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After designing an attractive dining area, it’s the kitchen’s turn to get a makeover. To get a restaurant kitchen that hums along efficiently, we need to first identify what the different zones in the kitchen are and how the workflow between them mesh together.

Inventory zone

This is the source of all magic in the kitchen. The more organized this zone is, the smoother the rest of your kitchen operations will be. With that in mind, make sure this zone is near the back door so that bulk foods and ingredients that get delivered there can be sorted right away into either cold or dry storage. You may even want to leave a wider floor space in the receiving area to give your staff more room to carry out inventory duties.

Non-food items, of course, should be stored separately near the zones that will use them the most. For instance, stock cleaning supplies near the dishwashing zone and stack clean dishes next to the food preparation zone.

Food preparation zone

The kitchen staff are the first ones in the restaurant to arrive for work every day as they rush to get menu ingredients chopped, pre-cut, and mixed before customers start coming in. All that business is done in the food preparation zone, which is where most of the heavy-lifting in the kitchen is performed.

To make their jobs easier, place this zone as close to the food storage area as possible. Provide the staff with enough counter space and chopping blocks to separate raw meat and produce work. Sinks for washing vegetables are also important, as are specialized food processing or mixing equipment that fit your restaurant menu needs.

Cooking zone

Add in some heat and the final dish is complete! The cooking zone houses all the hulking equipment and appliances in the kitchen. You’ve got the grilling ranges, deep fryers, baking ovens, and even specialized appliances like steamers to speed up the cooking process.

Again, the appliances you get depend on your restaurant cuisine. When you set them all up though, arrange them near the food preparation zone for workflow efficiency and away from the cold storage area for energy efficiency. As the final stage for plating dishes, the cooking zone should also brush right up against the counter where servers pick up orders.

Dishwashing zone

Last but not least, the zone where all the dirty but necessary work is done. You never want to be in a situation where you run out of clean dishes during a rush. Avoiding that means streamlining the dishwashing process through appropriate equipment like triple-basin sinks and commercial dishwasher machines designed for speedy spotless dishes.

Even the location of the dishwashing zone counts! By setting it right by the door between the kitchen and the dining area, you minimize the travel time of dirty dishes.

Basically, it all comes down to choosing the right equipment and layout to maximize your kitchen staff’s productivity as well as their comfort during the long hours in the kitchen.

With the hot days upon us, backyard summer parties are ramping up! While you may have already prepared for that with all the rear addition features that impress your guests, you’ve also got to find a way to keep them feeling refreshed and cool for the party to last:

Landscape for shade

One of the first and natural ways you can provide some cooling shade in the rear addition is by planting one or more trees in strategic locations. You’ll want to choose spots where you get maximum shade over the area you’ll most often hang out in during the day. At the same time, you should balance that choice with ensuring the tree(s) don’t pose a hazard risk by being too close to your house.

As for what kind of tree to get, you can never go wrong with trees that are native to your region. That’s an easier and more environmentally friendly way that chooses for you!

Shelter from the sun

Of course you want to spend as much time as you can outside to take advantage of the short summer season. Just make sure you provide a roof cover over your deck or patio so you can stay outside longer. That can take the form of either a permanent roof or a retractable awning. If you have the space, a gazebo is the perfect covered party structure to have because they can also serve as cool places of solitude on quiet days.

Refresh with mist

At one point in your life, you’ve probably desperately tried to cool off by spraying your face with a spritz of water. Well, you can upgrade your backyard with an automatic misting system that does that for you! And since you’d be installing a roof cover overhead anyway, that makes it easy to hide all the piping involved.

Reflect solar heat

The rear addition should always be finished in light colours if you don’t want it to become an oven at the peak of summer seasons. Light colours reflect sunlight which then reflect solar heat. That goes for everything from the pavement or flooring of your backyard structures to the overall paint job.

Now you can crack open that brewski and enjoy the party outside.

The success of a co-working space can often be gauged by the people and talent who stay there for the long run and make positive contributions to its atmosphere. So to attract the best, you have to build the best.

Do your research

It doesn’t matter how great a co-working space you build if it’s not a good fit for the types of businesses that gravitate to your area. Although co-working spaces are usually most attractive to freelancers, there’s a growing trend of large companies also moving into co-working spaces.

Start with studying the competition from other co-working spaces around you. What business types are they catering to and how can you do better? Another excellent source of information is from commercial real estate agents. Is there a consistent demand for leased office spaces from certain kinds of businesses? It’ll probably be in their best interest to give you their professional opinion on the best businesses to design your office space for.

Next, you should also shortlist the businesses that can co-exist and synergize in a shared work environment.

Plan for flexibility

A co-working space needs flexible layouts for different work types in its target markets. So once you have a list of complementary businesses to focus on, it’s time to optimize your space layout for them. For example, magazine publishers and marketing professionals work best in semi-divider layouts. Team zones grouped by job functions are ideal for developers in software, app, or video game industries.

Of course, don’t forget about the freelancers like freelance writers, graphic designers, or web business owners. They’re more used to a nomadic office arrangement.

Include all personalities

You have to make sure your co-working space appeals to both extroverts and introverts. Wide open areas with high ceilings are a good design theme that offers the ultimate flexibility to balance these two personality types.

An essential goal of designing co-working spaces is to create opportunities for spontaneous interactions. Sprinkle small arrangements of sofas and armchairs throughout the space for impromptu discussions to happen anywhere. A refreshment station complete with a juice bar and snacks can replace the cliché water cooler for break conversations to happen. You can even build your very own café with standing tables to facilitate quick stand-up meetings.

It’s also important to mix it up with quiet deep work corners or alcoves and relaxation lounges for those who need solitary breaks.

Finally, remember to make your co-working space fun as well by playing with colours, textures, and furniture choices!

Office renovations are investments that bring your business a lot of dividends. Like any investment though, you have some tough decisions to make. A big one is what you will do with your business while the office renovations are ongoing. Will you have to shut things down until the renovations are completed?

It may come as a surprise that it is possible carry on business as usual during office renovations. Many contractors will do their best to accommodate their clients so that disruptions to day-to-day work are kept at a minimum. These are three creative solutions to help keep your business going while renovations are under way:

Business by day, renovation by night

The best case scenario is if you can keep your regular business hours and schedule renovation work when you’re closed. First, check with your contractor on how renovations can be carried out outside of your office business hours.

If it all works out, communicate clearly and regularly to employees on how the ongoing renovation will affect operations. Even when renovations are done after hours, there’s bound to be some changes they’ll have to get used to in the next little while.

Desk-hopping

Another option is asking your contractor if it’s possible to localize renovation work from one area to the next and shift employees around accordingly. No doubt, this requires lots of coordination between the contractor and your staff. Make sure your employees report any issues stemming from renovations only to you or someone assigned as the official point of contact. Everything will be a lot smoother if the contractor only has to deal with one person in charge throughout the whole project.

You’re asking a lot from your staff with this option so always kindly ask for your staff’s patience. It also helps to keep reminding everyone the positive reasons and end goals for the renovation.

Remote work

This is an excellent solution if your business doesn’t require a physical space for customers or client visits. There are a lot of web applications out there that allows businesses to easily manage remote employees, especially if most of your company documents are stored on the cloud anyway.

If you do have proprietary applications or documents hosted on company servers only, consider setting up virtual private networks (VPNs) for your staff to access company servers remotely.

Above all, keep calm and carry on!