I've been talking a lot recently about the prospect of moving the business from my home office to a proper business office. It's a big move, as anyone who has started a company will know, but it's something that I feel very strongly about at the moment.
The last two plus years I’ve been (very happily) working like a mad-man-possessed at building what I think is a successful foundation for a future-proof business. 80% of all new businesses fail within 2 years and approaching this so-called holy grail of business it's apparent that [codepotato] is starting to work on it's own; demanding new skills and new systems to help keep the momentum up.
Having dappled in the past with freelancers I've experienced first hand how wonderful and challenging the experience can be at times. Going forward, when the time comes to hire staff properly, these challenges will still be there in bucket loads but its challenges that I crave.
The past two years have been massive not only for [codepotato] but for Samantha (my wife) too; having finally got married after many, many months of Sam's faultless planning. However, the time has come to make a big change in the way that I approach [cp]. Having spent a lot of my ‘free’ time working ‘in’ the business, it's time to spend less time, more efficiently, working ‘on’ the business.
My plan for 2013 is to hire at least one lucky soul part time initially with a view to make them full time before the year is out. That person will be local to where I work, and will work with me in person, so that I can guarantee the work is at the standard that my clients have grown to love and expect.
In order to do that, I will need to have some form of working space that allows both me and the new employee to focus on what's at hand, without distractions. The space I need is an office.
The hopeful side-benefits of getting an office is that I will be able to claw back some of my ‘free’ time that I’ve not experienced in literally over four years (including the time I spent building the business outside of full-time work). It's this time that I plan on re-investing with my wife, friends and family - the people that have faultlessly supported me and the crazy idea that was [codepotato].
It's an exciting time, more so than ever, as I think a lot will change in a relatively short amount of time.
I'm planning on kicking 2013 off with a big bang. Here's to an upcoming office-warming party! Exciting times ahead!