New Startup Office, Investing on Separating Home & Work

Been extremely busy lately – baby due in a bit over a month, still pushing as hard as humanly possible with my startup Social Agent, and just moving into a separate home office 1 building over from where I live. As a full-time entrepreneur over the past 7 years, I have had both fixed offices, home offices, and flexible (aka no) offices – and this newest move is a bit of a hybrid. Sure its some fixed costs, and the rule I have learned as a business owner is try your best to keep fixed costs down – but we are getting as much use out of this place as possible!

Its on the 30th floor overlooking Hong Kong, which already brightens up our day – we have a few different business friends also sharing it, its 5 minutes commute from my home (where my family-in-law just moved in, save that for another blog update) and productivity has sky-rocketed already for me over the past week or so since moving in (minus the normal setup hassles)

Why The Move Fixed Office?

I know, I may have sworn to never get a fixed office again, I have had some rough rides with landlords, setups, and in-flexibility to take on new opportunities as fast – but here are some bullet points as to why:

• I’m building a family – the majority of my recent blog posts have been about my personal life, marriage, family, etc. It is a huge change. And obviously it makes it a bit harder to pick up and go. I am excited to be a good father and husband, and I believe that requires more stability.
• Making Commitments – have decided my life and my future will be in between Shenzhen, China and Hong Kong. Balancing the borders here. And it makes setting goals in life and business easier.
• Need my own “space” (mentally and physically) – I had moved out of an incubator maybe 5 months ago or so, and had been working from my home office (now a baby room). I’m not the only one, there are others in this community who need to have a quiet space to work away from their family. Coffee shops can be nice, but loud, and internet isn’t always reliable.
• Want to have more control over my environment – Maybe this is the theme of all these points, but hey, I am working 2 – 3 times more effectively now.
• Getting into more audio & video production – more podcasts coming, more videos coming. Having a space allows us to set it up nicely. Just today I had a green screen bolted to the ceiling (literally)
• Stable Internet – gonna keep it at that

Deciding if we should open the space up and let others work here, already have a few friends renting space.

A bit nervous to make more investments and changes – but going in with my experience from all past projects. And hey, we only live once, gotta make some moves!

Comments

Chris - 04/24/2014 Yeah buddy, this is going to be fun.

Michael Michelini - 04/24/2014 Taking it to the next level!

Marshall - 04/25/2014 I think it’s funny you said you have a 5 minutes commute – mate you take the elevator down building one and up building two. There is no commute 🙂

Michael Michelini - 04/26/2014 hey now! – these elevators are slow haha! Seriously I think it can take even longer if its “rush hour” on the elevators 🙂

Boyd R. Jones - 04/25/2014 It’s very wise to have a separate work environment.

Michael Michelini - 04/26/2014 yes, feeling the positive effects already – thanks Boyd! 🙂

Jay - 09/25/2015 Hi, I have been visiting your blog for a while, Find it really interesting