Choosing Your First Office Space

How To Choose Your First Office

So I get a lot of questions asking me if having an office is required for e-commerce or even just making money online in general. Typically the answer to that is no, you can typically work out of a home office or even from your kitchen table.

I have an office mainly because I have a business partner and we need a common place to meetup and work together, he has kids, I have dogs so neither of our homes are ideal. Many people feel they are more productive when they actually have to leave the home and go to an office. For some people it's a mental thing, while for others the distractions at home like having dogs, kids, being able to clean, do laundry, etc sometimes get in the way of working.

One thing I would encourage people to think about is how your business can grow. I told a story in earlier videos where early on my partner and I never thought we would have visitors to our office, and never thought we would be selling larger items that may not fit, or may be a hassle to carry into our small office.

We have a 500 sq foot basement office. We thought it was fine and it really was. This past winter however we got into the business of selling hoverboards. Our office, being in the basement, meant that when a semi-truck came delivering 100 or even 150 hoverboards, we had to carry them down about 25 steps to the basement and then through the halways and common areas of our office into our actual office. This was a huge headache. Now fortunately this was a short term hustle but had this been something we stayed in we probably would have needed to get an office or building with a loading dock or ideally a garage.

We also never thought we would have people in our office but again the hoverboard business as well as dabbling with repairs brought people to our office and having a basement office tucked away in the corner, which is great for privacy, isn't necessarily ideal for people finding you.

My current office I spend $450 a month on. I feel it's a great deal. We are a basement office, and it's not huge maybe 500 to 600 square feet, however were in a good area of town. We have a pretty nice office compared to others we've been to. We have a convenient location to my home, eateries, banks, mailbox stores, and office supply stores. Overall I'm very happy with my current space. 

Below, I'll touch on a few other factors that I'm happy about with my office space, as well as a few that I wish I could change.

Distance From Home

My office is about 5 minutes from my home. I just mapquested it and it's only about 1.8 miles. This saves me on gas, makes my morning commute super easy, and allows me the flexibility to drop back home if I forget something, need to grab something, or even if I just want to stop home and check on my dogs. It's your office, may as well make it convenient for yourself.

Convenience To Coffee, Restaurants, A Park, etc

Now I realize we go to work to work, but its' handy having a coffee shop nearby, a bank nearby, maybe an office supply store. I think my office is perfect in this respect. My bank sits next to my office, anytime we get checks in the mail it's a 30 second walk across the parking lot to deposit them in the bank. I also have a mailbox store about 50 feet across the parking lot. This means I can have my mail delivered there instead of my office. If myself or my partner don't feel like comming in for the day, someone is there to sign for our mail for us. I also have a gas station directly behind my office to run to for snacks a Redbull, or some smokes, and a Dunkin Donuts about two blocks away.

Though it may seem silly picking an office location based on availability of fast food or closeness to a bank, it's nice being able to step out and grab a bite to eat without turning lunch into a 30 minute or hour long things. It's also nice being able to grab our mail, drop mail, and go to the bank in a matter of minutes as opposed to having to hop in the car and drive across town.

I really couldn't be happier about my offices location. My only beef with my office is that it's a basement office and I wish we had some natural light comming in, although I work for myself so if I want to take a walk or go sit outside for a few minutes I can.

Future Growth Or Change In Business

Don't just think about where your business is today, try to anticipate where you may go. For example today you may be making money with affiliate marketing, but who knows maybe you begin to realize your really good at SEO and start offering SEO services as a freelancer, or potentially web design or video editing. It would be nice to have an office which customers can actually visit to work on these projects.

On the slipside today maybe you sell phone accessories which take up little to no space but maybe you get into selling larger heavier items and your current office doesn't suit that.

My point is don't overpay for a huge office you don't need or for a customer friendly location if you don't need one, however do keep in mind the future growth and change of your business and if your current office would suite that.

Retail Vs. Office Space

For most of you an office is probably fine. Many of you are probably not looking to go retail. Retail also comes with challenges. With retail typically comes having to have a fire extinguisher, fire exits, yearly visits from fire dept. The city typically will require you have signage which in itself isn't cheap, plus signage must meet city standards and zoning codes. Retail also requires you have longer hours open to the public, something you may not want to do. Lastly, in terms of the cost of space I find that retail spaces are typically 2-3 times more than a comparable office space. Oftentimes retail spaces also come with some type of shared maintenance bill for parking lots, snow removal, landscaping, etc; where as in an office this stuff is typically included in your lease.


For many of you guys you don't necessitate an office. As I mentioned, if I didn't have a business partner I would be working from home, but because I do have a partner we typically are in our office from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday.

Whether you need an office space to get out of the house, or have a business partner, or just feel you would be more productive working out of an office take into consideration the things above I mentioned.