Office Space Leasing question

Good Question! when I first started in early 90's I leased what was called at the time, a shared office suite or mini-suite.

It was about $500 a month at the time. Small office with desk and 2 chairs, very nice. Lease entitled me to so many hours a month of conference room use, and other office services.

Help from staff onsite and things like that. I did it for purposes of image. As it turned out, I realized after the first year it was not for me. Hardly ever met clients there, and so I dropped it. However, teaching classes there, as you envision, might make it well worth it and help to reinforce an image of being established, and credible. I've been in many of these type of facilities over the years, and they usually are very impressive.
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Bruce

I had my office for a little over a year which was nice, but I only went there about 2-3 days out of the week. I love to work from home. But its a little tough with 3 kids running around in the background.

Here is what I did, I went to a few local business people I knew that had offices and offered up a trade. I would give them a little consulting time with me every month and I would then get the office space free and even get to use all the printers, scanners, paper, etc.

I just moved out of my office last week since they closed shop due to the owner wanting to do something else after 20 years in the same business.

I am about to look for another similar deal. Cant beat free!

That sounds like a good option. If you actually got your own space you have to factor in all the real costs that you never really think about until after you are there. Virtual office space you at least know what the nut will be to crack.

Martin

I wouldn't recommend going this route to 'secure offline clients' as it's really an operational thing, not a sales thing...

if your business is more than just a website and can justify the expense... literally the very first thing i would do is get OUT of the house and into a professional office space. It is a HUGE step towards building a real business. NO matter how much you may think you like working from home, etc... its not conducive to business, specifically the collaboration necessary between web professionals.

Years ago i read a book by the founder of Tripod.. Bo Peabody... he said, "Lucky things happen to entrepreneurs who start fundamentally innovative, morally compelling, and philosophically positive companies."

That's really hard to do in your house.

So when your vision gets to a point where you think you've got critical mass -on some level- you need to get out of your house and get some 'smart' people to help you..... It's the only way to build on what you have.

Get something (office space) FUN that is close to where you live... but not in your house. You will always have a sort of office presence in your house, there is no escaping that... but if you have the main hub somewhere else several things will start to happen:

1. Other people will "all of a sudden" show up and become apart of your business (if your mission is compelling; smart people love a good reason to do things...)

2. You will be much clearer at work

I think both points are self explanatory...

I remember at one of Yanik's first Underground seminars i was chatting with Mike Filsaime about this very topic and that was the very first piece of advice he gave me... and he was SPOT ON. It's tough to grow a real business in your house.

Think about it...

Office space is crucial when establishing your new business. The pricing and costs to lease office space can range from hundreds of dollars to many tens of thousands of dollars, according to your needs and the location.