Moving into your first office

Mr_futuristic

Looking for peoples stories on their first move to a new office premises for the first time.

For those who started their businesses from scratch, firstly, congratulations on doing so, I am in the process of getting our first client, and only now do i understand how tough it is. wow!

We're in the process of finding the right office for us (theres only 3 of us at the moment), and allocating job roles. It's a domestic & office cleaning company by the way.

So yeah, just looking for different stories and experiences from people.

What made you move to an office?
What was your main priorities when considering the move?
What was your budget?
How many staff did you have to begin?
What plans/ arrangements did you make prior to the move?
How did you let potential clients know of the move? (we're thinking of hosting an event.)
How did you allocate roles if you were the owner/ partner?

I tried searching on google for others who may have been in the same situation, but no luck

Look forward to all the responses :P

cavework

Hi,
Can I ask why you feel you need an office?

cavework

Who is going to visit your office?
You have one potential client and you are already eating into your 'potential' profit by setting up an office?
Your potential clients will contact you by phone and to be quite honest they won't care where you are based .. flashy office or at home in the kitchen as long as you can provide an excellent service.
In fact your office may be a put off because they will associate this with higher overheads for you so higher prices for them.

paddyrg

I would look at lockups for the cleaning kit/vans, and after a while you can get a light industrial unit - but do not spend money before earning it, you do not need an office for showing off to clients for a cleaning company!

cavework

You can run your staff from their home address if you supply a kit, van, mobile phone etc.
You really do not need units , offices or anything that digs into your profit margin.

Slinky

Ditto the advice about offices.

Also, consider NOW what your pricing plan will be when you hit the VAT threshhold for turnover if you do a lot of domestic work. I have a cleaning customer who is just reaching this level, and it's going to cause him all sorts of problems with his domestic customers who probably aren't going to be willing to pay an extra 20% VAT.

seismicryan

This is a great topic.

I started my own business a couple of years ago and it is going well. I had originally hoped to be looking at getting an office this year, but we are still not quite there yet.

I started looking into it more recently, and felt it really wasnt worth it. Other than providing a common place for us to work and some storage, there is no financial benefit in getting an office, so I will be putting it off for another while!

Ryan

heretolearn_2

put it off as long as possible as it increases your overheads so much, and I can't see much need for a small start up with one client.

Is there any need to meet clients on your own premises instead of theirs?
The three of you - do you need three 'managers' sitting in an office for a small start-up? Do you even need one sitting in an office full time? Can you work from home - all at your own homes or is there one of you with a room you can all use? We started two businesses at home, and even had 3 members of staff working there with us, luckily we had 2 spare rooms and a loo that were separate from the 'home' part of the house, but I also know people who set up from a corner of their living room/dining room/conservatory etc.
Even if you are all in separate houses with modern technology it doesn't make any difference. ME and OH frequently work from home, we can connect to the work server from there, we are available by phone/email, no probs. The business phone line can have a divert to any number for whoever is on receptionist duty that day.