Poll: Do you rent an office or work from home?

[C.Pearse]

I currently work from home and I am considering renting an office in town. I haven't yet had a client visit and it is unlikely they will do so in the future as everything can be done via email/phone.

Benefits
1/ Set hours, e.g. 9-5, rather than working until the early hours at home.
2/ Routine.
3/ A sense of finishing a days work and "leaving work at the office".
4/ A more productive day, the only thing you can do in the office is work!
5/ The business pays the rent.

I am looking at an office which costs £75 p/w inclusive and with a minimum term of just 3 months I believe it's not such a huge risk. I am quite confident just by renting an office I should be able to cover the cost of the rent by the extra work done due to a more productive day.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has gone from working at home to renting an office and how it has helped you.

Also, vice versa, have you gone back to working at home from renting an office? If so, what were your reasons?

Cheers
Chris

 

[DuaneJackson]

3/ A sense of finishing a days work and "leaving work at the office".

That was the big one for me I think.

Now I have no choice - there are 8 of us so I couldn't fit them all in my spare room!

 

[Cornish Steve]

I've worked from home for almost ten years. I built an office that consumes half our 2-car garage - so it's quite separate from the rest of the house. I have plenty of power sockets, a phone line, a data connection, some closets, two desks, a filing cabinet, and a treadmill. It works well.

 

[jim_gold]

I am with Duane on this one. If your business is expanding, and to expand necessarily means more staff, then it makes sense to rent an office. Also, if you are unfortunate enough to live in a city like London where having room for an office in the garden is not possible, then for many it is just not practical with a house full of rug-rats.

 

[onmyown]

Now i have sold my two main business's, i now work from my new home office on new ideas and invetments. Happy Days

 

[adventurelife]

Not covered all the different factors

I have 2 offices in 2 different locations but I work from home most of at least 50%

 

[Jenni384]

I moved from home to office in February this year.
Despite the extra costs I love it and wouldn't change it.
As Duane said, the leaving work in the office and going home to home was the big one for me too.

 

[onmyown]

Lots of things you can claim back in terms of Tax when you work from home. Nice little bonuses

Benefits for me of not now having an office (or business actually)

1) No getting up early
2) No commute (so no travel or Petrol Costs and no rush hour traffic)
3) Better, more comfortable environment to work in
4) No Staff to monitor, look after and correct their mistakes
5) Work in my pants and dressing gown and no one knows/cars
6) No one is there to care if i have a 5 hour lunch
7) If i get bored at home i can go and do a bit of work rather than have to get to an office
8) Tax benefits
9) My business address is a Mail Box Etc Location which is a 10 min walk away
10) No office costs
11) No insurance costs
12) Can go on holiday whenever i want. Went to New York last week with the wife shopping. Booked the trip in the morning, flew in the evening.
13) More time for my hobbies - cars/rugby/gym/tennis/eating and drinking/travel/Football
14) i could go on and on

 

[thedesigntailor]

I rent an office but am looking in to buying one.

 

[Cornish Steve]

I am with Duane on this one. If your business is expanding, and to expand necessarily means more staff, then it makes sense to rent an office. Also, if you are unfortunate enough to live in a city like London where having room for an office in the garden is not possible, then for many it is just not practical with a house full of rug-rats.

I have a wife, six children, and two dogs. If our house was a cartoon, the roof would be jumping up and down and punch shapes would appear from all the walls. It can be very noisy. But I don't hear a thing because I'm located in the garage. I'd never have an office in the garden because of security concerns.

The point I'm making, I suppose, is that there are various options available. It's not just in the house or in the garden; an office in the garage can offer the best of both worlds.

 

[C.Pearse]

Thanks for the replies!

That was the big one for me I think.

Now I have no choice - there are 8 of us so I couldn't fit them all in my spare room!

Good point! Did you move into the office when you were on your own or did you wait until you needed extra staff before you moved into an office?

