<

Think of Roy Scheider causally chumming the Atlantic Ocean when Jaws suddenly surfaces – gnashing his terrible teeth.

Roy walks backward slowly and makes his way to Quint, the captain. His eyes fixed on the water. His cigarette hanging on his lips. Finally, he says, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat."

Now think of what this moment was for you. Perhaps you were with a few colleagues, enjoying the view of the vacant lot from your second story office, and suddenly your inbox went from 10 unread inquiries to 300.

In case your own personal Jaws hasn’t reared its head yet, we’ve got some tips for you concerning the warning signs that you may need a bigger office:

1. You’re turning down clients – the biggest indicator that you need more office space is a simple one: If the demand for your product or service has surpassed your ability to provide, you need to bite the bullet and move on up. Hire more and get a bigger space. Congrats, you’ve just reached level 2 in the game of business.

2. You literally bump into your employees multiple times per day – humans need personal space. If you find that you can’t get to the copy machine without an “excuse me”, pack it up and get a bigger office.

3. You can never find anything – a small office does not mean a more organized office. A larger space can give you more room to store important things (instead of shoving everything on top of the filing cabinet).

4. You’re ashamed to bring clients back to your office – this should be a giant red flag. Whatever your business is, you should never feel ashamed to bring anyone back to the office. Now, your car, on the other hand, is different. Why are there so many unfinished diet coke cans? I don’t know, just move them to the side and sit down.

5. You can’t stop fantasizing about being in a bigger office – listen to your gut! It’s telling you that you’re too big for this space. And if you’re thinking about it, you can bet your colleagues are as well. Making the move into a bigger office might seem daunting at first, but in the long run it’ll improve the morale, organization, and overall functionality of your business.