Thoughts on expanding home business

[RayB]

Anyone here work from home and tried to expand to have employees come in and work with them?

I work from home in web media/web games/interactive stuff. I made myself a cozy little office in the smallest room, have my bedroom next to that, and there's a 3rd room with lots of sunlight that's not being used at the moment.

I often get inquiries from college students wanting to intern. The way those programs work is they get credit for the internship, they do not need to be paid, and the colleges cover liability insurance. I could get them doing the easy stuff, which frees me for time spent on more billable tasks.

I could also have contractors come in and work on jobs, paying them a fair wage, which I can then bill higher for to my clients.

I have room to set up 2 work stations. I figure that although this is in my home, the stairs up are right by the main entrance door, and I can keep the bedroom door closed, and I keep the bathroom clean and pretty bare. Shouldn't feel awkward, right?  I've been to several small companies that work out of old victorian era houses and have converted each room into office space, but in those cases, nobody lives there.

Another alternative is my (finished) basement. I would have to move all the junk that's there up to the spare room, and probably take out the carpet since static is not a friend to computers. I'd also have to move my own work space down there so I can keep an eye on workers or answer questions without travelling from 2nd floor down to the basement. It's also not as cozy since there's only 1 tiny window, and the furnace room is there with the cat's litterbox in there. But there is a bathroom.


I've wanted to expand for a very long time, but I've always been risk-averse to doing it. I've tried doing it virtually by using people in India, but it never really works out. Some face to face is always best.

I'm looking for the thoughts and opinions from people who have actual experience, be it success or failure.

[drventure]

I've mostly telecommuted for companies for the last 10 years. The last place I worked for, the owner was originally officing out of his house, but he eventually bought the place next door, rented the upstairs out and converted the downstairs to an office. The rent covered his mortgage, so he was doing pretty nicely with that deal.

He was really big on the idea of a virtual company. All his sales and dev staff were virtual. His support staff was in the office for several years, but eventually he made them virtual as well. Then he flew everyone in once a year for a face to face.

With phones, IM, and email, it worked out pretty well.

Interesting about your exp with outsourcing to india. Every single person I've ever spoken to that had any exp with that said it was a terrible experience. I think it's one of those things that looks good on paper, but doesn't work well in practice. It never saves the kind of money you were told it was going to save.

I'd think the basement would likely work pretty well. Pick up a small office phone system (you can get them from sams or Costco for <1000$ usually.) and then you don't have to walk up and down stairs to answer questions.

Or better yet, make the employees virtual and there's no need to bother with them coming in at all other than maybe for once a week "status and lunch" meetings. Of course, that's dependent on people have decent machines and broadband at home. If they don't, they can't possibly work virtual.

Also, if you do go the virtual route, you want to make sure people are reasonably well versed in maintaining their own machines. Nothing worse than trying to play tech support for your employees because they can't keep their own machines working. If they're in office, it IS your problem, but if they're virtual, they should be able to handle most of the common stuff.

[shmokes]

When the economy turned sour my wife's boss moved their office into his home.  He had worked out of his home before many years earlier.  It's pretty similar to your situation.  His spare room has two workstations from which my wife and another employee work.  He has a separate office for himself.  It seems to work fine.  They are a graphic design firm.

[CheffoJeffo]

+1 to drventure's thoughts

We are, for all intents and purposes, completely virtual and almost entirely comprised of telecommuters.

Some folks share space, but I don't. Occasionally when one of the others is in town, they will come by and work out of my house, but that is rare and very short term. I totally dig the virtual aspect and can't actually imagine working any other way. Like working at home, it took some getting used to and some discipline to make it work, but now it is second nature and completely integrated into my life.

The face to face is important, but I've found that the frequency isn't as important as I had thought it might be. My business partner and I see each other 3-10 times a year and that works great. With some of the people in hands-on roles, we need to be more frequent with our F2Fs, but it depends on the nature of the work being done. One thing that I have found is that sometimes it is more important to get out and meet somebody for a talk and a coffee than it is to actually have that specific conversion face to face (I guess I am suggesting having semi-regular F2F sessions, even if the work doesn't require it).

My experience with offshoring has been mixed, but the projects that we have been offshoring are small and self-contained. Ultimately I find that, by the time the specs are done, communicated and understood on the other end, I (or one of the other Canuckistani) could have written the damned thing better anyway.

[RayB]

DrVenture, Jeff, what type of work? The reason I mention face to face as an advantage is that for me, we're talking lots of visual/creative type work like graphic design, animation, games, websites, etc and I see myself hiring juniors or 20-somethings with a few years experience at the most. So they may need guidance.

The "virtual" (aka "remote") thing only really works with experienced people who can self-manage, and with the type of projects that are clearly defined that a contractor can take the spec and "just do it". (right? no?) Those type of workers tend to command fair-market freelancer/contractor rate (like $50/hr and up).  But for an in-house employee, we're talking $20 to $25 per hour for the level of experience I'm looking for. (or for an intern it's $0, but I'm not sure how useful an intern can be)

An other thought was having them as remote/virtual but have them in-house once a week for that face time.

How do you manage productivity?

[shmokes]

Be reasonable and pay well.  As long as you're clear about your expectations, and your expectations are not unreasonable employees will not want to risk a job that pays well and is not horrible by failing to meet expectations.

[drventure]

Shmokes is right. I actually interviewed (phone interview) with a company that made this, well, basically it was spyware for virtual employees. Once I found out the kind of software they were doing, I was polite but didn't follow up. That kind of thing +might+ be justified in a "final notice+ type situation, but I've always found that I have a pretty good idea what what constitutes of good week of work, and if I'm not seeing it from someone, I start setting some firm deadlines for certain project elements. When those don't get met, it's time for a sit down.

Plus, if you call or start an IM and begin noticing that they're never "there" but always return the call 30mins to an hour later, there's likely something up. But I mean +never+. There's always stuff that'll come up that'll keep a person from the phone for 5 minutes (like the can  )

Sorry to ramble. I guess what I mean is that generally if you have any exp at all, you can tell when someone's actually working and when they aren't, whether their across the hall or across town.

And having a Face to face once a week or so sure helps.

I do understand what you mean with the creativity, also. I'm a programmer, so it factors in a little less for me, but not much less. It's nice to be able to bounce ideas around. That's why phone and IM is so important.

[RayB]

I forgot to mention that a secondary reason in my mind is I just need human contact. I live alone and work from home.

[drventure]

I forgot to mention that a secondary reason in my mind is I just need human contact. I live alone and work from home.

That I can completely understand. I've telecommuted for about 8 years, full time. Even with IM and phones and email, it would have been nice to be able to go to lunch with coworkers from time to time.

[Vanguard]

I'm a telecommuter too.  Once a week I meet up with some of my ex-coworkers for lunch.   After a lunch hour with them, I feel fortunate to be able to work for the company I do and to be able to telecommute.

[ark_ader]

I love working from home, and I do not miss the commute, nor the ritual about prepping my suit.  I do deals in my T shirt and shorts, and just love to be able to be close to the family.  In the past I worked like a mule, for someone else and it sucked.  I wouldn't bother about hiring anyone else in to my domain, nor would I trust another with my business from another location.  That is asking for trouble.

I don't know about you guys, but I see that maybe small businesses will come back this time around, like it was in the 1960s, and the working for big brother will be a thing of the past.  If I was ever to farm anything out like cold-calling or telesales ( ) I would hire a temp from a well known firm.

Anyone else could take my business away from me and it is so easy for that to happen today.