Tip From An Entrepreneur - Get An Office

One of the most important lessons I learned the hard way is that if there are two or more of you in an organization, get an office. Here's why:

One of the most important lessons I learned the hard way is that if you have at least one employee or there are two or more of you in an organization, that an office is a requirement. There are business incubators that offer a variety of office packages, including a single office, with a phone, and that will give you a mailing address.

Reasons You Need to Get an Office:

Accountability – You will have a much better idea of how long people are working, and what they’re up to. If you don’t see people in the office, then they could be out on calls with clients, or they could just be not working at all, but do you know which it is? Having an office makes it much easier to tell. Got an employee routinely coming in late, and leaving super early? How will you know if they’re working from home? How do you know if the time that they are working is the least bit productive?
Team Building – Have you ever had a team that was located all over the place, and no-one in the same building? Was it terribly hard to work together? I believe that humans need to be face to face to work together optimally. Otherwise, you will have mistrust, and miscommunication. To get people to come together, you have to get them together. We noticed that our team works together when we’re located together, and that they’re much more professional.
Remove Redundancy – When we moved into our office, we found that we have a 5 year supply of all of our printed supplies, multiple printers, and more. By consolidating in a single location, you can remove the redundancy in your life.
Paperwork – One of the first things that we noticed when we moved was that we had papers strewn out literally half-way across the county. Even though we thought we knew exactly where all of the critical papers were, in some instances, things were missing, and had to be re-created, or we had to go back and try to figure out what all we were missing. It’s been over 5 months since we moved into an office, and honestly, we are still finding missing pieces.

Still not convinced? Are you still thinking that it’s best to work remotely? That’s fine. But have you asked your employee what they think? What environment they want to work in? Chances are, if they are a go-getter, then they will tell you that they need to work in an office. I know that mine did, and while my partner thought it was an unnecessary expense, I’ve found that having an office is actually saving us money.

Haley Gray is a mom, Girl Scout Leader, multi-passionate entrepreneur, and graduate of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. After starting and growing several businesses of her own to success, Haley wanted to provide the benefit of her experiences and expertise to others. She is also founder and owner of Extension of You Home Care, Owner of Care Patrol of the Triangle, and author of the bestseller book, Choosing a Caregiver: Expect the Best and Know How to Ask For It.