I just moved into my first real office. I've always wondered what the true legitimacy is of home-based businesses. We all know of the kind where you are supposed to stuff envelopes and make like 50 cents per envelope, but I'm talking about people running real businesses out of their homes. I've been in meetings and meantioned other consultants that I use and gotten snide remarks like, "I wouldn't use him. He works out of his house." Sometimes I understand that rationalle, and other times it's total bull crap. We all have to start somewhere and not all of us want to get a $20,000 loan just to set up shop and pay $1200 a month for "legitimate" office space. Now for me it was a finaicial issue to start with but also a baby issue. When you're pregnant the last thing you want to do is commit to being somewhere everyday at a certain time and wearing clothes that look somewhat presentable. Most of the time while I have been pregnant I've had 1 maybe 2 pairs of pants that fit at any given time and those are usually ugly maternity jeans, or cargo pants. Not exactly the thing to wear when meeting new clients. So the at-home office was great for me. I appeared to be working at all times of the day, when usually I was just sitting on the couch watching a baby story and trying not to think about what I was going to have to make for dinner. But if the phone rang I was "in my office". Meetings were usually held at the job site or at the closest coffee shop if the weather was bad. Clients don't usually seem to mind this because they think you are coming to them and they see it as a concession that you are making for them and not usually an inconvenience. After the baby was born and I was attached to the house it worked really well too, but only when she was napping. It's really hard when you are desperate for some new projects and you have to just let the phone ring and not answer it because you just know that as soon as you do the baby will launch into the loudest most obnoxious cry and scare any potential client away.
But now that she is a year old and it's summer and no one has been sick with the flu in months, it seemed like the perfect time to make the move into a real office. I've always wanted one, if not just for the opportunity to say, " Come meet me at my office and we'll talk" and not meaning my little cramped home office that doubles as our photomat and library, but a real office with a conference table and multiple phone lines. Plus this is my first built project in the City of Flagstaff and I was kind of proud of it and it makes really great advertising when people come by and ask what projects I've done and I can point to the floor and say This One.
Now the big problem with not having a home office anymore and having three kids is that now I’m never home to clean the house. It used to be such a great distraction to be able to say I' can't draw this now, I've got to vacuum the stairs. That is so way more important than doing that roof detail. My house used to be so clean and now it's a mess of goldfish crumbs and fluffly white cat hair.
I've yet to notice if people take me more seriously than they used too. My signage isn't out front yet and that was supposed to be the thing that's really supposed to draw in some new high profile clients and projects