Retail vs Office (building)

[Your PCMD]

Last year (summer) I closed my retail shop and moved headquarters to a building at my house. I however was making more than enough to afford the building at $1000/mo. The reason why I closed it was that I nor my techs were hardly there as my business is primarily mobile. So I felt that I was throwing money away.

Fast forward to now. I am looking at moving again. This time however, to just an office. Its only 160 sq.ft but plenty big enough to do what needs to be done. It is located on the busiest street in the city so exposure will be wonderful. The cost? Just $150/mo plus my normal $95/mo for the phone and 50 meg internet.

It's a far cry from the 1,500 sq.ft building I once had. However, its the perfect size for having just 1 tech and a workbench. I plan on painting, changing light, putting up a wall and building a counter. Already priced it out at less than $350. I struck a deal with the landlord at getting the 1st 30 days free and paying 5 months in advance.

So, what do you think?

 

[mikeroq]

Looks small! $150/month sounds cheap! Congrats.

 

[Your PCMD]

Looks small! $150/month sounds cheap! Congrats.

Yup, it is small, but the tall 10ft ceilings make it look smaller then it is. Its just an office. The counter thats there will serve as the workbench once I remove the sink and cap the plumbing off. Once I get it all done, I'll post more photos.

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

My second location was 120 sq ft. You can for sure make it work, aside from physical location, I loved my small office. Good to hear! make sure to do before/during/after pics!

 

[Archon Prime]

That's plenty of room. You don't need anything bigger, especially if you aren't doing retail (or too much of it anyway). i'm anxiously looking forward to the finished product.

 

[timeshifter]

You can fit a lot of mining rigs in 160 sq ft. Electricity included?

 

[GTP]

Is it airconditioned? Might get warm in there with several computers running...just sayin...

 

[sapphirescales]

It's a dump. You can fix it up all you want, but if that's how they allow their office building to get, I certainly wouldn't want to meet clients there as it will give the wrong impression. On the other hand if it's just a place for you to work and you don't plan to meet anyone there, then who cares? Get something cheap like this.

 

[Archon Prime]

It's a dump

I mean, it's probably not the same as @sapphirescales ' Trump tower office, but it's decent if it works for him.

 

[CLC]

If it works for you and you need another space you can't beat the price! I am wondering why you can't use the building at your house though?

 

[microtech]

Is it airconditioned? Might get warm in there with several computers running...just sayin...

It's Texas, it better be air conditioned

 

[Porthos]

It's Texas, it better be air conditioned

Amen, Neighbor.

 

[cypress]

Definitely excited to see the After pictures. Congrats!

 

[DataMedics]

Perception means a lot if you plan to have customers meet you there for a first time ever.

I think this comment is very true:

It's a dump. You can fix it up all you want, but if that's how they allow their office building to get, I certainly wouldn't want to meet clients there as it will give the wrong impression.

What I do could honestly be done in my basement, heck my basement is probably bigger than the office space we rent for $800/mo. But, I had virtually zero clients when I was doing this as a side business out of my house. When I moved from a smaller house looking building down the street to this new building I'm in (which is full of lawyers) I saw my sales jump to nearly double almost immediately.

My next move will probably be to a space twice the price and no bigger but in a building like this:


Is it because I need a bigger/better/nicer office...no, not at all. I could happily work out of my basement and the work would be the same. But, I know I can attract more customers and even attract better customers (those willing to pay higher prices) by being in a building where people expect a real professional to work.

But, if you're strictly mobile, maybe it won't matter.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Perception means a lot if you plan to have customers meet you there for a first time ever.

I think this comment is very true:


What I do could honestly be done in my basement, heck my basement is probably bigger than the office space we rent for $800/mo. But, I had virtually zero clients when I was doing this as a side business out of my house. When I moved from a smaller house looking building down the street to this new building I'm in (which is full of lawyers) I saw my sales jump to nearly double almost immediately.

My next move will probably be to a space twice the price and no bigger but in a building like this:
View attachment 8581

Is it because I need a bigger/better/nicer office...no, not at all. I could happily work out of my basement and the work would be the same. But, I know I can attract more customers and even attract better customers (those willing to pay higher prices) by being in a building where people expect a real professional to work.

But, if you're strictly mobile, maybe it won't matter.

Interesting. We do work out of our home office and just had a meeting with a 180 employee business for managed services. They have never seen our office. We were referred to them through a business group. We gave up our retail location just because business owners never came to our office, every one of them wanted us to come to them. I suppose different areas of the country could be different.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We service biz clients only. We generally go to our clients. Sometimes they come to our offices. We have 4x suites on the second floor of a building that in a self storage complex..ya know, those storage units?
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.394386,-72.1622958,208m/data=!3m1!1e3
I drove my blue RAM pickup in the day the earth bird flew over...you can see my truck in the parking lot.

As a 5x people company that's coming on 20 years of business with around 200 active business clients...we do fine without having a donald trump plaza looking office. We don't do retail/residential...so we have zero interest in having foot traffic, walk ins, and paying high $ per sq foot rent for retail. Having 4x office suites, plus a heated storage unit, including electricity (I bet they were sorry they offered THAT to us..LOL..yes we have our server room on that) for around 850/month ..and a kitchen to use....we'll take the rest to the bank!

 

[mikeroq]

I drove my blue RAM pickup in the day the earth bird flew over...you can see my truck in the parking lot

Parked on the stripes....just kidding.

Interesting location. I had no idea places like that had office space.

 

[Porthos]

Parked on the stripes

That looks like a shadow over the stripe. Not the truck.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Parked on the stripes....just kidding.
.

Yup...I take the end, that's also where I park the Harley....(so I'm covering up the oil drip spots )
I sorta "claim" that end spot...several other businesses in the building, but I like taking that end spot so I can park over to the side a bit, and leave plenty of room on my passenger side doors to open the doors all the way and load items like desktop, servers, monitors, my bags of network gear, whatever. I like having that space.

 

[sapphirescales]

I mean, it's probably not the same as @sapphirescales ' Trump tower office, but it's decent if it works for him.

Haha, very funny. You know what I mean though. First impressions are EVERYTHING and if you're working out of a dumpy building you'll scare off anyone that can actually afford to pay to get their computers worked on.

Let me put it this way. I choose a business by three criteria:

1. Online reviews
2. Location (is it in the bad part of town?)
3. The look / professionalism of the building, office, and person I'm doing business with

I'd rather pay twice as much and go with someone with great reviews on the good side of town in a nice building where it looks like they actually give a sh*t about their business and take pride in their work and appearance. A cheap a$$ tightwad client? All they care about is price. They'll brave the heart of the ghetto and go meet their computer tech in an old re-purposed slaughterhouse in order to save $1. I don't target those types of clients.