I've worked from home for almost ten years. I built an office that consumes half our 2-car garage - so it's quite separate from the rest of the house. I have plenty of power sockets, a phone line, a data connection, some closets, two desks, a filing cabinet, and a treadmill. It works well.

Sounds like a good set up you've got there! Is your garage separate from your house?

I am with Duane on this one. If your business is expanding, and to expand necessarily means more staff, then it makes sense to rent an office. Also, if you are unfortunate enough to live in a city like London where having room for an office in the garden is not possible, then for many it is just not practical with a house full of rug-rats.

I would definitely consider a garden office but unfortunately I'm only renting at the moment!

I moved from home to office in February this year.
Despite the extra costs I love it and wouldn't change it.
As Duane said, the leaving work in the office and going home to home was the big one for me too.

Are your days more productive now you're in an office? I guess you must meet quite a few of your clients? How did you handle that when working from home?

Lots of things you can claim back in terms of Tax when you work from home. Nice little bonuses

Benefits for me of not now having an office (or business actually)

1) No getting up early
2) No commute (so no travel or Petrol Costs and no rush hour traffic)
3) Better, more comfortable environment to work in
4) No Staff to monitor, look after and correct their mistakes
5) Work in my pants and dressing gown and no one knows/cars
6) No one is there to care if i have a 5 hour lunch
7) If i get bored at home i can go and do a bit of work rather than have to get to an office
8) Tax benefits
9) My business address is a Mail Box Etc Location which is a 10 min walk away
10) No office costs
11) No insurance costs
12) Can go on holiday whenever i want. Went to New York last week with the wife shopping. Booked the trip in the morning, flew in the evening.
13) More time for my hobbies - cars/rugby/gym/tennis/eating and drinking/travel/Football
14) i could go on and on

Good points although not getting up early for me means having to work late!

I was also thinking of doing 8-4 instead of 9-5 to miss the rush hour traffic however it is only a 5 minute drive or a 5 minute walk taking a shortcut through the park.

I guess I'm after structure to my day and I feel renting an office would provide this. As it'll only be me in the office I won't have anyone complaining if I take that 5 hour lunch either

Cheers
Chris

 

[Cornish Steve]

Sounds like a good set up you've got there! Is your garage separate from your house?

It's part of the house. There's a door from the garage to our laundry room (and then to the kitchen), and there's a room above me. From the outside, you'd never know there was an office in the garage.

One of the keys was to get the best use of the garage space. We designed the office so that the ceiling is about a foot lower at one end. This allows the garage door to retract above my office, while I was able to extend the length of the office to within about two feet of the garage door (just enough space to keep a lawn mower and some bikes).

 

[AdamJ]

I did have a garden office but the paperwork was bulging the walls and starting to creep into the house. In the end we rented an office which is far bigger than we need and damn expensive at £800 a month, but it means that as we expand we've got the space to use. Or that's the idea anyway.

As a nice bonus, although we don't need all the office space the landlord is great and threw in a garage for us to keep a couple of smaller trailers and a generator in, and has just made part of a nearby dairy farm they also own nearby available to us to store our audiometry trailers in, which were looking like setting us back something like £100 to £200 a month each to store otherwise. (Storage locations were limited to one expensive one nearby as we don't want to be driving miles out of the way each day to store and collect the trailers, which are too big to be stored at a house). And they give us somewhere to park a couple of pickups, again for free, which all makes the rent worthwhile.

Its an odd one really, in terms of office space for people we don't need much as its just me plus one part time in the office itself, but the storage we need is much larger and would have swamped the house.

 

[trevorwood]

I work from home but need a much bigger room - probably twice what I've got now to be comfortable. We can't extend the house as it's already been extended twice and extending it again would take it way outside what people would pay for a house in this area. Much as I'd like a separate office, I do like to be able to bunk off during the day and then work in the evening as well as roll out of bed at 7:30, start work at 7:35 then get dressed and have breakfast at 9:30.

