Next Wednesday, my long time business partner, Wes Straub, and I are moving out of the office we have had on 17th Ave in Calgary, AB. We’ve been at that location for almost four years and during that time we’ve done some great work but have also made some business mistakes. We’ve tried going beyond our usual service offerings to try and start web hosting, we had a partnership that didn’t work out, and built relationships with people that were frustrating in the end. We didn’t go into business because it was easy, but because we like the challenge. After four years of having an office we’ve realized: we don’t need an office.

Here’s what it comes down to: we pay $2500 or so a month for a space to work. We meet with clients at the coffee shop or at their offices. We aren’t going to hire anybody else — we’ve found its much better to work with people on a contract basis. So… $2500 a month for a space to sit down in front of a computer and work. I can do that at home for no money. So next Wednesday we move out of the office and move into our home offices. We’ve made an arrangement with a company that provides virtual office services – phone answering, mail and fax services, and has a boardroom we can use when we need it. We didn’t even have those services at our one room office on 17th ave.

I’m going to write a few more posts about how I’m surviving working in my home office, and how it works with a newborn, if all goes well in a month or so. Good bye, office!