Start a Business from Home or Office Space?

Start a Business from Home or Office Space?

More and more people are considering starting a business from home rather than leasing traditional office space. Modern technology makes remote work more accessible than ever, so working from home is an appealing option for budding entrepreneurs. But is running a business out of your home better than having a separate office space? There are good arguments on both sides of this debate. Let's explore the pros and cons of each approach.

The Case for Working from Home

For many new business owners, avoiding expensive office rental fees is extremely attractive. Why shell out thousands of dollars per month for space you may only partially utilise, especially in the early stages of a business? It makes perfect financial sense to leverage the space you already pay for – your home. But the monetary savings are one piece of why home-based businesses are enticing.

Financial Benefits

It's easy to see why finances are a significant factor for home-based businesses. Not only does working from home allow you to skip the recurring expenses of renting workspace and associated utility costs, but it can also afford some excellent tax advantages in the form of home office deductions. Running your business from home qualifies you to deduct a percentage of household expenses like rent, electricity, internet service, etc. For many, this results in significant tax savings each year. Let's break down some of the critical financial upsides:

No Office Rental Fees – Brick-and-mortar retail spaces hold apparent appeal for customer-facing businesses, but for many companies, all that matters is reliable phone and internet connectivity. Avoiding the cost of leasing office buildings or coworking desks is a fast way to boost profit margins for early-stage enterprises. With commercial real estate rents averaging $23 per square foot in most U.S. markets, businesses can redirect tens of thousands annually into growth by operating virtually.

Lower Utility Overhead – Keeping the lights and AC running for an entire office space daily gets extremely expensive over time. Home offices' increased utility costs are likely much smaller as workspaces are integrated into lived-in residences. Sure, you may see slightly higher electricity and heating bills with more people working from home, but for most, this pales compared to a sizeable standalone office.

Home Office Tax Write-Offs – The IRS allows self-employed individuals and small business owners to deduct expenses based on the percentage of their home used as a principal place of business and exclusively for business purposes. Eligible write-offs range from rent and mortgage interest to utilities, insurance, repairs, depreciation, etc. These deductions can make a noticeable difference for those operating on tight margins at tax time. Just follow the rules closely when taking the home office tax deduction.

Lifestyle Flexibility

Working from home also offers small business owners and entrepreneurs far more control over their schedules and environments. Without office hours or commutes to worry about, home-based business owners have greater flexibility to conduct work whenever is optimal for them. Meetings can also occur on your terms via video chat or phone calls from the comfort of home. The flexibility of virtual offices empowers business owners in many ways:

Set Your Hours – Rather than adhere to the 9-to-5 grind most find limiting, why not work during hours you find most productive and creative? Business owners set their schedules when working from home, designing routines tailored to when they individually do their best work. Accommodating personal energy peaks and dips is much easier without prescribed office times.

No Commuting Stress – Location flexibility is a significant lifestyle perk as well. Eliminating lengthy, draining commutes to and from offices alleviates enormous stress over time. Regaining the hours otherwise spent in transit allows for better rest and increased focus when working. And for those who travel frequently for business, not needing to commute to a centralised headquarters between trips is a significant benefit.

Custom Work Environment – Offices seldom offer much flexibility regarding environmental preferences, from lighting and music to desk setup and decor. But home offices can be tailored to users' exact needs and tastes. Optimising comfort, ergonomics, visual focus, etc., ultimately allows for better productivity in the long term by reducing distractions. It also mitigates tendencies like absenteeism that result from uncomfortable or demoralising work environments over time.

Health & Wellness – The ability to more easily maintain health and wellness routines working from home is closely tied to the other lifestyle factors above. Skipping lengthy commutes frees up time to cook nutritious meals, exercise, meditate, or get more rest. And having flexibility over your schedule means better work-life balance, reducing the risk of burnout. For those prone to high stress in office settings or with underlying health conditions, avoiding these environments altogether can be a significant benefit as well.

The Case for Leased Office Space

Operating a business out of home rather than leasing space is a no-brainer decision with many advantages. This is the best route for many companies (especially in the early stages). However, for plenty of other organisations invested in growth over the long term, setting up shop in proper office space has tangible benefits that should be addressed – mainly regarding professionalism, productivity, and efficiency.

Projecting Professionalism

For better or worse, appearances greatly influence how businesses market themselves and earn customers' trust. Projecting professionalism and credibility from the start can go a long way when trying to stand out in competitive spaces. Even if they raise overhead initially, investing in proper office arrangements helps portray brands as authoritative industry players ready for primetime. Let's examine why optics matter:

Brand Building – Making first solid impressions and coming across as an established company (rather than some fledgling experiment run out of a garage or basement) is pivotal to earning customers' trust in your capabilities. A proper office space signals intentional investment in your business and its future. Customers want confidence that their vendors will be around long-term. Offices, especially in visible locations, physically manifest otherwise empty assurances.

