Do you have an office?

[Zachary McClung]

I just recently moved into our new office. I was interested how many of you worked from an office? How large your office is? Do you have pictures? I'll be uploading pictures tomorrow when I am there.

 

[handsonhosting]

I've been toying with the idea along with a web design buddy of mine. The main reason to move to an office would be for local exposure and to help him grow his design business.

For the past 15 years I've worked out of home offices, and all my employees do the same too. It keeps costs WAY down for the end user and that usually means more business.

Also, one of the things I focused on years ago was hiring females WITH kids. The reason was that they HAD to be home with their kids to take care of things, and when they're 4-24 months there's a LOT of nap time. It was an easy way for employees to work from home, still be able to take care of their kids, and make a few extra dollars rather than sitting around. Worked out well for us.

Personally, I like rolling out of bed and heading downstairs to the basement to work (or to the deck with a notebook). Getting in a car to drive accross town to a shop means I actually WASTE time since all I'm doing is telecomuting to the web anyway

 

[Zachary McClung]

I've been toying with the idea along with a web design buddy of mine. The main reason to move to an office would be for local exposure and to help him grow his design business.

For the past 15 years I've worked out of home offices, and all my employees do the same too. It keeps costs WAY down for the end user and that usually means more business.

Also, one of the things I focused on years ago was hiring females WITH kids. The reason was that they HAD to be home with their kids to take care of things, and when they're 4-24 months there's a LOT of nap time. It was an easy way for employees to work from home, still be able to take care of their kids, and make a few extra dollars rather than sitting around. Worked out well for us.

Personally, I like rolling out of bed and heading downstairs to the basement to work (or to the deck with a notebook). Getting in a car to drive accross town to a shop means I actually WASTE time since all I'm doing is telecomuting to the web anyway

I had the same thoughts about why do I need to spend money when I have a home office. I did it just to try it and I really like it. At home I find there is to many distractions. There is Oreo my 9 month old puppy, 6,000 TV channels filling your brain with crap, and what ever life throws your way.

 

[handsonhosting]

That's where discipline comes in.

When I'm working, I'm working. I have 3 TVs that stay on here in the basement (CNN, FOX and Weather) so that I can keep up on any events happening around the world that could affect web usage, or weather events that could hamper internet speeds.

Distractions are tough, especially when it comes to a puppy (I have a 12 month old St. Bernard), family, kids, wife etc... Even my friends don't call during work hours, if they do, they better have good reason

I *DO* however, on a regular basis, get up, take a shower, get dressed in work attire and "GO" to work (downstairs and shut the door). This puts me in the work mode when I need that motivation

But then there's times like now, where it's 11:30pm and I'm still "working" and have been at this desk for the past 4 hours.

Fingers crossed on the move though. Hopefully you'll be able to pick up some extra local business by having a face in front of them.

 

[Zachary McClung]

Conor:

Yes and discipline is dangerous because that means there is sponsors who are spending their advertising budgets with me.

You and I have similiar work problems. I have been sitting here since about 8:00 am with some breaks and watching the Cardinals beat the Braves tonight. However, my work day usually consist of anywhere between 12 - 16 hour days.

We do not do anything with local business. I am no longer in the web hosting industry as far as sales go. We do small and medium sized web hosting sales consulting and then do the virtual conferences. There is not a local presense needed.

However, I have noticed that our consulting clients with the office have been more happy and so have potiential sponsors. I guess people figure if you have a physical location your less likely to run off.

 

[handsonhosting]

Yeah, gotta love the sponsors though. But just think, then you get to take a break for a week (or two maybe) before you have to start the next promotion

Work day is about the same, but we'd not trade it for anything else! If I wasn't doing 14+ hour days I wouldn't know what to do with myself. And unless the girlfriend has the weekend off, I just drag my feet around here hoping SOMEONE will come into Live Chat and need help

Didn't know you were not still in the business as such. Not sure how much a brick and mortor store would help other than maybe being able to bring in some other consultants and you'd be able to babysit from a single location instead of via the web. That was one thing that went through my mind here.

Having a physical address etc I can see how that would build trust with sponsors etc. Need to get that consulting website online hehe

 

[Zachary McClung]

But just think, then you get to take a break for a week (or two maybe) before you have to start the next promotion

It was my birthday today. My plan was to hide and look what that ended up doing. I ended up working anyway. You think I'm going to take a week or two off. You have a better chance of winning the letto.

Work day is about the same, but we'd not trade it for anything else! If I wasn't doing 14+ hour days I wouldn't know what to do with myself. And unless the girlfriend has the weekend off, I just drag my feet around here hoping SOMEONE will come into Live Chat and need help

I know, my consulting contracts are usually for Monday - Friday. I usually find something to do for clients on the weekend. Its a better alternative than doing yard work.

Didn't know you were not still in the business as such. Not sure how much a brick and mortor store would help other than maybe being able to bring in some other consultants and you'd be able to babysit from a single location instead of via the web. That was one thing that went through my mind here.

Nah! They can babysit themselves from their own office.

