Early this year, I got myself a real office, bought some furniture and computer hardware, built a small team, and took my “home based” business to the next level. It cost me a bomb but have never regretted it - and I’ll tell you why.
A lot of people since have asked me why I no longer work from home. It’s a choice I made based on several compelling reasons. Keep in mind that I have been working from home full time for about two years before making the leap. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with working from home – don’t panic if you’re home based!
My reasons are pretty simple actually:
- I wanted to build a team – I want to build a team of people, and it wasn’t possible to do that from home. I was working one year by myself, then I had some part time team members and eventually now I have two full-time team members. This is my most important reason for starting an office.
- I was losing concentration – It’s pretty easy to push yourself forward when you’re “working in your underwear” so to speak. Money was no longer an issue and I was getting pretty lazy with a lot of other distractions on my mind. Productivity was going down the drain. Working at home can get pretty lonely sometimes too.
- My offline business needs – I’m also into a lot of offline events this year including my coaching sessions in Malaysia. I also published a book so it would make more sense for my customers to have an office address they can mail to and drop by, just in case they needed some help. I used to stay at home a lot because it took a lot of will power to get dressed and go out (for work purposes) but now I have better access to most companies I need to deal with for my business, and I’m also ready to just get in my car and drop by their location if need be.
I still do work from home, but rarely. I’m currently living in a rented apartment which is pretty uncomfortable to work in. Plus the TV is only a few steps away. However, I’ve already bought a new apartment which I’ll be moving into early next year. In that apartment I will re-create my working space so that I can work from both my office, and at home too.
There was this strong connection to working from home, especially when I teach people how to make money online while working from home. That’s exactly what I did too till December 2007 and I was already making a stable five-figure income from the Internet by then. But my journey isn’t complete and this is the route I must take.
Who knows what the ultimate destination may be? It might bring me to a different country, it may even bring me back to my home office.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah Gobala,
Working in an office give you feeling of responsibility and sometimes give you just the right dose of motivation to get up every morning and do something with your life for your business. (people may not realise this, but we can get tired of doing nothing, not to mention will lose a few screw on the head in the process)
Maybe one day, we Internet Marketer can pool our resources and rent a real nice big office near public transport (like a virtual office but not shared with hundred others or incubator). Everybody have their own section of the office where we can beside working on our business, helping each other.
Helping for what?
Helping to ensure that the staff do come in on time and not ponteng2. Especially if the bosses are away on a spontaneous vacation or when we “really2x” need to train the staff to do something simple that they supposed to know but don’t know. Training them in a bunch save precious time than handholding them one by one.
Plus, it will help the staff to get a “real” office ambience so that they can have a lot of colleague of their own. (although different department)
I am not sure about your staffs Gobala, doesn’t try to scare you.
Good luck and all the best!
Sabri
Congratulation again! You have built your real business now! I can see your income growing fast, coming to 7 figures very soon.
To your success!
“I was losing concentration” — i can feel the pain too, especially when I am living with family and do not have own room(office).
Yeah a lot of people have talked about that idea, but no one done it yet. Yes I guess it can be lonely as well unless you have more than 10 people or so working with you.
i guess many people lose their momentum and concentration. So far, just go out and have fun. Then, go back to your work.
if you lost your concentration…. get a vacation.:) hehehe… you are goping bigger… for sure you need a office…
now you give me more confident about working at home and i think still more malaysian don’t believe about it
i agree with you hajib because thats why i did. go to beach. It can help you when you see something beautiful.
Vacations are short term solutions, I take vacations too but it’s not a long term alternative for lack of concentration.
I believe another reason we lose focus right now is bad mood of economy….people start to think what other possible stuff to work on…..well this should be the time that the filtering system work. If we could overcome this then we should able to move further on. Gobala, I believe you can.
Congratulation…Yes agreed, Ithink we will nlost the focus nad concentration when we “work” at home
Thats so cool, I need to do that, I get to distracted at home…. I may look into that, cost and such, long run would be worth it im sure.