Really our only option is to sell and move somewhere bigger - but having just paid the mortgage off I'm reluctant to take out another

 

[An Oasis]

Gone full cycle home in a large cellar to an office in Manchester back to working from home in our latest house.

I love working from home means that you end up working longer hours but then there's no traveling and we spend so much time traveling that the idea of traveling into Manchester to do some admin would be too horrible to contemplate.

 

[Alison Jones]

I currently work from home and hate it. I have client files taking up half a room with other junk that we have collected over the years and can't throw out.

Some days especially in winter it is hard to stay motivated as so tempting to grab a duvet and sit in front of the telly and drink hot chocolate rather then sit at the computer working.

I hope to be in office within retail unit very soon, the downside is that I will be running 2 businesses instead of 1 and working 6 days a week 8am - 6pm but hope to justify staff to ease the workload after a short time.

Alison

 

[AdamJ]

Our office is only about five minutes from home down a rural lane which I find is close enough not to be a hassle to nip over there and back, but far enough away to make you think "do I really need to go and do this or can it wait" in the evenings or at the weekend.

 

[Jenni384]

TAre your days more productive now you're in an office? I guess you must meet quite a few of your clients? How did you handle that when working from home?

Yes they are and yes I do. I used to visit clients at their home/premises.
I was getting increasingly aware that I was a lone female visiting men I'd never met before and while I know most people are trustworthy there was a nagging voice telling me I was taking risks. The office has eliminated that.
I'm more productive because I have to do less travelling. The thought of travelling to see all my clients now is scary, I've doubled my client base more or less since moving.

 

[Deleted member 9840]

I've doubled my client base more or less since moving.

I have also had a large increase in enquiries and orders since i moved. Unit 4, Blah Blah Industrial Estate, give much more credibility the 7 Treesaregreen Close.

Steve

 

[onmyown]

I have also had a large increase in enquiries and orders since i moved. Unit 4, Blah Blah Industrial Estate, give much more credibility the 7 Treesaregreen Close.

Steve

You can get any business address you want for around £200 per year. The business i just sold was based in West Yorkshire, but we had 'virtual offices' in London. Berkeley Square no less, which cost about £500 per year including all the mail that was sent there being forwarded on to Yorks.
I have membership at a private members club in Berkeley Square where we used to hold any meetings. Membership to the club was put through my property abroad as an overseas membership and cost £150 per year.

So for a £2-£3k per year, (including coffee and food during meetings and the odd bottle of wine or whisky afterwards) we had a very serious and prestigious presence in central London.

Orders from Europe went up 400% in less than a year and kept rising year on year after we established the pretence we were also based in one of London best areas.

An address lends trust to your business, especially if its a recognisable London one. Its like a brand, potential customers buy into the address and all the think goes with it.

Still a member of the club, very good value for money and will continue to hold any future meetings in London there

 

[Deleted member 9840]

I have membership at a private members club in Berkeley Square where we used to hold any meetings. Membership to the club was put through my property abroad as an overseas membership and cost £150 per year.

Onmyown, we are hairy arsed air conditioning contractors, trust me, private members clubs in Berkeley Square will not work in my industry.
Unit 4 works just fine and is real.

Steve

 

[onmyown]

Onmyown, we are hairy arsed air conditioning contractors, trust me, private members clubs in Berkeley Square will not work in my industry.
Unit 4 works just fine and is real.

Steve

There is no 'interview' type process for the club. You phone up, say you want personal membership, they tell you how much and thats it. Non formal meetings can be done in the club lounge on the top floor, which 99% of the time i have had a meetings in there, there is no one else there or they have a private dining room thats is very rarely used for lunch and not used at all mid morning, mid afternoon for more private meetings.

So it don't matter if your a hairy arsed contractor as long as your hairy arse isn't on display

 

[AdamJ]

Onmyown, we are hairy arsed air conditioning contractors, trust me, private members clubs in Berkeley Square will not work in my industry.
Unit 4 works just fine and is real.

