a place to call work!

Keep Overhead Low

Keep overhead low. Minimize the need for employyees that will require office space by leveraging outsourced vendors. Keep your hiring to employyees essential to your core compencies as a company. Minimize your need for space to keep your start up agile.

Upgrading from the Home Office

When you need a personal office seperate from your home for just you has less to do with money than:

• Where are you productive?
• Who do you need around you to be productive?
• Do the people your share your home with support you or distract you from what you need to accomplish?

Options

There are some great options for baby steps. Virtual offices with rented conference rooms can give you a business address for professional presentation as well as a conference room or day office when you need the space or to meet a client. These executive suites will also come fully furnished with the infrastructure you need for support (secretarial, coffee machine, desks, paper. . . ) when you are ready to use the office on a regular basis.

Many have networks around the country which are great for setting up new sales or support offices in new locations.

You are building a company-- not an empire -- no need for lots of territory and subjects.

Working at home versus securing an outside work space should be primarily based on answering two questions:

(1) How effectively do you work at home?

Some people are really productive working at home and some are not. There's a ton of reasons for this but at the end of the day you have to determine if it works well for you.

(2) How practical is it for your company to exist in your home?

The available space, number of employees, and your current relationship status (married? kids?) again all factor into this equation. When your team (of whatever size) no longer works effectively out of your home it's past time to secure outside office space.

Ask and answer these questions on a regular basis and you'll know when it's time to start looking for office space.

Are you alone? 
--> Yes.
    Do you earn money?
        ---> Yes. --> Open an office
        ---> No --> How do you want to pay it??
--> No
    Do you earn money?
        ---> Yes. --> Open an office, if you don't want home office
        ---> No.  --> Can you pay it? 
                  --> Is it really necessary?
                          --> Yes --> Try to get a credit
                          --> No --> wait

:-)

There are some start-ups that never actually leave for "real" office space. Depending on what you do, you may not need any office space. Usually you'll realize immediately when an office is necessary, because the frustration of not having one will be overwhelming. When you do need an office, there are plenty of places that you can find one online. Search for things like "office space london".