Taking Office Moving your homebased business out of your home

So I thought I was "faking it" as a business ownerwhen I used to say to potential clients "Of course wecan take care of that," and "Let me check with myteam, and I'll get back to you." These should bestrategic phrases out of a guide called TheSmall-Business Owner Hand-Book for a Company of One (goodidea, no?). Then I found myself in a tiny, albeit new, office withfurniture, office equipment and several warm bodies in front ofcomputer terminals. Voilá! Insta-Company. The mainthought on my mind? "What do I do now?"

My move from studio apartment into fully-furnished office spacewas a big leap in terms of incurring new expenses, both inanimateand human. How could I have eased the burden and reduced the riskof death by expenditure? And how could I have brought the image ofmy company, or at least the perception of the image of my company,up a few notches in the eyes of prospective clients?

Business consultant Mohamed Fathelbab of Forum Resources Networktook a slightly different approach than I did when he outgrew hishomebased office. "One of the best things I did was to find ashared office space. This was [a great] option for many reasons: 1)Lower initial investment because they had the fax and copy machinesas well as the sophisticated phone/voice-mail system that made ussound like a big company; 2) We were able to use a boardroom formeetings without having to carry the entire monetary burden; and 3)It was good to have other businesspeople to talk to."