Steve

Just wait until their aircon breaks, then they'll be begging you to come into their club.

 

[thekitchendesigner]

Survey done.

I started working from home when i was employed, as my job was in London and is was about 120 miles away. That was about 8 years ago. I did 2 years like that, then became self employed and worked from home - have done ever since.

I started in the 'box room' and then when little one came along, had 3/4 of the garage converted into an office, which i'm in now. However, after 8 years of working from home in some way shape or form, i'm after a change.

I'll shortly be setting up a studio locally for me to work in most of the week, but still work from home a couple of afternoons a week

As its only round the corner i wont have a painful commute which is nice. Quite looking forward to it really, hopefully a nice mix of the 2!

 

[hammerbpcc]

I will be shortly be starting up a property lettings business from home, in some respects really looking forward to not commuting (4 hours a day at present) but I am worried about self motivation with so many distractions. Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[onmyown]

but I am worried about self motivation with so many distractions. Any advise would be appreciated.

Please don't take this the wrong way and im not being rude at all, but if your starting a business from nothing and you think you might have motivation issues and might get distracted working from home, then should y really be starting your own business.

Starting a business and making it successful and profitable should be all the motivation you need to make sure what gets done gets done. If your not 100% commited to your venture, then its unlikely to succeed and the money you put into it will be gone.

 

[C.Pearse]

Our office is only about five minutes from home down a rural lane which I find is close enough not to be a hassle to nip over there and back, but far enough away to make you think "do I really need to go and do this or can it wait" in the evenings or at the weekend.

This for me is another good point.

A lot of things could wait until the next day but I've lost count of the amount of times I've got out of bed and switched the computer back on because something was either bugging me or I just wanted to get it done because I could do so there and then!

It would be a different story if I had to leave the house and go to the office!

 

[shaunb]

i work from home, but really need a unit or a retail premisis. My bedroom, and spare room are full of my stock and its getting out of hand, but i dont want the expense of getting my own business premisis. Been looking round £50/week for a unit or £90ish a week for retail. Not just at the minute though, with the worlds financial situation and all lol.

 

[SamSplit2]

Benefits for me of not now having an office (or business actually)

1) No getting up early
2) No commute (so no travel or Petrol Costs and no rush hour traffic)
3) Better, more comfortable environment to work in
etc...

And importantly; no office politics!! One of the biggest wastes of staff time & resources - feeding the grapevine.

Working from home is the way to go.

Unless you HAVE to have visiting clients, but you could always utilise hired meeting rooms.

 

[debbidoo]

I work from home, and I love it!

We turned our box room into an office (what am I saying, "we"? I did most of the work - Mr Doo just turned up and admired my paintwork! ) so I have a lovely dedicated work space with nice furniture, a decent office chair, and everything I could possibly need within a few feet (even the loo, which is the next room).

I fall out of bed and into the office, generally working from 8am 'til 8pm when Mr Doo's rumbling stomach reminds me it's time to cook. After dinner I usually sit with the laptop in front of the telly for the rest of the evening.

I don't generally get distracted by anything (apart from UKBF ) - sod the housework; I'm not a housewife, I have a home office Lunch breaks? What are they? Lunch for me is usually a bowl of ready brek while I work, except on Wednesdays when it's leftover curry (I usually cook a home made madras on Tuesday nights).

Best of all, is that when I got my two kittens in June, I was here to care for them and play with them, and watch them grow up. They're strapping young men now and total mummy's boys - being at home has made bonding with them so much easier. One or the other of them, or my older cat, is usually to be found on my lap or wrapped round my neck at any given time of the day, and I wouldn't swap that for the world

And if I need to have meetings... well, there's Galeri in Caernarfon, which has a lovely coffee bar, or up in Bangor on the business park where I used to work, there's a lovely multi-unit building that rents out meeting rooms for something daft like £10 for half a day.

