Expect Delays!

After the insanity of the 2021 fall season for shipping and logistics, it appeared as if things were slowly getting back to normal. The number of enormous cargo ships idling off the coast of California slowly trickled down from a terrifying 100+ back in October to a more manageable 21 in recent months.

This lull is not to last, however – much of the progress was made during a lengthy pause in shipments entering and exiting Chinese ports as they suffered through a lengthy shutdown thanks to the state’s notorious zero-COVID policies. With the opening up of China’s seaboard and the resumption of normal shipping activities, a deluge of delayed shipments are quickly making their way towards a still dangerously overcrowded Port of Los Angeles.

Adding to this potential new shipping snare is a looming contract dispute between port authorities and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing 22,000 workers from San Diego to Seattle. As the 2014 contract agreed to by both parties slips past its expiry date, a new settlement agreement is in the process of being negotiated – but progress is slow.

This has left a huge number of companies in a predicament – most know to expect a blow, but the size and scale of that blow are inscrutable at this point. With many scrambling to adapt to an already chaotic business environment, these recent developments have added yet another unwelcome unknown into the immediate future.

One major component of this chaotic business environment is the unprecedented staffing issues many businesses are experiencing. Desperate for help, many companies have payrolls expanding by as much as 100% or more in an extremely short period of time, leading them to rush to find enough space and equipment to house their new arrivals.

The intersection of the supply chain crisis and the staffing shortages meets at finding enough furniture to ensure that each employee has the materials they need to succeed in their new position. Most suppliers have turnaround times of six months or more, meaning companies have limited options at a time when they are desperate for equipment.

Luckily for our southern California readers, Creative Office Design has an extensive stock of preconfigured furniture sets and new cubicles in L.A. and Orange County available for immediate shipping. The company’s owner, Brian, was able to see what was coming on the horizon and planned for the supply chain shocks that have become commonplace over the last year.

Creative has offerings from the industry’s biggest brands, including Friant and In Stock, available for quick delivery. The Interra cubicle system even provides buyers with a robust level of customization for offices that need a quick installation that can fit with an established aesthetic or just need a touch of style.

As yet more chaos lurks just below the horizon, it’s best to start preparing for the next year as soon as possible. That means outfitting your office with enough furniture and equipment to house the staffing levels you’ll need to weather the approaching storms. For the most complete and quality quick-ship office furniture options in southern California, give Creative Office Design a call.

Creative Office Design

+17143287627

Getting Creative

The first truly destructive economic aftershocks of the 2020 pandemic response are beginning to let themselves be known as prices fly sky high across the board. Fuel, food, and just about every other essential consumer good’s price is rocketing upwards as global trade becomes squeezed by physical barriers and disrupted through cyber attacks.

With the price of international shipping going up, in other words, Americans are going to need to learn how to reuse and recycle current equipment, rather than depending on new items being manufactured and imported from elsewhere. This trend extends from clothing to office equipment, and it has plenty of tertiary benefits outside of just cost-savings.

The enormous cargo ships that are the lynchpin of international trade are also some of the most damaging to our planet. Each of these enormous craft is responsible for more greenhouse gasses than literally millions of cars, meaning transporting newly manufactured goods from countries like China to the United States is a singularly massive contribution to climate change. Far more than individual private vehicles and cows, which both coincidentally get far more coverage than global trade!

Buying used for items like office furniture also has the benefit of time savings – new sets often take months to complete fabrication and shipping. Used furniture has a turnaround time measured in weeks rather than months, so if you’re planning on opening up shop as quickly as possible, it’s definitely worth your while shopping for used rather than going directly for new.

Used items have a better cost-to-benefit ratio when it comes to measuring out cost savings over time – the depreciation for new items is far more steep than for used, meaning that they will lose their value far quicker than if you had purchased used. Used items tend to have far more stable and lengthy periods of valuation, so the furniture you purchased retains most of the value you paid for it even in the long term.

If you’re a southern California reader and you’re looking for solid, reliable and reasonably priced Los Angeles office furniture and Cubicles, give Creative Office Design a call. They have multiple show rooms, including ones in Los Angeles and Orange County, and offer a variety of services to go with the furniture sets they offer.

The team at Creative offers the services of their on-staff interior designers, who can help you get the most out of both the furniture set you’re buying and the space that you’re leasing. Their engineers can provide a number of different floor plans using CAD so you can choose from a variety of different sets based on how they would fit with your office’s design and décor.

Creative also offers services such as custom woodworking and refinishing, so if you already have an older office furnishing set that you don’t want to part with, you can hire the team out to revamp and repair the current set. As things get more expensive, these services may just end up saving your business thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in the long run.

