Well I was wondering how many host have offices? or do most hosts work from home and just rent their servers?

I know big hosts will have offices but what about the smaller companys... what do you do?

Had an office, it was always cold, even during the summer months :P

I know this sounds iffy and unbusiness-like but we all just bundle onto the sofa now with our laptops and watch tv while providing support. Its like extended family and there is less of a formal feel about it.

hehe I thought it was just me ;).. good old wireless laptop!

It's better to work from home I guess, as your gonna save money and theres no point been sat in a cold office just doing tickets etc.

Not at all and especially when starting out im sure we have all wore many hats and sneakily changed the signature in the outgoing email now and again..

In the past it's been a two to three man show, all of us working remotely. When we expanded our services from just web-design/hosting to onsite system repair and third party system support (Ex: I can't get into Outlook!) our business jumped. The closest competition is Geek Squad, about an hour away, so we're very fortunate. We recently acquired a contract with the local public library system to host all of their sites and design a few of them, so we decided that it was impractical to work from home any longer. My home office is too cluttered and I never get anything done in the living room, so we started looking for an office. It's going to be a large expense, without a doubt, and if we hadn't expanded our services we wouldn't need it. Luckily we have negotiated a SHORT lease, who knows about business these days, and we managed to get great terms in both pricing and amenities. We're in the process of setting the terms of the buildout, and we're scrounging money for fixtures, LoL.

It isn't always necessary, and my goal was to keep the costs associated with the business to a minimum, but it became a need.

-fin
Thales

Very true, although i do not own ProntoHost in itself, i have seen it through conception from when it was ProntoHost UK, hosting local hotels and golf courses where we needed a drop-in office. Since going global, the office was no longer needed, clients are more confident with sending along an email and its nice to talk to someone from the other end of the world from the comfort of your own home.

Taking on staff was testing though... who to trust with access to many years of work.. but it was great that we had many local "technical minded" people in the vicinity that have been able to lend a hand.

Most of them have never seen a bar of soap or a hairdresser but thats a techie for you HAHA :P

I used to have a offices in Falkirk, Edinburgh and Glasgow but they weren't totally for my net related businesses as I was involved in a few projects at the time.

However, when I decided that the time was right to get away from the other businesses, I just set up working from home and find it a lot better on the mind as well as having less overheads to pay out.

I have an office in the house but like working out of the conservatory in the hotter months.

owm

My web services I run from home, quite comfortably,
it very much depends what/who your market is.

In a 'former life/industry' it was essential for me to have a real office,
I shared resources with other in the building, but my own little office
was a wapping 6 x 8 feet, from that space & with an MZ700, I[we] ran
a succesful ltd. company, dealing with many large Chemical & Pharmacetical
companies.
Circumstances change, times change. It's now much more acceptable to be a 'homeworker', whatever you do,
and the average mobile phone is about 10,000 times more powerful than that old MZ700.

How I wanted I can run a business from home BUT...local clients never let us live like that! First 2-3 years were so tough for us cause local clients used to call me even for their cookies or ISP cache issues. Somehow I managed to stay in business by holding my nerves...

Now, we have a 750 sq ft office with 10 employees and that enables me to work from home as well...

We work locally so having a business office is a MUST. First of all home office is illegal in China and furthermore nobody will buy from you if you don't have a proper office listed on your website and they can't visit you. In fact many clients pay us in cash at our office. However, we are an internet marketing company and had an office since start up, so when we expanded into web hosting it fitted nicely.

and furthermore nobody will buy from you if you don't have a proper

I have been wondering about this my self over here in North America.
Would you get more business if you had a business address, even if you don't have an office, maybe like a PO box?

I have been wondering about this my self over here in North America.
Would you get more business if you had a business address, even if you don't have an office, maybe like a PO box?

big NO to POO Boxes

Seriously, absolutely any other alternative is 20 times better.

If your on a budget, your home address is rubbish, then go for an 'Accommodation address'.

But those POO boxes just stink !

You can rent an office address from about $100+ a month.

Try http://www.regus.com/ -or- http://www.hq.com/ .

Some services will even have a secretary answer the phone at your location with the name of your business, they'll also forward your mail and lend you use of their physical office if you have to meet with a client. That might be a good option if you need an address other than your home.

-fin
Thales

Officially, I do have an office, thanks to my family, and I use the office address for mail etc...

However, it is very rare I actually use it, I go to collect mail etc, and usually end up back in my flat or at my girlfriends house.

I did once upon a time use it every day, getting there at 8am and going home at 6pm, it helped me a lot in keeping my concentration on the business rather then home comforts, but I found on really quiet days it got so tedious and boring that I could'nt stand it anymore.

It was around the time my daily post count on here took a nosedive that I stopped using the office to actually work from; there is more to do at home.

Plus, none of my support staff worked from the office as they are all based in different locations with only one being actually local to me.

