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Thread: Brick & Mortar

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    495

    Brick & Mortar

    Here is a question for you all. I was considering doing a step up and getting a decent office more in the public view. Now I am trying to weight the cost benefit of this and would like your opinions on it.

    I am not talking a small office in a small building but a decent sized office on a well traveled road.

    We are a profitable company and I am just trying to keep it that way . The market we are currently in we do not target at all (Gainesville, FL) but yet there are really no competitiors. (atlantic.net and a company called ********). I am thinking of going after the market locally and already have partnered up with a few web firms to do so.
    James R. Clark II

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Posts
    1,310
    Hmm, I dunno. Who would walk into an office for webhosting? People do not go shopping for it. They search the internet. (at least I think they do..)

    On the other hand, if you actively try to get companies in your town/area as your clients and you visit their offices and when they ask you, "ok, give me your address and I;ll call you back" then mentioning you work from your bedroom isn't doing you much good either

    It's a simple cost calculation. How much does the office cost, how much extra income do you expect to get from your local area BECAUSE you have the office and then see if it balances out.

    Ofcourse there are additional nice extras to having an office. Especially if you have your staff working from your bedroom as well. Especially the nightshift working from your bedroom while you try to sleep can be rather annoying

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    9,039
    depends if the nightshift is female and has a nice arse or not
    Matt Wallis
    United Communications Limited
    High Performance Shared & Reseller | Managed VPS Cloud | Managed Dedicated
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    130
    jic,

    We do have an office of sorts, but there are "extenuating circumstances" I guess you could say. We own a retail store (a nice gift shop), and we maintain offices at this location. We have a nice setup, nice desks, computers, etc., so if any customers want to come by they can.

    BUT....we seldom get a customer just walk in looking for web hosting. I have a full staff of sales people, and we go out and solicit the business. The web hosting for us is something we've been doing for about 2 yrs.

    We've been in the web page design, desk-top publishing, "creative marketing" business for 7 yrs. We get far more customers thru the doors for this end of the business.

    To open us a "storefront" just for web hosting I'm not sure would be a beneficial proposition. If you were doing web page design, or some other type of computer related business that you actually needed the space anyhow, then maybe...but just web hosting I'd have to agree with Pilgrim, people just don't go out shopping for web hosting. You have to go out looking for them.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Ann Arbor, MI
    Posts
    2,979
    We don't have office space anymore, but when we did, it was in an industrial park. It wasn't a storefront. Our lease didn't even allow us to have retail customers. We had a suite in a building across from the airport with our sign on the door. We had half of a good sized building, and it was a well traveled road. But people didn't come into the industrial park to shop.

    Even if we were downtown, next to starbuck's, I wouldn't expect any walk in customers. Do you know how many business there are downtown that have office space, but no one knows what they do? Because they don't have "Yes, we're OPEN" signs in the window, and they don't offer any walk in type service. They just have office space conveniently located downtown, so that they're employees can take the bus to work and eat anywhere they want for lunch, and so that they can say they're located downtown.

    So I'm not sure why having office space has anything to do with bringing in customers. It's more about needing office space.
    -Mark Adams
    www.bitserve.com - Secure Michigan web hosting for your business.
    Only host still offering a full money back uptime guarantee and prorated refunds.
    Offering advanced server management and security incident response!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    441
    i think he was talking about getting his name out and using the office/sign as a means of advertising.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    668
    Originally posted by rlynch
    i think he was talking about getting his name out and using the office/sign as a means of advertising.
    Dear friend,

    Never think the way you do, other will as well... People are not same. That doesn't mean if you are doing this, that gentleman would do it too.

    It's not really nice to see that, he just gave value to your opinions and asked for some comments.

    Have a great day !
    Amir Golestan
    Executive Director | Micfo
    datacenter facilities in 39 cities across the world | AS53889
    www.micfo.com/datacenter

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    441
    Originally posted by HeadMaster


    Dear friend,

    Never think the way you do, other will as well... People are not same. That doesn't mean if you are doing this, that gentleman would do it too.

    It's not really nice to see that, he just gave value to your opinions and asked for some comments.

    Have a great day !
    ????

    what in gods name are u talking about....

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    288
    If you were in your customers shoes looking for web hosting, where would you go? The internet or the local "hosting store"? The only time you would realy need some office space, is if you have several staff who aren't prepared to work from home. Sales people for example may not like to work from home, they may want to be at a central location where they can take calls or email or whatever, without using their home phones/computers.

    Also night shift people tend to like to get together and have LAN wars when things are going smoothly - ping times are better over a 100mbit LAN than a 56k modem

    On a more serious note though, it also depends if you want that clear distinction between home and work. Some people need to be able to actually leave work for the day, and leaving an office does that. If you office is your home, often you find it hard to separate your home life from your work life. On the plus side though, working from home is definately cheaper than working from an office.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    668

    Re: Brick & Mortar

    Hello,

    Just wanted to note, you are having a very nice designed web site....

    Clean and easy to navigate, attracts the visitors, brings up the trust ( because In today's always-on world, a company's Web site is critical to its ability to compete and succeed.), leads the visitor to the order form, and finally become a valued client.

    The most important things were mentined above.... Clean, easy to navigate, brings up the trust, leads to order page.

    Wish you lucks !
    Amir Golestan
    Executive Director | Micfo
    datacenter facilities in 39 cities across the world | AS53889
    www.micfo.com/datacenter

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    495
    Well I was thinking the main benefits would be

    #1) Your sign on a big road
    #2) Prospective customers like to see your office. I am just thinking of nailing my local market with some serious advertising and figuring out what the best way to do it would be.
    James R. Clark II

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    495
    ok.. this is stupid but I just want to see if I get anything for post 300 ehhe
    James R. Clark II

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