If you’re interested in purchasing new or used office furniture in the Los Angeles area, check out Creative Office Design at one of their show rooms:

Creative Office Design

+17143287627

Designing a Safe and Productive Office With Cubicles

The age of virtual, remote, and location-independent work has dawned upon the mainstream. While the American industrial revolution initiated a time where lifestyle choices were made to revolve around work obligations, the nature of work is now being dictated by lifestyle choices.

This reversal in the order of influence has had many positive and negative effects on American professionals. On one hand, it has allowed us all to spend less time traveling and commuting to work, and more time playing and laughing with our family members. However, working at home comes with its disadvantages. Many who live alone find that remote work is isolating, demotivating, and demoralizing. Furthermore, those who live with family and children may find the at-home work environment to be distracting and unproductive.

Regardless of your preference, those who have the privilege of working remotely should recognize how lucky they are to have the opportunity, as many Americans who perform location-dependent work have lost their jobs during the current global pandemic. The low-income and working-class communities have struggled the most during this time.

For those who prefer to work in an office rather than at home, this is a time to get your creative gears up and running. With social distancing guidelines still enforced for the public health and safety of the nation, it is imperative that business owners make the necessary modifications to their workspace.

A cubicle is a partially enclosed office workspace that acts as a partition for each worker. The separation allows for employees to work without the distractions of open office space. Though cubicles are often criticized for being too monotonous, the irony is that open offices are now being criticized for being too disturbing. Despite its popularity and appeal, open office designs are not the best choice right now, as they offer no barrier to ensure proper distancing between workers. During the time of COVID—19, cubicles offer the benefit of a physical barrier. A cough or sneeze can transmit the virus and infect others in an open office space, but cubicles help to physically prevent transmission. For those in Orange County, Creative Office Design offers used cubicles that may be purchased at their showroom. Cubicles can be configured to the comfort and preference of each employee, allowing for modifications of walls, desks, bins, drawers, and shelves.

Cubicles offer the privacy and comfort of a private office without the cost of renovations, with easy set-up and mobility to move or modify. The customizability makes it the ultimate choice for upgrading your office, given that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the working environment and culture.

Though the times have changed, sometimes the best solutions are tried and true. The office cubicle has been around since the 1960s as the building block of the office of many of the country’s best businesses. In the ongoing evolutionary tension between tradition and modernity, sometimes we come back to relying on simpler things in life.

If you are tired of working from home and are eager to get back into the office, consider redesigning the workspace to add safety and functionality. You can give Creative Office Design a call today:

Creative Office Design
http://creativeofficedesign.net/
+17143287627

Creating A Conscious Space At Work

The human brain is fascinating. Without one realizing it, the unconscious and subconscious parts of our brains are constantly receiving inputs from external stimuli and processing that into emotions, thoughts, and actions. If you are like most Americans, you spend most of your waking hours working in a professional environment at an office. We dedicate our best hours to being at work, so that we may earn a living and provide for our families. One’s success in life and business is largely a result of one’s productivity, and productivity is a direct reflection of how well our time is spent.

There are many reasons why most employees are not operating at their optimal state: stress, fatigue, distractions, and more. This negatively affects employee and business performance, which directly impacts the company’s bottom line.

In recent years, mindfulness has been discussed more and more in world of business. Harvard Business Review found that implementing mindfulness practices resulted in “a 28% reduction in stress, 20% better sleep, and 19% less pain, as well as an
increase in worker productivity worth an estimated $3,000 per employee per year.”

We wanted to share some tips and ideas for creating a more conscious workspace.

It goes without saying that you should keep your phone notifications and screen turned off, so as to reduce visual and audio distractions. However, you should also minimize the number of tabs on your web browser. Also, try to set your email and internal office chat system to alert you for only the most urgent, relevant, and critical notifications.

Grey Laptop on Black Wooden Desk

We all have busy lives. Our minds are constantly racing, trying to do the task at hand while mentally fighting off distractions. Therefore, you should keep your desk and surroundings as minimalistic as possible. A clutter-less physical environment leads to less mental clutter.

Your office furniture should also be optimized to maximize mindfulness. If you are like most professionals, you work in front of a computer, spending most of your working hours sitting at your own desk or at a meeting table. Though most American office workers spend a lot of time sitting, their chairs and desks are not ergonomic, causing discomfort and pain. It is paramount that your office furniture allows you to sit, work, and focus comfortably.

A redesigned office can elevate worker productivity, as well as leave a strong and lasting impression with your clients. Creative Office Design offers an amazing selection of high quality creative office furniture in Los Angeles. Their catalog includes cubicles, chairs, desks, tables, reception units, dining tables, and more. Their experts can help you design a conscious and ergonomic office. We highly recommend browsing through their selection. Their 2D and 3D modelling can help you envision and budget your next workspace design project.

