When would you start your own office?

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I would say once you are making a good amount of money per day that you can afford it without it being much of a burden.

I plan on doing so in a few months, I have a few people I might split an office space with and work together on campaigns and projects.
 
The biggest thing is, I believe, interaction with other people.
Human beings are self-centered and selfish, but to be really successful, you either need to be:

1) A totally narrow minded, selfish, dick who is good at one particular thing
OR
2) Be a human being who interacts and gets/gives input from other people.

In any event, interaction with like-minded people is crucial; not just in AM but in anything.

The "When" in your question is crucial. Do you think that you would find an office less distracting or allow you to be more "professional" (interact with peers at a more professional level)?

In all problem analysis, the central question is: What is the problem?
What sort of problem is yours?

Many people look for "Solutions" without really defining the problem.
What sort of problems do you see in your situation? If you define the problem, usually the solution becomes like an "apple dropping from a tree".
 
Woot, just did it a couple months ago. Has worked out well so far, splitting with a few other OKAY guys. None of them make that much money though :jester:

To be honest, I still work a fair amount from home, but it is good to have the space and legitimize your efforts a little bit.

Good luck.
 
I have a home office. I'll only lease a out of home office when I have employees who are not international and is not my girlfriend (best employee EVER ;)).
 
never - I enjoy working from the beach in a very expensive area that I pay ridiculous prices to live in. Why on earth do I want to PAY to box myself in? So I can put on the expensive clothes in my closet and drive my car into a front parking space with my name on it and go into an office and try to impress people?

No thanks- I'll take board shorts and my feet in the sand. Then again I have no desire to employ people either- at least not in the traditional sense (I'd hire someone to run one of my businesses but I'd only stop by bi-weekly for updates). The whole 40 hours a week working thing is grossly overrated.
 
Sure we all love AM I think. However you get to a point where there's more ideas then you can implement on your own. That's when you want to look to getting an office in my opinion. I actually hired 2 people before I had an office and they worked on my kitchen table a couple weeks. Really if and when you decide to grow to the next level you need people that are good at things. I'm terrible at design and you can only outsource so much. So I hired a designer. Oh I hate uploading and tweaking campaigns so I hired some people to do that. Don't have time for coding anymore so I hired a guy for that. Book keeping gets over whelming for just me at this point so I needed a book keeper. Yep you guessed it I'm terrible at writing copy so we brought on a full time copywriter. Hmmm what the fuck do I do all day :D

Seriously though my favorite part is the ideas. Building, investing and testing the ideas. Where I could setup a campaign and manage a few on my own. Now we can push out a campaign from start to finish in about 4-6 hours. Throw a bunch of testing money at it and then on to the next. Some work, some don't. It's a lot like a production line though in that each person has their role and we can function much fast and efficiently as a single machine.

At first I thought I wouldn't like having an office as the few I'd worked in were stuffy and lame. But honestly it's just like working at home now but I have a bunch of like minded friends around. Pretty cool if you ask me :D
 
IMO an office is nothing to do with impressing people. The reason that I think it works so well is that, even if you're on your own in the office, it completely separates your personal and business lives.

It makes you more productive as when you are in the office, you are in a work environment and it motivates you to push harder and focus. But it also makes you more productive in your personal life, as when at home you dont feel like you should always be working - home time is home time. You can enjoy it, relax more and become even more productive at work the next day.

Hiring people and having at least one person to bounce ideas off and banter with is definitely recommended but not necessarily essential at first I wouldnt say.
 
Question about employees

Apologies in advance for my "newbieness", but I guess everybody has a first post at some point.

