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Do I Need an Office?
4:27 with Paul BoagDon't rush into getting physical office space for your business. You might discover the benefits of a home office outweigh the needs of a central location.
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So another big decision beyond do I hire someone is do I need an office
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and this is probably more of an urgent question
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if you're setting up as free lancer for the first time.
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My advice, don't rush in to getting an office.
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You need to spend a moment thinking what an office actually offers you
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before you rush into getting one.
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It can be a great place for bringing clients
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and that certainly is a huge benefit of having an office.
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It is also good to have a working environment somewhere separate from
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your home life where you can concentrate on work.
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You're looking for somewhere that's free from distractions
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that you have in home life.
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You don't want to be worrying about whether
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you put the laundry on in the middle of the day.
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So there needs to be clear distinction between work and home.
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Lot of the reasons for having an office can also be done at home.
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So there is a real option here to work from home atleast initially in your business.
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For example, although an office is great for bringing clients to
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that's not your only option.
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A lot of clients actually prefer if you make the effort to go to them.
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So having an office isn't necessary as beneficial as it first sounds.
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Secondly, you can save a lot of money from working at home.
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A lot of money that would've been spent on rent and other bills
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and you can spend that money on creating a nice working environment
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with a great office chair and a good desk and a nice monitor.
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In lot of ways, those things are more important
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than the physical room that you're sitting in.
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However, if you do have a home office, you need to make sure there is
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good isolation between home and work, a good separation.
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And that could be something as obvious as a big solid door
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between your office and the rest of the house.
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You want to keep things quiet. You want a nice quiet working environment.
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And if your home doesn't enable that for whatever reason,
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then by all means go and rent yourself an office elsewhere.
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If you are going to have an office at home, you need a good routine
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that separates your work and home life.
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I've seen all kinds of different ways of doing this.
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For example, I know people that at the end of their working day
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will walk out their office and they will lock the door so that they're not tempted
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to go back in later in the night and start working again.
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I know of other people that make it clear to their family that they're going
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to the office by actually putting on a pair of shoes, leaving the house,
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going for a walk, coming back in, going to their office, and working all day.
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And in the end of the day, they repeat that process,
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taking off their work shoes and putting on their slippers.
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However, offices are good in certain situations.
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If you don't have a dedicated place to work from at home,
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that's separate from the families.
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as I say get yourself an office.
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Also, if you're working in a team, you're going to need an office,
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a place where you can come together and work
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but if you do get yourself an office, there are two things to consider.
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First of all, please, please avoid a long term commitment.
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A lot of people sign up to an office for an extended contract
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and then their circumstances changed.
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Maybe they hire more people, maybe they don't need an office anymore.
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So don't sign a long term contract at least not in the early days of your business.
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There are certainly enough places which allow a month's rolling release
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on a contract that there is no need to sign a longer term arrangement.
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Also, consider the hidden costs.
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With the office that you hire, there maybe all kinds of
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additional cost that you need to consider.
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For example, there might be rent or rates that you weren't initially aware of.
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You might have to pay utility bills for things like Internet access,
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telecommunications and in some situations, you even
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need to pay money to access a separate meeting room.
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So, what's the summary here?
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The summary is having a home office is a good place to start
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but as you grow as a business as you take more members of staff,
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you may want to eventually consider getting yourself a permanent office.
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