If you are looking to improve your workspace with new office furniture, visit Creative Office Design in LA. They hand select contemporary, modern, and traditional styles, and specialize in competitive pricing and excellent customer service. They have been serving professionals for over 25 years! Your new office awaits…

Creative Office Design
5230 Pacific Concourse Dr #105, Los Angeles, CA 90045, United States

Stepping up Your Office Space – Pre-Owned Style

Last time we highlighted this office designer, we discussed how they were innovating the office space in this new age of technology. Being constantly interconnected through the internet changes the way we work together and influences the kinds of spaces we need. This change in workflow means we need a change in the workspace.

Already a pioneer of this changing workforce, Creative Office Design has figured out the optimal way to get pre-owned office cubicles into the hands of small businesses and start-ups. They focus on supporting these start-ups and small businesses by making the office affordable. After all, they know you want to focus your money and attention on other investments. 

One of the first rules of design is that good design is invisible. It works perfectly for you and will serve its purpose so that you can focus on the important details. One of their more versatile pieces, a height-adjustable table, demonstrates this nicely. While standing while working is a new fad, studies have shown that work engagement and performance increases while standing. Not only that, but there are a number of health benefits. A height-adjustable table can also aid in collaboration and allow the desk to be more versatile.

While they do offer gorgeous, brand new pieces that come in a variety of options, Creative Office Design is perhaps better known for their impressive selection of used furniture. Mitigating start-up costs while maintaining a professional standard is incredibly important for a new business. What people may not realize is that due to the nature of it, used office furniture usually remains in good condition. If it’s well made, it can outlive the original office space it was used for. That’s how they offer such a variety of used cubicles, desks, tables, benches, etc. And that’s also why you should consider going that route.

Buying used furniture to start is always a good investment in the beginning anyway because you never know where your business will take you. You may have to upgrade later. It’s always good to start small and allow yourself room to grow in the future. When this happens, you will still want your office spaces to be helpful and dynamic. But, continuing to save money is always the smart thing to do. Creative Office Design has thought of this too.

Creative Office Designs has come out with a new program to allow small businesses to receive their furniture without having to wait on long shipping. With the new ODS Express Program, you can get brand new furniture at a lower price in less than two weeks. This is also available throughout Orange County and the LA area.

From sharing office space to working on projects on the web, studies show that a well-designed office environment is very important for productivity. Creative Office Design focuses on providing the equipment and design tools to allow you to create the most effective space. And now, they’re excited to say that they are expanding and have used office cubicles for sale in the LA area!

If you are in the are, be sure to check them out:

Creative Office Design

15440 Laguna Canyon Rd #120, Irvine, CA 92618

(714) 328-7627

Redefining Office Furniture Accessibility

As millennials are slowly saturating the work force, they are changing the landscape of what the office might look like. Instead of starting companies that quickly open big offices full of fancy furniture and big screens, thanks Silicon Valley, many of this next generation in the work force are seeing that brand new furniture in a big office is a significant investment that can potentially set back a growing business financially. So how have millennials redefined the work space? Co-working spaces and the re-usability office furniture.

What is a co-working space? Well some smart millennial came up with a solution to a problem. The problem, purchasing or paying rent on an office as a start up business is almost impossible. How do you make it cheaper? Instead of renting a whole office, you get to rent a small space in an office where other people can work as well. The environment is for working professionals who don’t find the value of a big office. As the world gets smaller and smaller with inter connectivity, people can work virtually anywhere that has an internet connection. Funny enough, many of these office spaces are filled with used office furniture which is a wonderful bridge to the second part of this entry.

New office furniture is expensive. Most of the time, as long as you don’t buy from a shady establishment, that furniture is built to last. Office furniture almost always outlasts the business that bought it. So where does it all go? Luckily, liquidation sales have become a thing. Through various office furniture companies, you can get access to incredible stocks of used office furniture that’s in fantastic shape. Whether you are looking for something for your home office, or you are a small operation moving into your first office, you should look into used office furniture in Orange County.  If you do a little research like we did, you’ll notice something. There are a few office furniture businesses that have a solid online reputation but one seems to stick out. If you are looking for a partner that will help you fulfill your businesses furniture needs from design to delivery, then look no further! These guys are growing fast and supplying all of Southern California with some of the best new and used furniture that money can buy. And you can buy without tanking your business. Don’t believe us? Check them out!

Lucky for you, they have an awesome showroom you can visit to see what you are buying in person instead of relying on a catalog designed to make all the furniture look as good as possible.

Whether you are creating the next shared office space that’s even more affordable than whats out there, opening your own office, or redefining the office landscape all together, used office furniture seems to be the smart way to go.

Until next time, our search continues for a fast growing business worth mentioning. Maybe they will need some new office furniture. Good thing we know of a business that can help.