How many of you guys work out of your house?? I am running out of room. I am looking into a commercial property. It is getting differcult to clean rugs in my garage. I have seen that some of you guys have rug washing pits. I spoke with a women last week that sent out a 12 x 9 oriental (wool) rug the company that picked it up and cleaned it charged her $600 for the rug $300 to Clean and $300 for protection.



Ralph

I am not a rug guy so I really don't know exact details.  The only thing I would say from a carpet cleaner view is why the same cost for protection as the cleaning.  50% (or around there) is the norm.  It could not have taken more then 10-15 minutes and MAYBE $20.00 of protector.

Sounds like a great way to price yourself (not you) out of the market.

Make you own luck,

Del Scrivner
Owner/Operator
Cowboy's Carpet Care

Del, you are right on target with that post. Sounds like a classic gouging to me.

I guess it depends how big your business is. I would love to work out of my house, but it isn't big enough. I rent commercial property that is heated (New England) which is great. Plus I have room to work on machines and what not. I pay about $400/mo. plus elec. & heat, which can vary on season. Its good to get a way from the family from time to time, but it would be alot easier if I could work near them. My two cents.

Must be nice- $400 a month.  That would not rent you a shoe box in Arizona.

Send some commercial buildings my way for $400 PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Make you own luck,

Del Scrivner
Owner/Operator
Cowboy's Carpet Care

Its actually 375 if you pay with cash. But you have heating bills which cost as much as the rent some months!! Besides, shipping is waaay too expensive.

I have done it both ways, and each has it's advantages. Store front or whse. space can be expensive, but if you are going to build your business to sell one day, you need a business bldg. The last one we had was $3000 a month. 2&1/2 years ago I built a new home in my attempt to down size. A brick ranch (2430 sq. ft.) w/ two car garage. I quickly added another brick two car garage w/ upstairs space and another out bldg. 12x20 when I moved my business back to my home. This has worked out great for us and my wife is a happy camper once again. I am not trying to build my business to sell, but to hand down to my offspring. There are so many perks working from your home. You own the bldgs, No travel time to the office. Someone is always there. Tax advantages. etc. We do have a commercial address and mailbox 3 miles from our home to recieve shipments and business mail. I also eat lunch with my wife often when I am in the area. Works for us.

i keep in in house. i'm way too small to think of needing more space. commercial only -aka- no space needed for rugs.

my biggest need for space is storage space for equipment and supplies. i make it work even living in a mobile home with no garage.

thanx --- Derek.

I think the biggest thing is anticipating your growth and stepping up as/when or if needed.

In my first 2 years, I worked out of a garage with the vehicle parked on the driveway.

With getting into restoration in a big way, that got outgrown very quickly.

I then moved up to a 450sq ft lockup for 6 months to determine if the 'overflow' was seasonal or growth. It was growth so I then moved straight for a 1000 sq ft facility thinking that was heaps more room than what I required... wrong.

12-18 months later, we closed that lease and took out a lease on a 2000 sq ft high stud shed with a 250 sq ft air tight chamber off one side. This is great for dehu or deodorising chamber.

We've been there for 3 years and it is about what we need year round. During an extremely busy time we'll grab an extra small lockup just down the road for a couple of months.

Being high stud, I've picked up some 17ft high warehouse pallet racking. They are 9ft bays, 3.5 ft deep and I have 12 bays total. It also came with 4 bays of 2' deep x 8' high x 6' wide bays as well.

Now all I need during busy times to cope is a short term hire of a forklift to utilise the extra volume of the warehouse.

Having said that, if I was to sell off the restoration side and pull back to a carpet company, I'd still not use home, I'd get a cheap lockup unit so that my chems etc are not near my kids.

With our warehouse, we charge storage to insurers and that often pays the rent. It means that many months I've got to 'contribute' very little for the convinience of having that facility.

I'd love to buy the shop, but at the moment in my region, the sales figures are just coming off a boom but the rent hasn't caught up yet so it's WAY cheaper for me to rent that buy... by about half. Now that means that my rent will potentially go up at the next review so I'm keeping an eye on the market to see what it's going to do and I can be ready. I'm currently paying approx 4.0-4.5% of it's current market value :-0 not bad aye!!

John

John Middleton
Carpet Pro Ltd
Palmerston North
New Zealand

To make a person think twice.

Just think, your company's capitol could have been a 1/4 of a mill-ticket +($250,000) strong.

I've just been inspired to save $2000 per month for the next 8 years. If we have that left.

Thanks
Your Servant Alex

The Time Left Is Reduced!!
USE IT WISELY!!

Business out of the home means you leave all the business things at the office and you are not constantly doping business things while home when you should be spending family time.

Having your office and equipment off your home property means when you have to fire someone they do not try to damage your home. No one around your home at late hours or early hours dropping off equipment or picking it up.

There is also the insurance issues that need to be considered along with local ordnances.

I have done it both ways and for me even though we are small I prefer to have the business off my residential property with a small home office to do incidentals or late night marketing.

The cost of the space is no an issue because once out of the home I became way more productive due distractions being eliminated

We 2,000 sq ft cost me $600 in a old mill building.

I've done it both ways and like having an off site office.
Several reasons; I seem to be more productive at the office, less distractions, your employees do not see how you live or new things you get (they seem to want raises more often), when you office at home you never seem to get away from the work.



Brad Lewis
Surface Solutions Inc