Keep Your Home Office - or Move Out?

How do you know if working from home is working for you?  The answer is a simple question:  Are you achieving your business goals and personal goals?

A friend of mine we’ll call Anthony is exceeding his business and personal goals by working from home.  It’s simple he tells me; I had to create the conditions for success in 3 areas in order to achieve my goals:

  1. Family boundary.   Anthony’s personal goal was to have more time with his wife and children.  He’s an involved father and if he could work at home, he would be able to add hours of involvement with his family each week.  However, he needed to create physical space so he and his family weren’t as tempted to shift attention from his planned weekly work focus.  He built an office over the garage which works perfectly to that end.
  2. Client engagement.  Anthony is a CPA in a rural area and has established a large customer base.  They like the experience of meeting at his home office and avoiding a drive to the city.  His business fits his clients well; it’s strong and still growing.
  3. Personal motivation.  Anthony is a quiet soul who enjoys working at his rural home.  He loves the rural culture, values his reputation there and loves doing business with local people he sees at school events, the local store, and local diner.  I can tell his approach really motivates him.

Now my friend Gemma is another story – her home office frustrated her.  She felt pulled away from work by her family, her clients didn’t seem keen on meeting in her home office, and she found herself working on home chores in the middle of the day when she needed to be catching up on paperwork.  She decided she needed to change her office situation.  She is a therapist and joined up with a couple colleagues to open an office suite in a local commercial building.  Family life is now more organized since she’s on an “away schedule”, she loves being in town around all the conveniences and other businesses, her clients prefer coming to offices in town vs. the neighborhood, and she is overall more motivated in this environment.  Her business has picked up and she is continuing to add clients.  Unfortunately for Gemma, she is unhappy with downsides: She and her partners had to sign a 5-year commercial lease with added utilities and other costs.  It is more expensive than they imagined and more involved than they imagined; they had to buy furniture, equip a small kitchen, hire a cleaning service, get more commercial insurance, and . . . they needed to hire a receptionist.  What a pain!  

What Gemma didn’t realize is there are flexible co-working spaces and office suites that are turn-key, affordable, flexible, scalable up and down, provide access to receptionists, office managers and schedulable conference rooms among other services.  These co-working locations vary in look and feel and there are a variety to choose from in most cities.  In fact, there is a nice one only a couple miles from her home.

Office Evolution Nashville

At Office Evolution Nashville, we understand the unique challenges of being an entrepreneur, and we have designed our services to meet the flexibility needs of today’s entrepreuners. Our Virtual Office plans range from a business address, to meeting spaces, to a telephone virtual receptionist providing the support you need on your entrepreneurial journey.

We also offer the ideal combination of a Co-working Community and wide range of Executive Suites.  If you need a place on the west side of Nashville with free parking, secure high speed internet and some great food venues next door, come to our location in “The Nations” at the Stocking 51 development on the corner of 51st and Centennial.  This location is just west of I-440 and only 5 minutes from West End Avenue or 5 minutes from White Bridge Road.  Office Evolution franchise locations combine the engagement of local owners with the strength and consistency of a national brand. 

Contact us today for a tour!

Nashville.TN@officeevolution.com  629-255-4444