Is a physical office helpful?

[Rossat]

With COVID restrictions basically over and people more willing to meet in person, who here feels an office is beneficial for their businesses success?

Over the past year, I've been working from home, but have had a few people ask to "come in" to see me. I feel unprofessional when I say I work from home and only do home appointments. I've also had a few who didn't want to do home appointments for whatever reason.

While I know our jobs can be done virtually, does anyone see a benefit in having an office space outside their home? I'm debating on if the cost is worth it or not.

 

[Packerland]

My business grew and simplified my life in the process when I opened my office

 

[marindependent]

There is nothing unprofessional about a running a white collar business out of a home anymore, especially if you have experience in the profession. It might not be the best option for those new to the industry or new to work in general. But if a client does not want to work with you because you work from home - move on.

The main drivers for agencies to have physical offices were 1. Marketing 2. Client document Storage and 3. Client meetings. Now with online search, colocated online document storage and signature technology and Zoom and Modern phone systems - much of the value and expense is no longer worth it for many people.

Lastly have if you feel that you "may want an office" consider a part time office location gig.

 

[sbg_ben]

You could find a happy medium by renting a desk at a small office near you. A lot of places would be happy to make a little extra money on their extra space.

 

[somarco]

If lockdowns are the problem moving from their home, to your home, or an office won't change things . . . unless your table looks like this.

 

[bill3173]

What MarineIndpendent says and since you're posting in the Senior Forum, I would say there is little to no plausible business reason to have a physical office, unless you simply can't work from home, which is a real thing, if others in the house have an active social life, or if you don't have an extra room.

Getting an office because it makes you feel professional or just to have some place to go, is kind of an antiquated idea. I've seen some of that, and it's really kind of stupid and unimpressive.

 

[mdlovell]

Are most of your appointments remote or in person?

I could see having an office if you mainly do in person appointments. But then I would have everyone come to me. That could make things very efficient where you don't have any travel time between appointments which would justify the expense of the office.

Personally, 95% of my appointments are remote so I wouldn't get any value in having an office outside of my home.

 

[DonP]

The problem with the office is even if your working local in Medicare your probably working a 75 mile radius . I can’t see many people driving 50 plus miles each way for a medicare appt P&C offices usually work a tight 15-25 mile radius so people will come in . That said I do see many Medicare offices in small towns .

 

[MedicareAgent]

My business took off once I got an office, 15 years later we are still very busy

 

[sman]

With COVID restrictions basically over and people more willing to meet in person, who here feels an office is beneficial for their businesses success?

Over the past year, I've been working from home, but have had a few people ask to "come in" to see me. I feel unprofessional when I say I work from home and only do home appointments. I've also had a few who didn't want to do home appointments for whatever reason.

While I know our jobs can be done virtually, does anyone see a benefit in having an office space outside their home? I'm debating on if the cost is worth it or not.

I think it depends on the person. I've had an office outside my home and inside my home. For the last 21 years I have worked from home and haven't regretted it for one moment. In the beginning, the challenge was two-fold. I had younger children and they thought because dad was home, he wasn't working. That took some adjustment for them. The second challenge was getting to the point where I would not work all the time. It's real easy to check an email and then feel the need to respond no matter the time of day/night. Same goes for phone calls/voice mails.

The obvious benefits of working from home are the reduced expense and commute time (I have two masters on my main and the office is one of the masters - it's literally 30 steps from my bedroom to my office). I also do most of my business over the phone/electronically so I have no "windshield" time having to go from appointment to appointment.

There can be challenges working from home as well. As I mentioned before, I had kids at home 20+ years ago. Sometimes there could be unexpected noise in the background while on the phone. I still have those noises today in the form of dogs sometimes barking. I have yet to have a client remotely seem upset when there is a dog barking in the background. If anything, it results in a conversation about the type of dogs and if they have dogs.

Personally, if I have a prospect/client who thinks I'm unprofessional because my office is in my home, that's on them. I deal with clients and prospects in a very professional manner. And as I said, I have yet have anyone remotely express an issue with this. On the occasion where they want to meet (I typically only meet with someone if they are within about 30 minutes of me and if they would just prefer we meet), I will either meet them at their home or a local restaurant/coffee shop.

When I had an office, I spent more time out of the office than in the office. So for me, the office was really a waste of money for me. For others, they've designed their business where they spend most of their time in the office and clients come to them. More power to those who have set it up that way. I have clients in several states. In my resident state, I have clients all over the state. As a matter of fact, I have more clients who live outside that 30 minute radius than who live within it. So expecting them to come to my office would likely mean less business for me.

All of that to say, if your main hang up is you feel unprofessional having to say you work from home, then you either have to overcome that feeling or give in and pay the expense of having an office.