What has impressed you entering a new business? Need budget ideas, please!

[QueenIsabella]

You've been given a bunch of good ideas. Basically, a place that is clean and well-kept is inviting, regardless of specific decor. Green plants, recent, general magazines, maybe some toys for kids are all good thoughts. The only other suggestion I would have is wi-fi and maybe a charging station. That could come in handy if there are likely to be people in the waiting area for an hour or so.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I know this one might seem obvious, but I've been in plenty of waiting rooms where there wasn't one, don't forget to have a small trash can in the waiting area somewhere. It can be so awkward to have tissues or mints with wrappers out or finish a cup of water and then you don't find a trash can.

And be careful with art supplies, children and a waiting area. Before you know it your walls and chairs and everything else will be "decorated".

Agree - I would not have "art supplies." Good kid waiting area items include the Fisher Price Doodlers, a Wooden Activity Cube (B Zany has a good one), a few popular board books and picture books, (and if you have older kids) and a puzzle cube or two (there are many amazing ones - you could have a Rubik's one, a Sudoku one, a crazy one, etc) and liquid dropper toy (the item where liquid drops down a wheel and to the bottom - good calming toy)...and that's it.

 

[rnorwo1]

I didn't know that Chambers did that, thanks for the info! Good point on the art supplies... I was just thinking colors and coloring pages, but we will see. I have a train table that the younger kids should love (my youngest child decided he could donate it!).

One of the renters (we've worked together for years) and I stopped by today to check out the progress, and we just lingered and lingered, it's going to be so pretty!
Thanks again for all of the suggestions!

 

[Eureka]

Before you buy a lot of magazine subscriptions, see what your family and friends get...instead of recycling them, they can cut off the address label and give them to you to put out. I don't mind a month old, it's the three year old magazines in waiting rooms that drive me crazy. And this may just be me, but I always used hand sanitizer after reading a waiting room magazine.

 

[rnorwo1]

Before you buy a lot of magazine subscriptions, see what your family and friends get...instead of recycling them, they can cut off the address label and give them to you to put out. I don't mind a month old, it's the three year old magazines in waiting rooms that drive me crazy. And this may just be me, but I always used hand sanitizer after reading a waiting room magazine.

Yes, my MIL gets tons of magazines, I definitely am going to reuse hers! I found a few websites that suggested coffee table books and cookbooks, I'm going to find some of those, too, that I can rotate. I'm always advocating for little things, like reading together, to help with parent-child relationships, so I would love to see kids in their parents' laps reading a big book about animals or something, rather than having the adults' faces in a gossip magazine while the kids ran around.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Look in a used bookstore or a Salvation Army for good books on the cheap. Our local SA has a nice selection of books--I even found an Italian vegetarian cookbook--perfect for my college-age, Italian vegetarian daughter!

They also have toys. If you were able to find one, casually looking around, a lego table to swap out occasionally with the train table might be a good find. Just to keep things fresh.

For magazines, ones that are a couple months old aren't so bad, especially things like HGTV (I LOVE reading this at the doctor's office!). Standards like Reader's Digest and People are good, too. One office I wait in has local (state) magazines, which are fun for me, since we just moved here. Magazines that irritate me, personally are: things like Time (gets dated very quickly), Golf Digest or another specialty magazine, and health type magazines--these just feel like getting nagged at, for some reason. But, it's like anything else--if you keep on top of them, take our old or battered issues, and definitely if you have a source for recent issues, use it. Again, it's not so much about spending a lot of money as taking care of the space.

Do some magazines offer free subscriptions to offices? It might be worth looking into...

 

[rnorwo1]

I'll definitely check out the local thrift stores, may do that today. I didn't think about a Lego table, those are so easy to make, and my 3 boys have more Lego stuff than I would ever admit to.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I like a lot of the ideas here. What I love in an office is when it's clean and updated. I can't stand old, ugly or cheap pictures on the walls! I love the idea of children's artwork and historical info on the house or neighborhood, which would be really interesting to read. There are lots of other possibilities. Same for furniture. I would not do a Keurig machine because it gets expensive and messy, plus I don't think boiling hot water would be such a great idea in a mental health facility or with children around that could knock it over, etc. there would be potential for liability. I also think buying water bottles would be a pain because there would be a lot of waste and maybe even overuse. I don't think it's necessary, but a big water dispenser would be nice if you wanted something. Snacks aren't necessary, but you might consider the possibility of a vending machine so if someone is hungry, a snack would be accessible. I think you can get nice things inexpensively if you shop around. I think wifi is a must, and charging stations would be appreciated. If you keep some inexpensive ear buds around, they might come in handy if somone needs some - it might really help them to be able to just veg out and listen to their music, or hear a book on tape, or be able to do a homework assignment while blocking out noise, etc. I will pick up and look through books if they're around, or a magazine - I like People, or Time. Sports Illustrated is always good. My dentist keeps umbrellas on hand for people to use if it's raining as well as a small heater in the waiting room as it can get chilly there - thoughtful little things that mean a lot to people.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I'll definitely check out the local thrift stores, may do that today. I didn't think about a Lego table, those are so easy to make, and my 3 boys have more Lego stuff than I would ever admit to.

I wouldn't encourage the lego table. The tediousness of sanitizing Lego pieces, the likelihood of them getting strewn all over, and the possibility of choking hazards make them a really bad idea. It's why I recommended the single piece type puzzlers for older kids.

 

[njpyro]

No one seems to have mentioned this, but as someone who is horribly allergic to flowers, flowers in a waiting room would be torturous. Green plants are definitely the way to go.

 

[HeyKoolaid]

Keep it clean - sounds obvious, but what a lot of business owners neglect to do is to view the business through their customer's eyes. I am a business owner, and someone cleans my offices for me. Every week I do a walk through of the business as if I were a client - you would be surprised what gets missed. I was recently at a friend's office, and sat in the waiting room for my friend. The back side of one of his end tables looked like a scene from the Haunted Mansion - mega dust and cobwebs.

 

[ACS228]

If you are thinking seriously about a fish tank, look into African cichlids. They are much easier to care for than salt water fish but they are so much prettier than the freshwater ones. I worked for years in a dentist office that specialized in phobic patients and everyone loved the fishtank. They always said how calming it was and the children were mesmerized.