

Ask HN: work from home or rent an office? - flavio87

We're currently 3 people each working from home on two projects, but because we each live with other people there is no convience place to meet up and work together.
Do you think it's worth paying 1000$/month for an office (and pay 6k as advance)? I feel like productivity could massively increase and we'd feel more like were one team working on a common goal. Right now it seems scattered and there's very little accountability.
On the other hand we want to keep costs as low as possible until a certain amount of revenue comes in.
What are your experiences? Has anyone successfully built products (and generated sales) by working remotely together? What are the advantages/disadvantages of renting an office?
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mdolon
Are you guys single or married? Would it be possible to share an apartment?
Productivity will definitely increase if you're around each other for 8-10
hours a day but $1000/month seems like a lot if you're trying to keep costs
low.

Another possibility could be looking into office spaces and startup incubators
that rent out small (and crappy) offices for new startups. The rent is super
cheap and you usually get fast internet and access to conference rooms. This
option depends on where you're located though, as not every city will have
these.

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flavio87
actually live with our parents right now to keep costs even lower ;-) but yeah
I've seen incubators for 600$ for a cubicle that would fit in 2 people.

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menloparkbum
Where do you live? In SF there is a new art space where you can rent an office
space that would fit 3 people for $450/m. It's pretty small, though. I'm
talking 3 people at the same big dinner table.

I like having somewhere else to work but I don't really like traditional
office space. The best spaces I've worked at were a huge loft style apartment
and an old house. Thus I'd suggest a shared apartment, BUT:

One thing about office space vs. apartment space is that office space is
usually much more negotiable than apartment space. You can probably talk away
the $6K advance and lower the price. Aside from the times during boom
economies and maybe always on the island of Manhattan, office landlords are
often borderline desperate.

On the other side of the coin, if you're looking at living spaces and suggest
to the landlord you're planning on using the apartment for an office, they
probably won't rent it to you. So don't mention it.

Another thing you can do is sublease a corner of a space where another company
got stuck in an overpriced lease last year.

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omnivore
Coffee shops ftw. It's like having a ton of offices, all around town.

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srn
Right now I WFH for health reasons. I have my work laptop in the front room
and my personal computer in a different room. Only problem is the wii is in
the front room ;) but I am not working full time right now so it's ok. My team
for many years had 3 people, all working thousands of miles from each other.
If you are in the same town I suggest meeting up on a weekly or daily basis; I
would do it at the beginning of the day or week to set goals and parse out
work. Also have an IRC or other chat room for when you aren't together.

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Xichekolas
Not sure where you are located, but surely you could find a small studio
apartment that you could rent for cheaper than $1k a month.

I know my market is cheap, but you can get a 400 sq ft studio here for $400/mo
(with everything but electricity and internet included).

At this stage it doesn't need to be 'commercial office space' to function as
an office. I'd imagine any room that you'd all fit in would be sufficient.

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russell
Rent a two bedroom apartment fro one of you. It will be cheaper than office
space and save rent at the same time.

Alternative: most cities, towns even, have parks of steel buildings with
garage space and a small office, pretty cheap. Also executive suites, they are
expensive by the square foot, but cheap overall and you get to use conference
rooms, etc.

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noodle
you pretty much nail it. office time is typically more productive. however, if
you're paying $1k/mo for 3 people, i'd think you're overpaying. try and find a
good coworking space. (i'm been giving thought to setting up a space myself).
a good coworking space should theoretically have the benefits of a dedicated
office space, but cheaper.

