The situation is this. I have been running my biz out of my house for 6 years and I now I am thinking of renting an office/shop location that has become available. I had myself talked into it until today I had a vehicle breakdown and my power washer quit running. Now I am wondering about adding additional overhead to my business, but at the same time, I don’t have room for any more vehicles, trailers, employees cars, huge shipments of rain flow, bulletin boards, shelves, etc… Not to mention that I am operating in violation of my city code, but we are really good and quiet neighbors, so that hasn’t been an issue. I really want to grow the business, having a hard time seeing the ROI.
Anybody here made that transition that could offer some encouragement or warnings? I would really appreciate it because I need to call the property owner tomorrow with a decision.
Sounds like the decision is already made for you. Your business has outgrown the garage stage. That’s a good thing. Commercial rental space is probably as low as it is ever going to be for the forseeable future due to the slow economy. Go for it!
Steve when I finally made the move out of my dads basement into some office space in town… It was the best move I ever made. You simply can only go so big in a residential neighborhood.
Whats your vision? Do you have a certain size your looking to grow to?
Some cons: Increased over head. Rent, Insurance, Electricity, Other Utilities.
Pros: Room to grow. Its great to be able to separate your work and home life. Its much easier to attract a different caliber of staff with an outside office. I think it gives employees a greater sense of security going into a office everyday. + its way easier to interview people at a actual business address.
The move for me was great, but also caused me a lot of grief… Its a lot of extra stress but if your vision is grand it makes sense to make the move.
Budget well and think about the lean months… My first office was acquired I believe in this month 5 years ago. I had that spring $ rolling in and I thought it would never end. August arrived and I was scared everyday.
Go for It!!! How can you grow when you yourself said the room is not available. I was in your shoes to a point about 4 years ago when we moved into our office space/warehouse. I have never looked back. In my opinion the ROI won’t come in the form of money at first. When we moved into our office it made hiring much better. the quality of new hires and long term employees was astounding. The fact that my clients new that I had a storefront to go and make payments was great. That helped my Blind sales and blind cleaning boom. hopefully you have the option to put up a sign of your company. Is it on a good street? If people drive by will they see all your trucks and signs on the trucks? When I was working at home my time was spend solely on work family came next and work always seemed to pry me away. Now I have office time and personal time. Would you feel better allowing a supervisor to open the shop for you when you go on vacation or your home? Plus it would be legal. Downside is that it will cost you money. yes things get tough when stuff breaks. Make your income increase and the overhead doesn’t seem so large. all I am saying is that it worked for me. I love life right now. If you know you want to but are not sure sign a short term lease and feel it out see if it works for you. If space is of a concern rent a storage shed for the things that are not needed everyday. If it is right for you the answer will only come from you. hope this helps. good luck and congrats early if you get the space!
One of the other things that I did was talk to my land lord and told him that I am slow Jan, Feb, and March. So we took the rent for those months and divided it up and put it towards the other months. stated in lease that I would not be paying those months. helps that stress level. hope that even makes sense. So I am paying X amount for one year in 9 months time frame instead of 12.
Definitely the lean months that I’m concerned about Chris. The problem with the house is that it is so hard to have any business systems in place. no place for training, meetings, paperwork, to wash the trucks, store supplies etc…
I have a big vision for the company and plan on expansion, but the big ??? for me is now the right time or is there ever a right time? I feel that as a company we are leaving a lot of money on the table through inefficiency and that maybe just being more organized will pay big dividends. The way the numbers work out is that I will need to average one more residential job a week to make this work.
Thanks Scott, I have read your post over and over and I feel that all the things you say are true. You are certainly motivating me to grab the brass ring.
Good point Matt, the rent is fairly low because the owners have three buildings vacant right now. This one has a shop with two bay doors, an office and bathroom.
Its great to have water with all that spare room as well, you could even start a processing plant there - something my storeroom hasn’t got. Perhaps you could strike a pay up front yearly deal for some savings - & this time next year you’ll know where you’re at?
That sounds like a great size… ( about the size of our 2nd office ) We are on to our 3d and hopefully permanent now. Our first was 600 sq ft with no garage.
I don’t have the exact measurements but the office area is pretty small by comparison. But the shop is designed in such a way that part of it could easily be made into more office/training area, because it is a split level building. It already has a washer hookup and the landlord said he would put a dryer plug in at n/c and there’s a floor drain for washing trucks inside if needed. I think it is really going to work well if we can just handle the increased overhead.
That sounds very nice. Ours is about 900 Sq feet. only 200 of that is office. the rest is the bathrooms and warehouse. I wish we had a floor drain and water hook up. We are busting at the seems here. I would highly recomend seeing if you can pay extra through the busy months so you don’t have to when it’s slow. That has been the best thing about this place we are in. Let us know if you get it.
Scott has a great idea about paying the rent if your landlord will accept it. Or at the very least set aside for the lean months. I set aside money every month as a “Winter Fund”. And we do almost everything based off of a 9 month work year.
It’s good to hear that people are moving forward in this economy. Congrats!
While we wait for his answer, I’ll tell you what I did last winter after I got back from NOLA. I got me a little shop space for all the equipment. It’s got electricity, but no heat. I built a loft in it so there is just enough room to build screens and have a little work space. Office and vehicles still at my house. It’s been so nice to at least gain some of my house back.
2014 is my year to move out of the house. I do have a separate storage unit that I use for equipment, but I would love to have an office space and more room for trucks/equipment.
Anyone else have any insight or stories about moving out?
The place I have picked out has one office, and a bay area with an overhead door. Not certain of the square footage, but it’s $300 per month. I think it’ll help take my business to the next level I’m looking for. Gonna be a lot of changes next year. It’ll be like starting over.
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Yes - I am actually in my second location. It’s a brand new (1 year old) building with plenty of space and a great shop with 16’ roll up doors and all heated space. I’ll shoot a video soon if you want to see it. Right now some of the shop is taken up with a hot tub/spa that I am refurbishing.
