Office Space: How’s Yours?

[pfg1]

I use a home office 1 day a week and rent space from a co-working place in Boston. Benefits are great, I get unlimited conference room use in any of their buildings in the boston area. So withing a 50 mile radius of my office I have access to buildings that I can use. I usually use the building near my home, but sometimes I don't. I have 2 part time staff, they typically use the building near their home. We communicate virtually. If I need to add more staff, I don't have to worry about space, copier, parking, internet. I will just hire someone and they can pick which building they prefer.

Some buildings also come with showers so if my wife kick me out one day, thats my insurance policy instead of hotel or calling one of my buddies.

Now If I wanted to really grow my business in California, no problem, I would just set up part time membership with one of the co-working places in LA or Bay area and rent access by the day.

Co-working probably does not work for P&C line, but for large life cases, it is an excellent environment.

That is an ideal setup, and those seem to be prevalent in the populated areas. In small town usa, they are few and far between. A friend of mine that lives in a more populated area does the same thing, she is happy with that.

Note to self: if I ever do go that route, get one with a shower

 

[scagnt83]

I know you are asking about brick and mortar. I have done that and like a lot of agents now have an office at home. I find my office now is mostly about 3"X4", my Samsung Note 4. I can do just about all of my business on it and the cloud.

Ditto. Im about 95% paperless these days. I just upgraded to a larger screen phone (Nexus 6) because I can do almost everything from my phone now. Between that and a good windows tablet Im good to go for the most part. I do have a desktop in my home office that is hooked up to a 50" screen.


As far as office space goes, I currently use a 10 day per month plan from Regus Office Centers. For the most part I love it.

 

[LostDollar]

What I REALLY need is a wife

Yes, agentguy5 may have an unfair advantage!

 

[insurance404]

I sublease from a successful Real Estate agency and mainly do Health Ins. Shifting my business model to more Life & Disability. Get a ton of Walkins.

We are in Class C space now and upgrading to like B+ space next spring. Will be a bit more expensive, yet well worth the cost (in a rich suburb of Seattle).

I'm starting a business as a Biz Broker to help people buy/sell businesses to boost my income while my employees manage the customer service on individual health clients.


NOTE: It's a mentally of what a business space does for you or not. It's important to my business model.

 

[gambrinus]

I'm well aware that I'm hiring help after Spring Break.

But that's with or without adding seminars.

What I REALLY need is a wife

That's not only a different thread, but a whole different web site...

 

[kgmom219]

I have a conference room it gets used maybe twice a year. I found better interest in Medicare seminars by having that at local restaurants, serving coffee and donuts. The room is always free you just pay for refreshments and it supports local business

Great Idea!!!

So is the Regis one...will be calling to see on the 10 day/month thing.

Thanks!

 

[bpenn9]

I think I have a fairly unique set up. I sub-lease office space from a local P, C, L and H agency. They do everything BUT Medicare. They don't want to deal with it. I pay rent to the agency owner, in turn I get maybe 30 direct referrals from them a year. More then enough to justify my rent.

 

[neb1970]

Ditto. Im about 95% paperless these days. I just upgraded to a larger screen phone (Nexus 6) because I can do almost everything from my phone now. Between that and a good windows tablet Im good to go for the most part. I do have a desktop in my home office that is hooked up to a 50" screen.


As far as office space goes, I currently use a 10 day per month plan from Regus Office Centers. For the most part I love it.

Can you give some insight into your experience with Regus? Do you do virtual office with 2-5 days available in an office per month but get address access, voicemail answering access, etc? I am looking at Regus as well, and curious about your thoughts on it. Do you end up using all 10 days? Are you using the shared space at Regus or private office?

 

[scagnt83]

Can you give some insight into your experience with Regus? Do you do virtual office with 2-5 days available in an office per month but get address access, voicemail answering access, etc? I am looking at Regus as well, and curious about your thoughts on it. Do you end up using all 10 days? Are you using the shared space at Regus or private office?

Keep in mind that I do Annuities/Life/DI/LTCI/Business Benefits. So the setup works well for my business model since its just me and no staff or anything.

I have a package that gives me 10 days of private office use. I get unlimited shared office space with the package but have only used it a handful of times.

At first, I also had their virtual office with phone answering, etc etc etc.; but I dropped that service. Many of my existing clients call me on my personal cell line, so I just wasnt using those services enough to justify the added expense. And Im not going to tell existing clients not to call me on my cell line. Its also a PIA to change your business address once you have been in business for 10 yeas and have over 15 carrier contracts. So I just wasnt totally committed to that space as a permanent business address, and didnt feel like paying $200 per month just for phone answering that wasnt really getting used that much.

However, the phone answering and assistant type services they provide were top notch when I did utilize them. If I mailed a lot of stuff and had lots of calls during the day to field, I would have kept that service without a doubt. But I just want/need a private office space a couple times a week to meet with clients or to just get out of the home office.

I do use the full 10 days most months. If I could change 1 thing it would be the location. The closest location to me is very close, but the parking situation sucks and you have to use a garage thats connected to the building. That is the biggest drawback of the office I use. But that is situation specific.

There is another location locally but its a much farther drive and the atmosphere there is more casual and laid back than the downtown location. That is actually one thing I would suggest getting a feel for before committing. The "atmosphere" of the two offices here locally are kind of opposite of each other. The downtown location is very professional and quiet. The other location is more casual and it also has more activity and chatter within it. The people in the downtown office are in suits and ties and nice dress clothes... its not rare to see jeans and sneakers in the other location. So make sure you visit during prime business hours to get the true "feel" of that particular office.

 

[Heather]

Office was going great until like 5 minutes ago. My husband found out Vonage Business costs us $117 and we pay the TWC $30 for a fax line. Wants to disconnect my office phone system so I loose my number I had for the last 5 years, that has been advertised and is on everything. He said I could get 4 residential magic jack for a one time yearly fee. Tell my customers to you call this number first, then if you can't get through to us then call this number, or this number or this number. Meanwhile half my customers would think I was out of business if I disconnected my phone. This coming from a guy who spends $900 a month on a Benz