21–30 of 34 posts
"cheap or creative?" Both. Take the cheaper space and make it creative cheaply. There's lots of ways to do this (beyond my expertise). Home Depot and Ikea are your friends.
Is it in the realm of possibilities that you can buy a bigger house with more bedrooms and then convert them into office space? That's what lots of folks do... There are many, many advantages of doing so. You mentioned you needed to bring clients and investors to the office. As someone said, investors often like to see the bootstrapper be creative so you'll get bonus points. Some clients will be put off; others will…
Do you even need a space at all? Do you need employees in the same office or could you all work from home (we ditched out office and work in this way and meet up once a week).
The final suggestion is to look for an apartment or house that you can rent or purchase and use that.
http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/poor-wor... "even simple things such as good lighting and having adequate daylight can reduce absenteeism by 15 per cent and increase productivity by between 2.8 per cent and 20 per cent."
http://www.cabe.org.uk/default.aspx?contentitemid=659&fi... "In a 2003 survey by Management Today magazine, virtually all (94 per cent) of those responding said that they regarded their place of work as a symbol of whether or not they were valued by their employer. Yet only 39 per cent thought that their offices had been designed ‘with people in mind’; and in another study no less than a third said that they were too ashamed of their offices to bring back colleagues or clients."
So I second those who say you should take the opportunity to be creative with the dull space and make it your own :-)
I heard this quote somewhere: Run your startup like a one story whorehouse.
It was mentioned by a VC who has seen many startups come and go. Not to say they are the final word, but I think its very true.
There are no "creative spaces" only creative people. Reminds me of the Mac vs. PC creative work argument. Find good people and they won't care if they work in a cool trendy "loft" in San Fran or a boring grey cubicle in a converted strip mall in Idaho. My workspace is exactly the size of two 19" LCD monitors.
Likely there are a whole suite of variables associated with a physical space that have an effect on thinking.
Yay for good architecture and design!
"cheap or creative?" Both. Take the cheaper space and make it creative cheaply. There's lots of ways to do this (beyond my expertise). Home Depot and Ikea are your friends.
Is it in the realm of possibilities that you can buy a bigger house with more bedrooms and then convert them into office space? That's what lots of folks do... There are many, many advantages of doing so. You mentioned you needed to bring clients and investors to the office. As someone said, investors often like to see the bootstrapper be creative so you'll get bonus points. Some clients will be put off; others will…
Be careful about zoning laws, though. Many houses are zoned solely for residential use and cannot be used for commercial offices. I am not a fan of zoning laws, but as a company executive you should be aware that converting spaces is full of legal pitfalls.