Client Confidence – Tying into brand identity, a well-appointed office also reassures clients you run a buttoned-up operation. Their sensitive data or essential projects will be around like some fly-by-night company. Stability and safety are crucial for clients. Conveying you take infrastructure and infosec seriously inspires confidence in potential partners. A robust enterprise presence means that you value these components.

Talent Acquisition – Attracting and retaining top talent often requires presenting an attractive work environment. Expecting skilled employees to tolerate makeshift home offices rather than properly outfitted commercial spaces will severely limit candidate pools. An ergonomic, aesthetically pleasing workplace shows workers (and would-be recruits) that you value providing quality conditions rather than cutting corners to save on square footage.

Networking Opportunities – Locating your business in commercial density additionally opens doors for increased visibility and crucial networking simply from proximity factors. Serendipitous encounters in nearby cafes, shared conference rooms, lobby lounges, etc., enable casually forged professional connections that yield partnerships and catalysts for growth. Isolation from these dense hubs hampers development.

Driving Productivity

As much as home offices promise freedom and flexibility, their inherent distractions and hindrances commonly sabotage productivity over time. The autonomy of remote work is often idealised without adequately acknowledging the genuine downsides plaguing home-based businesses. Traditional office spaces better mitigate these issues through compartmentalisation and ergonomic design centred on performance.

Compartmentalisation – Residing alongside everyday household distractions ranging from chores and hobbies to kids and pets makes avoiding diversions challenging for home workers. Compartmentalising work into a separate physical location better solidifies psychological boundaries between responsibilities we should focus on versus personal entanglements. Commuting to centralised workspaces reinforces work/life division.

Ergonomic Environments – Even if able to cordon off spaces from general home distractions, few residences permit optimally ergonomic configurations like sit-stand desks, monitor alignment, noise control, etc. Non-specialised rooms grow uncomfortable over full work days. Offices enable properly cushioned chairs, wrist pads, adjustable lighting, regulated temperature and ventilation, etc. Purposeful environments prevent cumulative bodily strain and headache triggers.

Specialised Equipment – Lacking a room for specialised equipment or tools is another common hindrance for residential offices. From printer/scanner hardware or audiovisual tech to research libraries and specialised software, centralised corporate infrastructure offers turnkey resources home workers must personally piece together and maintain. IT and facilities staff keep office equipment updated and running smoothly so workers stay fully supported.

Collaborative Energy – Isolation takes a psychological toll over time, sapping enthusiasm and motivation. Office camaraderie generates creative synergy and collective momentum through idea riffing and team encouragement. Watercooler talk matters for inspiration and morale. Though modern video chat helps bridge physical distance, few remote communications foster the same vitality as in-person cooperation.

Efficiency at Scale

Once businesses hit inflexion points in client bases and employee size, the logistical overhead of coordinating far-flung home workers becomes extremely cumbersome without centralised infrastructure. Relocating into unified spaces streamlines scaling challenges through improved communication systems.

Communication Ease – As teams and clients multiply, keeping everyone looped into key developments gets exceedingly tricky, with employees distributed across various homes rather than converged in one spot. Shared physical spaces allow for quick meetings, communal progress boards, and announcements to the whole staff simultaneously. Unplanned updates are also shared more freely via opportunistic office conversations.

Resource Sharing – Central equipment like high-capacity printers and scanners or software packages carrying steep per-license costs present more straightforward sharing solutions when the business is operated under one roof. For example, Adobe Creative Cloud access can be prohibitively expensive for each home worker rather than the company buying a single site-wide license. File sharing also smooths when networked locally.

Training & Onboarding – Getting new employees acquainted with company policies, the team, workflow procedures, etc., works infinitely better when handled in a unified office. Handing off work between colleagues also runs far more seamlessly when transitions can occur in person. Even with robust documentation, some things operate cleanly through direct demonstration and real-time Q&A.

Oversight – Management and quality control become infinitely more complicated when company operations are decentralised across private residential spaces. Setting standards and evaluating work products for consistency demands direct supervision, which is not feasible when everyone works in isolation. Central offices allow closer collaboration between managers and remote staff.

Key Takeaways

Deciding whether to operate your business out of home offices or leased commercial space comes with many factors. In the early stages of entrepreneurship and bootstrapped small business ventures, eliminating high overhead costs through home offices makes practical sense. However, as organisations mature, project growth trajectories over multi-year timelines, and focus more on professional optics, productivity optimisation, and scaling challenges down the road, relocating into formal offices often becomes the strategic play.

In any case, There are exceptions on both ends of this question. Some businesses only partially transition out of home offices because sales models don't necessitate the jump (think solo consulting or web businesses). Some teams prefer staying fully distributed indefinitely since model viability isn't rooted in physical clustering (e.g. software groups).

Most importantly, take stock of your business's immediate financial circumstances and forecast a trajectory to determine the correct housing approach rather than fixate on any single factor. Apply context and practical wisdom rather than ideological zeal. For most operations, reality lies somewhere between both philosophical extremes.

Frequently Asked Questions