Hello there,

We are *looking* into getting an office for our business..
Just wanting to know the advantages of having one?

Do more people seem to signup to you? such as if they can ring you.. or can come visit you?

Also the disadvantages are the overheads.. any more?

We are just looking into it.. would be good if we could have some people who have gone into an office and noticed any business changes and such like.

Regards

Craig

We've had an office since September of 1998 (about 6 months after I started the company - the first 6 months I worked from home) and yes, there are some advantages, in my opinion.

The biggest advantage, in my opinion, is psychological - I have a "home" and a "work", and the two are separate. It's amazing the difference that makes to your mental well-being. The other psychological difference is the daily commute - even though (for me) I only have to drive a little over 10 minutes each way, it makes a really big difference - it gives me time to organize my thoughts between "home concerns" and "work concerns". Before, when I worked at home, when I'd sit down at my desk it was a good 10 or 15 minutes before I was really able to do any real work - I'd have to take time to ease myself into "work mode". With the office, I can do that during the commute, so as soon as I get here I can start working.

Besides the psycological impact are some operational advantages. First off, you're a lot less likely to get interrupted by non-work-related things if you're working in an office. For example, before I moved the business into an office, it was nothing for a friend or relative to stop by my apartment in the middle of the day just to chat or have lunch or in general bother the hell out of me. And no amount of insistance that "I'm working here!" would make them go away - to them, they were visiting me in my home, not my office, even though to me it *was* my office during business hours. With an actual office separate from my home, that almost never happens. If you have a family/kids, the difference is even more pronounced (how do you tell your kid that "daddy's working right now, so you can't come in the living room to watch cartoons"? They just don't get it.)

From a strictly business perspective, if you have an office it means you can have a physical mailing address - which is a lot more professional-looking than a PO Box or, worse, one of those "PMB" things. Since (I would hope) you wouldn't want your customers knowing your home address, you couldn't have a physical mailing address when you're working from home. I've talked to a lot of people who won't do business with a company that doesn't list a street address on their web site (and, in fact, I've seen news programs and articles that actively tell people not to deal with companies using PO Boxes).

The ability for clients, vendors, advisors, and whatnot to actually visit you in the office is also vital. When I worked from home, any time I needed to meet with anybody I'd have to meet at their location - it's unbelievable how much mileage I put on my car, and how much time I wasted, driving places to meet with people when they would have happily come to me had I had an office to meet with them in. I have a conference room in my office that gets used an average of twice a week - that's twice a week that, were I still home-based, I'd have to go somewhere to meet with someone.

Believe it or not, I do get quite a few walk-in customers. They see us in the phone book (which notes the address) and the just come in instead of calling.

The phone company is a lot more likely to be willing to run extra phone lines to a business location than they are to a residence. If they have to string wires the entire length of your street just to get you that new fax line, in most cases they will refuse to do it for a residential customer. For a business customer they either can't or won't.

If you reach the point where you need employees, being home-based can be a big disadvantages. A lot of cities and towns have bylaws that prohibit having employees coming into a home office. Having room for employees to park is also an issue - your neighbors can complain to the city if they think there's too much traffic to your house, and if that happens the city can crack down (remember, if your home isn't in a commercial-zoned area, you're not supposed to run a business there. Having a home office is usually tolerated, but start having a bunch of employees coming in and out, as well as FedEx and UPS deliveries all the time, and chances are the city isn't going to be happy with you - which can certainly result in fines).

Your home-owners insurance will generally not cover anything business-related - so if you have computers that you use only for business, and those are destroyed in a house fire, you may not get any money for that.

Let's see... well, there are lots more good reasons to move to an office. There are, of course, also some reasons not to. It's more expensive, easier for people to find you (whom you might not want to find you), and you do get a lot more visits from salespeople.

But, over-all, I've never regretted having an office.

That's just my opinion, and a lot of stuff listed above are generalizations that might not apply to your specific situation, but hopefully you'll gain some insight from my answers.

Good luck with your decision,

Jason

I think Jason likes having an office :rolleyes: :D

hello Jason Ellis,

when i read you post i could not stop my self from saying your are very good writer and narrator. The quality posts likes yours are very hard to find.

Actually i have nothing to say since you have said everything. I know this is off topic. but ....

Originally posted by mahinder
when i read you post i could not stop my self from saying your are very good writer and narrator. The quality posts likes yours are very hard to find.

Thank you very much. That's very kind of you to say.

Before I started doing hosting I worked as an writer/editor at the technical periodicals group at Digital (now Compaq), so I do have a strong writing/editing background. But it's been about 5 years since I've done that professionally, so sometimes I wonder if I've lost that ability. It makes me very pleased when someone let's me know that I haven't. Thanks! :D

I think Jason likes having an office

By and large I definitely do. There are disadvantages to it (the cleaning people in the building give me very odd looks when they notice I'm still here at 2 a.m. on Sunday), and I do work from home fairly often (there's no way I could be at the office *all* the time, which is the committment that is required when you run a hosting company), but yes, having an office is an excellent advantage.

