Thinking About Office Space

Office space has been on my mind lately (not Office Space as in the movie but office space as in location/real estate - though the movie is fantastic and perhaps should be added to my NetFlix list just so that I can watch it for the laughs). To first explain - I do rent workspace for 15hrs a week but it's actual "work" space and not so much really office space. For example, if I were a carpenter - which sadly I'm not becuase the floors in my house need to be redone - the workspace would be where I kept all my carpenter tools and did all my carpenter work but it's still my dining room table that acts as the administrative, hr, shipping and receiving, accounts receivable, accounts payable, communications-hub. With what I'm hoping is going to be a pretty successful new product launch come May 1st I was thinking that perhaps it would be nice to move just a little bit of that off of the dining room table and into some place other than my house which, while I love it dearly, at 1200sf doesn't have an extra room that can act as as office space other than the dining room table and a small corner of the second bedroom.

The other day my better half and I were driving down near my workspace and I told him that one of these days I was going to rent space in some loft space that's right nearby so that I could be close to the workspace and yet still have the chance to get all the product and packaging inventory out of our small basement. Plus I love loft spaces so I thought it would be enjoyable to go to work there. Then another friend - who also owns a small startup business - and I were talking about how it would be even better if we could get office space in the small little neighborhood that's literally a 5 minute walk from both of us. We could even set up a little retail section to serve all the many many many passersby.

But then today, while working in my workspace, I realized that there is actual office space in that same building that's up for rent. It's not a huge space but it is climate controlled, has it's own door (and windows) and I might be able to talk the landlords into letting me bring the dogs to work with me. On the one hand it would be great to rent it - even if it were just for the month of May and June as I can do monthly - to get this inventory out of my house, do all packaging, shipping, billing, etc there and keep my home as somewhat of a "home" as opposed to a workspace of it's own. But then on the other hand I'm not sure it makes sense to spend the money to rent the space not knowing if this new product is actually going to be a hit or not. I've already spent a fair bit of money getting the packaging ready to go, building a small inventory (which I fret about constantly), and creating a marketing campaign around the launch.

Plus then I remember that the home office has some snazzy new french doors which, as the weather continues to get nicer, I can open and let the dogs play in the backyard while I continue to work from the dining room table doing all that shipping, receiving, billing, etc, etc, etc.