuable for a range of different companies. For instance, furniture and stationery suppliers would be keen to supply such businesses with new supplies upon their move, whilst recruitment agencies may find the business is looking to employ more staff. We’ve compiled five signs that indicate a company is looking to expand and move into a bigger office, all of which you can see and receive notifications of through the Beauhurst platform.
1. New funding (and a lull in new funding)
A recent equity or debt fundraising indicates that a company has been equipped with capital to extend its operations, which often includes expanding into a new location. Beauhurst provides a comprehensive record of tracked companies’ announced and unannounced equity fundraisings, enabling users to quickly identify intentions to relocate.
Additionally, inactive fundraising activity – especially when a company has raised in the past, but seen no new finance in the last 6-12 months – may indicate that a significant fundraise is imminent to aid further growth. Thus, businesses interested in identifying future office space candidates can use a lack of recent fundraising activity to proactively seek these future opportunities.
2. Growth in the number of employees
One of the most telling signs that a company is about to move to a new office is the hiring of more staff, causing them to outgrow their existing space. This in turn can signal future expansion and relocation efforts. The Beauhurst platform tracks the number of employees, founders and directors of 30,000 high-growth companies in the UK.
3. Change in a company's stage of evolution
At Beauhurst we use seven stages of evolution to classify a business: seed, venture, growth, established, zombie, exited and dead. A change from the seed to venture stage is, in particular, a key sign a business may be looking to move to a new office. Newly classified venture stage companies have been recently recognised as having an established business model and securing fundraisings in the millions. These characteristics clearly match the profile of a company poised to take the next step and move to a bigger office space.
4. Growth in financial statements
Beauhurst provides a comprehensive record of tracked companies’ most recent financials, such as a company’s profit and loss statement, balance sheet and cash flow summary. Growth in financial performance over a sustained period of time is a prime indicator that a business is growing. Increasing gross profit, in particular, is a good representation that a business has adequate financial capital to afford a bigger or improved working space.
5. Recent accelerator graduation/attendance
A common feature offered by accelerator programmes to their attendees is the provision of office space for the duration of the programme. After graduating, attendees may look to move into a new office space that better fits their changing requirements. Accelerated companies also tend to grow quickly and raise more after attending these programmes, with accelerated companies raising 44% more money than their non-accelerated peers. This growth heavily indicates an impending office space upgrade.
You can see all of the details on these company developments on the Beauhurst platform
Build a search of companies that are interesting to you, with criteria such as sector, location, funds raised or current stage of evolution etc.
Then, add the results to a Collection, choosing the frequency of alerts and types of activities you’d like to be notified about.
You’ll then receive emails accordingly, which can act as a prompt to get in touch with the key decision makers at the company, using the contact details from the company’s profile.
If you’d like to learn more and see the platform for yourself, book a demo and one of our associates will be in touch.
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