We just moved to a new office this past May - from the old 2-room office to a new 7-room office. It's so much more comfortable here (I even have room for a couch, so that on those hard winter nights when I don't think I'll be able to get out of the driveway the next morning, I can sleep on a comfortable couch instead of on the floor like I used to), and having a separate conference room (rather than a conference table in the corner of my office like I used to have in the old office) is so much more convenient.

But having an office isn't for everyone. I know a lot of people who work from home and would never dream of moving to an office. But for me - an office is just a good fit.

Jason

Hey Jason, thanks for the reply.

Another question, has it done much for buisness? People taking you more seriously? things like that..

Our council has given us some pretty good offers.

What about from a customers point of view? would you rather have a place where you could go and talk face to face, on the fone and postal address?

Thanks

Craig

Originally posted by Craig
Another question, has it done much for buisness? People taking you more seriously? things like that..

It's hard to say specifically without speaking in generalities. Generally, yes, people take you more seriously when you have an office. But that's not to say that in our case, specifically, it's made that huge a difference - I just don't know. The company was only 6 months old when I moved it into an office back in 1998, so it's hard to judge what affect it really had customer-wise.

What about from a customers point of view? would you rather have a place where you could go and talk face to face, on the fone and postal address?

Definitely. That being said, when you're dealing with a company over the Internet, it's very difficult to actually know whether they're home-based, office-based, or non-existant. I do look for a phone number and address on any web site I consider buying from, but am I likely to drive over and say hello? No, probably not.

Jason

thanks for all your help.

Hoping the council will give us a good deal on an office :)

then again, pigs may fly.

Regards

Craig

Sorry, I had to:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1183046026

I wish I could afford an office... first of all an apartment though. :) How much do small offices usually run for (yes I know, depends on the area/region)? Just curious what some people have paid.

It all depends on the area. And How big. And a lot of these guys needs whacks of power!

We are also looking for offices around the area for TechBoost, Inc.

And JustinK, if you're in a mid size area I'd say that a small office wouldn't cost more then 1-2k a month..

Ok... well I won't be renting an office for quite some time as I live in an overpriced elderly folk area. The buildings aren't that great either. :( I like 2+ story buildings that get a good shake during earthquakes.

Well gotta admit that was pretty educational... thanks Jason :)

As for me... well I'm back in "school", as the Americans put it, so there's no point at the moment but in terms of upgrading my "space" I've just moved to an house that allows me a whole attic to myself.

Whilst I don't have the commute it is handy to be able to walk up the stairs and get into "work" mode and down again to get a cuppa and return to "chill" or "home" mode. There's a bed up here too in case the GF doesn't want me waking her at 4am after a long design session. All to the good.

Not totally Off Topic but just thought I'd throw it in. Glad Jason mentioned about that "home office" and bye-law thing though, never would have seen that coming till too late otherwise.

Cheers..

Good luck with the office too Craig :)

Originally posted by WebSnail.net
There's a bed up here too in case the GF doesn't want me waking her at 4am after a long design session. All to the good.


I think that would generate more arugments that prevent them with my girl :)

Cheers for the well wishing on the office.. there is a new buisness park being built here but isnt finnished for another month.. have to wait and see :)

Regards

Craig

Originally posted by JustinK
How much do small offices usually run for (yes I know, depends on the area/region)? Just curious what some people have paid.

This depends almost entirely on where you are located and what type of building you are renting in.

Our old office was a 2-room office located in a an old building in a residential neighborhood (the building had been converted from a house to offices). It was a fairly nice office, though small - about 350 sq. ft., for which we paid $550 a month. Our new office is in a much larger building, a real office complex. It's 1200 sq. ft. and we pay $1100 per month (basement level).

We're in a fairly low-cost area - rents usually fall between $10 and $16 a square foot (for those not knowledgable in real estate - that's per *year*, not per month - so at $10 per square foot for a 1000 sq. ft. office, you'd pay $833 a month in rent). But if you were looking for something in a higher-priced area (in our area, Waltham, Marlboro, and of course Boston) you could pay upwards of $30 a square foot or even more (one office I looked at in Waltham was going for $44 a square foot - *way* out of our price range).

In the building we did end up with, they charge $13 per square foot - but because we took a basement level suite it was considerably less expensive. And, honestly, this suite suits us very very well - almost every room has windows (ceiling-height, of course), and I haven't found myself feeling claustrophobic at all.

If you're looking for a bargain on space, look outside the major economic areas. Small towns are generally going to be the cheapest, as are smaller "blue-collar" cities. The city where we are located is one such location - there's tons of space available because this was a big manufacturing area but most of the mills have since closed and been converted to smaller offices. The building we are in is a former hospital building, but I also looked at space in former mills that was very very nice.

Good luck in your search,

Jason

I fear putting anything of mine in the closest lower economical offices... Heck, lived there when I was little and had the outside of my bedroom spraypainted by a bloody gang... (the bloods). I'd end up paying the monthly rent 80 times over in stolen equipment.

I'm probably over-exadurating a bit, but you really have one of three views there... another building, a parking lot, or a bunch of houses with toilets and cars that will never run again on their lawns.