Working from home rules

 

[debbidoo]

Duplicate post - sorry

 

[edmondscommerce]

You can get any business address you want for around £200 per year. The business i just sold was based in West Yorkshire, but we had 'virtual offices' in London. Berkeley Square no less, which cost about £500 per year including all the mail that was sent there being forwarded on to Yorks.
[...]
Orders from Europe went up 400% in less than a year and kept rising year on year after we established the pretence we were also based in one of London best areas.

An address lends trust to your business, especially if its a recognisable London one. Its like a brand, potential customers buy into the address and all the think goes with it.

Still a member of the club, very good value for money and will continue to hold any future meetings in London there

wow what an ace idea

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I'm another for renting an office -

1. As an accountant I found that having an office attracts more clients and more referrals.

2. It can be easier to have an office for meetings.

3. I like the idea of working away from home and coming home leaving work behind.

I also very much take Jenni's point about the security issues of meeting people away from the office.

 

[faststaff]

Serviced offices for me. I've just moved from a place in Bury, which was excellent, to a new place in Cleckheaton, where I also live. I can still do the falling out of bed, into the office bit, but I don't have the hassle of the M62 every morning! It also means I'm close enough to nip in for an hour or two over the weekend.

I couldn't work from home again, as I will always find some work to do at the daftest time! Also, paperwork encroaching on living space I hear is classed as reasonable grounds for "unreasonable behaviour" on divorce papers!

The place in Cleckheaton that I'm at now does have some availability and is good value, so if anyone wants any info, please shout. It's at BD19 5DN

 

[i234i]

I dont work from home for the pure fact that its a Music studio. So thats really out of the question.

Dont think it would work in the spare room

 

[edbk1203]

I used to work from home.

We had our first child.

I "moved out" (business wise) and I rented an office.

We had our second child.

Could no longer really afford the office.

Now I work from home again.


Now... unless I was going to expand the company and take staff on (it's just myself at the moment) I wouldn't even entertain an office again.

Granted, probably like most people who work from home, I'll regularly say things like "I'm just going to check my emails, I'll be back in 10 minutes" only to return 3 hours later! But I really enjoy the flexibility that working from home affords me, moreso than I enjoyed being sat in an office on my own all day.

 

[edbk1203]

I will be shortly be starting up a property lettings business from home, in some respects really looking forward to not commuting (4 hours a day at present) but I am worried about self motivation with so many distractions. Any advise would be appreciated.

I had similar concerns when I first started working from home back in 2000, didn't have kids then and my wife was out teaching all day... I'd be left in a house on my own working on my computer that also had various games installed on it (from before I took the plunge and started working for myself), my games console and large screen TV in the lounge, DVD's galore etc etc... how on earth was I going to get any work done whatsoever?

I'd be lying if I said I was never distracted by those things and didn't write off the odd day or two... I'd also be lying if I said that some days I didn't think "I can't be arsed working today"... but all in all as another forum member put it, the motivation to earn money and be successful should be paramount and the only advice I can give you is to be really quite strict with yourself...

It may sound daft but it worked for me... set yourself targets and rewards etc - E.g. if you're easily distracted by something in particular - E.g. PS3, Xbox, or you just want to sit in the garden and enjoy the uk weather - then set yourself a target of selling/making/achieving so many/much (as applicable to your business) and reward yourself with X number of minutes doing whatever it is that you would "prefer" to be doing. You could even bank up your rewards to earn an afternoon/morning off etc

However by the same token, penalise yourself for not achieving your targets, E.g. if you're banking up your time from rewards, deduct time from it if you fail to achieve your target.

If you're as easily distracted as I was, it will be difficult at first but it soon becomes complete second nature and you'll soon find the rewards etc fall by the wayside as you concentrate moreso on the buzz you get from achieving those targets.


Incidentally I've now got two businesses, I run both from home, whilst one is considerably more successful than the other they're comparatively successful in their own right... I still have the odd day when I just can't be bothered and I take some time out, but days like those are very few and far between.


Be strict with yourself and stick with it... you'll get there in the end.