Will I use it in the future? If we start to employ more staff locally, then almost certainly, I would love to, but in the forseeable future, I don't think so.

:)

Thales - thanks for the links, those are what I have been looking for.

No problem. One word of advice though, make sure you do some research on the address that they provide you. An associate of mine went with a Virtual Office in Arizona, he was provided with an address that had been involved in a criminal investigation, several times, LoL.

-fin
Thales

Unless you're appealing to a crowd who are in the you must have an office and the company must work 9-5 then I don't really see the need for an true office for a small company. If you're appealing to the younger crowd (I'm thinking under 30) you'll find not many care about whether or not the company has an office.

Even if you look outside of web hosting as younger people start managing IT departments and their employees are younger the office use is going to down there as well. This is mostly true with software developers you may only see them at an office 2 days a week and they are no longer showing up at 9am and leaving at 5pm everyday anymore either. This is probably the case with people doing online based support as well.

It's the home office for me, but that's what suits my lifestyle and it works. My commute each morning is a 20 meter stagger from the bedroom to the office via the kitchen. I'm also doing my bit for the environment by not having to drive to work too, so home offices are very environmentally friendly. :)

It's the home office for me, but that's what suits my lifestyle and it works. My commute each morning is a 20 meter stagger from the bedroom to the office via the kitchen. I'm also doing my bit for the environment by not having to drive to work too, so home offices are very environmentally friendly. :)

With 5 kids it's amazing you can find time to get work done. I have a hard time focusing since my daughter was born. It's tough to put her down :D

With 5 kids it's amazing you can find time to get work done. I have a hard time focusing since my daughter was born. It's tough to put her down :D
Well my sons over 20, and there has been many a time I felt like having him 'put down', but I refrained.

Well my sons over 20, and there has been many a time I felt like having him 'put down', but I refrained.

lol, you're always good for a laugh :D

It's the home office for me, but that's what suits my lifestyle and it works. My commute each morning is a 20 meter stagger from the bedroom to the office via the kitchen. I'm also doing my bit for the environment by not having to drive to work too, so home offices are very environmentally friendly. :)

Couldnt have said it better myself.

Staggering from the bedroom at 6am to the bathroom for the normal wakeup duties, switch on laptop and pc, head to kitchen for big cup of coffee, sit down on my leather recliner and see what needs doing.

All in by boxer shorts.

Theres an image for you.

I dont think it matters where you run your hosting business (or other service) from unless of course your trying to maintain a local presence, most people just want uptime and support, that can be provided from anywhere.

Personally i provide better services and support sat in my recliner with a coffee and cigarette, especially when it gets stressful (those who smoke "at work" know what i mean).

When our parent company started like 7 years ago, it was literally out of a garage, hosting SQL servers and Exchange for a few customers.

They had leased 3 racks at a good datacenter (nap of the americas), and started offering the service, and worked out of a garage office.

After 1 year of working from the garage, it was pretty much set that they needed a professional place of work, and made the move. Now in 2008 our parent company has about 50 employees, and our VPS division has 9 of us, and we were moved off to a different office :mad:

But hey, we got more room and its a newer office too! :cool:

I work from home every night after work, but its not the same with family, wife, etc. So an office is crucial for having a good productive environment.

Long live our comfy chairs!! http://www.ergonomicofficechairs.com/images/IH_1000C_3_a.jpg

So an office is crucial for having a good productive environment.

I think this completely depends on the size of the company. Put me in an office with my current staff and I can guarantee we wouldn't get any more work done then we do now.

With 5 kids it's amazing you can find time to get work done. I have a hard time focusing since my daughter was born. It's tough to put her down :D
That's 6 kids actually, and we have a Korean exchange student staying with us this year. :D

We have a big house, and the kids are usually downstairs, so I don't see them that much. It works out pretty good, although next house I build I will be investing a little more into noise proofing. :S

So how many of you use a 1800 number or service you for home office?

I use an 888 number that forwards to my various local numbers so I can be reached by cell or at home, depending on where I am. I use kall8.com.

So how many of you use a 1800 number or service you for home office?
Never offered phone support.

Aussie Bob, and no customers ever requested phone support?

Aussie Bob, and no customers ever requested phone support?
I'm sure nobody has phoned AB to request phone support ;)

my phone is mainly for sales and pre-sales questions. We answer will answer level 1 support questions over the phone, but we prefer a ticket is submitted. If it gets too complicated, we will submit a ticket for them and follow up with the ticket.

I have a local sales/support number, but we're looking at setting up an Asterix PBX in our office at some point. However, we rarely get calls to our company line. They primarily go to our individual "business" cellphones. When no one is in near the company phone we have it forward to my cellphone. A 1-800 number is not a huge priority, but it is nice.

I know personally I prefer eMail and LiveChat. I'm perfectly sociable and I have a decent phone voice, but I just prefer dealing with companies through eMail. Less formality I suppose.

-fin
Thales