As most of you are undoubtedly aware, I currently work from home. This is great for me in the sense that my commute can be measured in feet and seconds, and that all my creature comforts are close at hand. :)

 

What isn't great about working from my home is that space is at quite a premium. It also has caused problems with potential customers in the past as they've viewed the lack of premises as being somehow indicative of me not being "professional" at what I do... :(

 

My diary is beyond full nowadays; I'm already booked up past the middle of next year and coupling that with the Group Buy I'm running on here, it basically means that 2017 is pretty much booked solid so there's no shortage of work in the immediate future.

 

So, after much umm'ing and ahh'ing on my part, I've started to look at renting a small unit locally! I've got as far as finding one that is a suitable size and price, and making some tentative enquiries about it.

 

This is, to say the least, quite a scary prospect. All my outgoings will increase fairly significantly if I go ahead with this (rent, insurance, utilities) and I'll also have to "outfit" the new place as all of my tools and materials would be transferred from here. The only feasible way I can think of to do all of this is to sell the Zed...

 

I suppose that, technically, I don't urgently need to expand into a unit. Working from home has served me well for the last 6 years or so and, as I said, there's no shortage of work. But I'd like to expand and have a physical presence where customers can come to - at the moment, I only provide my address when asked as I don't really want people turning up at home at all hours of the day and night! - and a little bit more working room wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

 

A business loan is not an option, unfortunately. So, as I said, the only viable way to have a reasonable amount to plough into the business is to let the Shortie go... an idea that I'm not in love with! :( As well as being my own personal car, she also serves as a kind of mobile advertisement for what I do. There's also the small fact that she's the exact Zed I've wanted for years and years!

 

So I'm looking for opinions, I guess. What would others do if they were in this situation....?

Would there be any mileage in renting a different house with maybe a double garage or space for a workshop thereby increasing space available but keeping the business on site and increasing overheads only very slightly?

Congrats on having such a good orderbook by the way, many companies would trade a limb to be in that position.

 

Unless you are going to add extra bodies to get through the work faster, increase throughput and at least cover the additional costs you would add more stress and hassle for no reward. IMHO of course.

Agree with all the above comments. Additionally, you don't need fancy premises to garner respect or high end customers, as evidenced by all here. Quality stands apart, and word of mouth is more powerful than you think.

Build a garden office - mine is 7m x 4m and total so far is around £2500-2750 - that's including over the top insulation for a masisve build. You could easily build for less than £2k and keeping it to simple wood frame keeps it cheap!

 

It's taken me a few months with holidays/other half moving out etc breaking up the time i've had to build it but it went up very quickly!

 

Keep the zed, don't take on an extra monthly outgoing if you have the space to do it

Having crunched some numbers last night with Mrs Mondo, it doesn't really look like this will stack up...

 

Thanks for everyones' input and thoughts - very much appreciated :thumbup1: