Should You Rent An Office?
How I made the decision
After awhile, even the sight of my partner was starting to drive me mad.
I love him dearly, truly. But after eight months of sharing a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco day and night— because we both worked from home full time—I was worried. Surely it wasn’t right to be irritated when someone just walked around you?
Like all good decisions, I’d made a pros and cons list. This should be pretty familiar to most of us who’ve considered the question.
Preparing for Takeoff
In the early days of your startup, how do you decide what to do? Basically it all boils down to one of two things: time and money constraints. Early on you have no revenue, are living without income and need to make it last. You’re scared (and if you’re not you’re kidding yourself). So it feels safe to stay at home, and hey, after all, you’re conserving cash, preserving runway, right? Emotionally it also feels safe to work from home, because going out into the world is a bit daunting when you feel the pressure of being a founder for the first time. I did work from the public library periodically, but it did have some downsides in terms of safety, hours, and wi-fi reliability.
Here’s how my decision matrix looked at that point. Notice that I made these pros and cons very specific to my situation. I’ve highlighted in green and red those items that were most important in their respective lists.
As you can see, price and my personal comfort were the key drivers of my decision.
Things Change
Slowly, over time, I started to become aware of things I had never noticed before.
The way my dog insisted on sitting on my lap while I was working. Cute and fun at first, more frustrating as the demands on my time went up.
The way my partner would talk to me during his breaks at work, seemingly unable to notice my headphones and “go away” glare. (He’s been working at home far longer than me).
I started to hear and perceive every tiny noise. To feel trapped, no matter how much I worked out. To cut back on showering and hygiene because, well, who cared, so long as I was shipping product?
As I worked feverishly to ship, I noticed a tendency to drift into working from sunrise until bed time, ignoring the plaintive requests of dog and partner to hang out with them. I couldn’t stick to a schedule, because something would “come up” or the distractions would make it impossible for me to get my list done, so I felt obligated to work through dinner to get stuff done.
Which brings me back to the irritation in my heart as I watched my dear one pace across the room in front of me one.more.time.
I visited my list and was surprised to see it change. My knowledge of my needs evolved, as I had learned first hand about the home option; and my priorities changed as my business grew. It was time to raise money, find advisors, build a team. There was work, much more of it, and many more kinds of it (context switching). Distraction becomes more costly and more intolerable.
At that point, here was the decision matrix.
As you can see, the lists of pros for the office grew, and the lists of cons for working from home also grew. Price was still a factor, but it was starting to be outweighed by a whole host of other issues.
MVP Your Workspace
Clearly it was time to find a new office home. So I focused on finding a space that addressed my biggest needs (pros) and minimized my biggest risks (cons). This allowed me to set the priorities for the new space as possible:
- Walking distance from my house—ensured I’d be likely to use the space as much as possible without extra time/money cost
- Lowest cost/best value—cheaper isn’t always better, but it shouldn’t be extravagant
- Large monitors—huge boost to productivity
- Comfortable seating—will never match my recliner, but should be comfortable.
- Meeting Space—a place I can bring investors, customers, and employees proudly
I did my research, and found several near me that offered free trials, then made it a point to schedule myself to go to them. It was harder than you might guess to get into the habit of getting up, getting dressed and “going to work” than you might remember, but after about a week or so I was fine.
Finding the space so close to my home was the critical move. As a test, I signed up for a month of 24/7 access (vs. 9-6) only and found this much more amenable to my work style. Most days I go into the office for normal business hours, but some days I work only part time from the office; or when a project is due I’ll go into the mostly empty space for half the time on the weekend.
The Payoff
The separation from my partner means lots of stuff to talk about at the end of the day; a clear break between work and home, and even more focus on my part. When I know I have to be home for a dinner at 6, I work like mad so I can get everything done in time to stop working. The increase in productivity paid for itself in just a few days.
Coworking spaces, I have come to find out, are the best parts of offices without the distractions.
No one tries to make small talk with you (unless you invite it), and you aren’t required to be “on.” You have all the toys of a big office like laser printers, filtered water, etc, but you don’t have the office politics. So far, it’s been a great move. Now, if I can just get to afford a private office…
Some Suggestions
- If you have the space to work comfortably from a permanent set up at home, do that first, especially if you have it in a quiet space like a basement or separate room. It takes time for the more subtle benefits of coworking to become apparent.
- Find a space close to home. Like a gym, the more accessible it is, the more you will use it.
- Your needs will change; start with what’s best for you but be ready to shift when you need it.
- Keep your options open—do a month to month lease so you can try things out
- Get a locker at your space, especially if you “hot desk.” this enables you to keep your laptop stand, keyboard, mouse, water bottle, favorite snacks, etc right there without having to haul back and forth each day.
- If you can, select a space with multiple offices. My facility has multiple spots in the city, the east bay, and the peninsula, making it easy to have meetings or stop in after a meeting, thus preserving precious productive time otherwise wasted in travel.
- Invest in a great pair of noise cancelling headphones. I love these since they don’t take up a lot of space in my bag. Bonus: great for conference calls on the fly from your desk.
- Get to know some of your co-working partners, because you never know where your next opportunity will stem. But avoid over socializing, because you are there to work.
How did you make the decision? What are your best tips? Put them in the comments and I’ll publish them. Or send me a link to your best blog posts and I’ll add them to the resources below.