Having a physical address etc I can see how that would build trust with sponsors etc. Need to get that consulting website online hehe

The sales and marketing consulting service is only to select clients. If I was to have a hosting company come up tomorrow and say will you consult us. It would take a long process to make a determination of yes. There is a group of consulting clients we want. Its not the general reseller. It is one who understands value, niche, and what a consultant can help you accomplish. I'm not out of the industry 100%. I still have ~ 7 boxes in Chicago, New York, and Seattle. There was clients who would not go with the sale when I sold the clients back in July of 08. So, almost a year later they still will not leave. I guess that is a good problem to have.

 

[romes]

I am toying with the idea of getting an office, but like handsonhosting said, right now working from home is keeping costs low. All my staf work from home, as do I and it is great so far. Also, like handsonhosting said, waking up and going to my desktop or in my living room with my laptop feels good.


But, who knows...I like the idea of having an office and having an office would help build trust with some of the local businesses around me.

 

[Zachary McClung]

I am toying with the idea of getting an office, but like handsonhosting said, right now working from home is keeping costs low. All my staf work from home, as do I and it is great so far. Also, like handsonhosting said, waking up and going to my desktop or in my living room with my laptop feels good.


But, who knows...I like the idea of having an office and having an office would help build trust with some of the local businesses around me.

Around here the cost of a small office is small compared to the additional business you could gain by running a local version of your web hosting company. A small hosting package locally still runs $20.00 - 25.00/month. Most of the users expect support between 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Monday thru Friday. In our case, we could sell 25 hosting accounts and make up the epense. In addition, you have a large opportunity to sell high profit design jobs locally. You can outsource them and still make $500.00 each. There is something to be said for having a local presense vs. a web only. YOu just have to know and have the experience to take advantage of it.

 

[siforek]

I've always worked from my home office, though I plan to move to a leased office in the near future. It does keep costs down, and in my area development & hosting exposure doesn't seem to be a high demand, so exposure isn't as much as a priority. The main advantages of the soon to be office would be a place to meet with local clients & even more discipline. Discipline is tricky business when working any schedule you want from home, and one that I still struggle with from time to time even now.

 

[SenseiSteve]

Actually, I'm in a much different position. We have multiple offices in 3 separate data centers, owning one lock, stock and barrel - with long term leases on the remaining two. I'm normally at the office 8:30-5:30 M-F, but do work from home on occasion. My office is in one of our Network Operations Centers with 5 big screen displays across one wall.

 

[Zachary McClung]

Actually, I'm in a much different position. We have multiple offices in 3 separate data centers, owning one lock, stock and barrel - with long term leases on the remaining two. I'm normally at the office 8:30-5:30 M-F, but do work from home on occasion. My office is in one of our Network Operations Centers with 5 big screen displays across one wall.

Steve:

Would you say that you are more productive watching five big screen displays are the one or two you have at your home? Colocating and doing dedicated servers to the extent you do probably puts you in a different situation especially since most of your customers I'm assuming coming from the St. Lious area.

All our clients who have 300+ servers have moved into an office near their colo or in their owned datacenter.

 

[HammerHost]

I have an home based office. I had a house built last year, so I was able to actually build an office onto my house rather than just using a spare room. paying to build an office to me would have been cheaper than to rent one out.

 

[SenseiSteve]

Steve:

Would you say that you are more productive watching five big screen displays are the one or two you have at your home? Colocating and doing dedicated servers to the extent you do probably puts you in a different situation especially since most of your customers I'm assuming coming from the St. Lious area.

All our clients who have 300+ servers have moved into an office near their colo or in their owned datacenter.

Actually, I have two technicians with me in this NOC at all times, so it's a team effort. And yes, we do host a lot of clients from the Midwest, but have grown over the past ten years to host clients from all over the world. I've been receiving a lot of requests recently from New York and Oregon, mostly based on price.

 

[Exa_Ankur]

A home office is just great.
I wouldn't move to a regular office unless I have to - the commute is an unnecessary waste of time.
Besides, it lets me spend time with my son.

 

[csn-uk]

I personally have a home office from which most operations are run both for CSN-UK and an offline business, the offline business obviously has a head office however we have a direct line to my home office, we currently have 3x 42” HD monitors and 103” HD TV connected up to a work horse of a pc as well as a number of backup servers and another 3 pc’s, for securities sake we run a redundant server firewall both in the office and at home obviously both are monitored by CCTV, biometric locks and alarms.

Only thing id particularly desire would be a dedicated optical fibre line but I think that’s dreaming a tad too much for a residential property. I also know a number of programmers that also work from home with similar setups which inspired this config who are local (walking distance) which is always a bonus.

 

[Zachary McClung]

When I started this thread I did not expect the response I received. I remember when on Web Hosting Talk I started 7 years ago how it is so important to have this, this, and this. Web Hosting Talk is a rough group on some areas I know.

When I started to do some digging when it came to our close vendors I did not realize how many of them worked from home as well.

When you start in the industry and try to make everyone happy you tend to care more.

I do appreciate all your feedback and it has strongly made me consider whether the additional expense is really worth it.