My business partner and I are in the process of obtaining a shared office space with the hope of hiring some employees to help with campaigns and LP design. For those of you who have hired employees, do you have them sign a confidentiality agreement of any kind? How about a covenant-not-to-compete?
Through their employment, these employees will gain acess to a lot of hard-earned knowledge and I'm just wondering how best to protect that intellectual property.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.


smaxor said:
Sure we all love AM I think. However you get to a point where there's more ideas then you can implement on your own. That's when you want to look to getting an office in my opinion. I actually hired 2 people before I had an office and they worked on my kitchen table a couple weeks. Really if and when you decide to grow to the next level you need people that are good at things. I'm terrible at design and you can only outsource so much. So I hired a designer. Oh I hate uploading and tweaking campaigns so I hired some people to do that. Don't have time for coding anymore so I hired a guy for that. Book keeping gets over whelming for just me at this point so I needed a book keeper. Yep you guessed it I'm terrible at writing copy so we brought on a full time copywriter. Hmmm what the fuck do I do all day :D

Seriously though my favorite part is the ideas. Building, investing and testing the ideas. Where I could setup a campaign and manage a few on my own. Now we can push out a campaign from start to finish in about 4-6 hours. Throw a bunch of testing money at it and then on to the next. Some work, some don't. It's a lot like a production line though in that each person has their role and we can function much fast and efficiently as a single machine.

At first I thought I wouldn't like having an office as the few I'd worked in were stuffy and lame. But honestly it's just like working at home now but I have a bunch of like minded friends around. Pretty cool if you ask me :D
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Cosmo said:
Apologies in advance for my "newbieness", but I guess everybody has a first post at some point.

My business partner and I are in the process of obtaining a shared office space with the hope of hiring some employees to help with campaigns and LP design. For those of you who have hired employees, do you have them sign a confidentiality agreement of any kind? How about a covenant-not-to-compete?
Through their employment, these employees will gain acess to a lot of hard-earned knowledge and I'm just wondering how best to protect that intellectual property.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
Click to expand...

Just get a NCND with your employees, go see a lawyer for that or you can get a template online and write your own.
 
when i can afford space in san diego, next to smaxor's office, so his office will be in the shadows of my own.
 
Hmmm, you know what would be nice or potentially profitable venture...if I had some money I'd buy or rent a large office space in Seattle and make it into a AM arcade...kind of like a coffee shop for consultants or a Prop Shop (trading room for active traders)

Office and dual screen monitors provided, just bring your laptop or desktop.

Anyone interested in getting an office in Seattle with me next year.
 
When I start doing AM full time I will need a place away from home to get work done. There are just way too many distractions at home and sometimes it takes weeks to get a campaign going.
 
I operate a virtual office - maintaining quality can be an issue but I hire only people I trust. Most jobs are outsourced to India (thus, the often made fun of comment of having 35 employees) - these teams have been funded by me, and only work for me. They do jobs ranging from data entry, graphic design, article writing, to SEO. Right now my house is big enough to hold 1 more employee working at the same time - but I like to keep costs way down by moving it to India.

My Father - full time VP.

2 Part time employees in the US handling day shifts of ad recreation, creation, etc.

1 fulltime book keeper / accountant

1 part time system admin (24/7 on call)
 
LeremyMonster said:
LOL! Paying an Indian to do SEO!?!?!?!?!?! You don't say.

I'd rather pay my 6 year old nephew to do my SEO work.
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Well then you're a fuckwit.

There are hundreds of Indians who don't know wtf they're doing, but there are plenty of those that do.

I think your idea of outsourcing SEO is "plz rank me #1 for 'forex.'" Whereas in reality a lot of it is just general backlink building like blogpost comments, dir submissions, social bookmarking shit etc.
 
My room has become my office. I have papers, a fax, a printer, post its and an answering machine which ask for an "int" number when you call me. You still get me on the phone but it looks more professional.

And a big black chair. View isn't so nice though.

I was thinking of renting a place in a building of offices because I think I'll be more productive. Not so many distractions.
 
An office is an overhead. If you can't justify the productive advantages of an office, then you don't need one.

If you are renting space and stocking it with furniture just to deal with loneliness, boredom or some sense of pride (looking bigger than you are), then you are a fool.

No one needs to know how successful you are except you. If you're bored, learn to read (books). If you're lonely, get a dog. All of which is a lot cheaper than renting an office to deal with personality flaws.

Now if you have co-workers or a proper business, that is different. But for god's sake, don't spend money for vanity or weakness.
 
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