Does this work for a home office too?

From: The Official BizUnite Blog

5) Introduce your office

One of the biggest struggles small business owners have is gaining street credibility. Some customers are fearful of getting involved with Web-based small businesses because they don’t trust they’ll be around tomorrow. They worry that if there’s a problem with their order they’ll have no one to contact. By creating videos that introduce your employees that give people a tour of your office space or that show you doing what you do every day, you help ease those fears. You show people that there is life behind your Web site and that you can be trusted.

Some good points here:

lovemachine » Blog Archive » On The End of Offices

I predict that many companies are going to give up offices, here are some of the reasons:

Internet Anywhere: Wifi or wireless IP access is pretty much everywhere, meaning you can always be online. We carry Verizon cards that are like $50/month and give us good access even when there isn’t wifi. It’s just really simply now to be connected from anywhere, certainly for work. This wasn’t true even a couple years ago.

No more servers: All the LoveMachine servers are in the cloud – on Amazon’s EC2 servers, or Google. This includes email, intranet, calendars, development machines, etc. Again, this wasn’t possible a couple years ago. No more racks of physical hardware. I can’t fathom why a startup going forward would have a server closet.

Fun and Inspiring: Try it. Work in a hotel lobby (our favorite so far is the W in SOMA SF). Great people-watching, feels so fun to get free coffee even though you aren’t staying there. And without the crutch of being in an office, you actually feel like you need to get something done. Plus, you actually work less hours and get to see your family and friends more.

Memory Palace: There are lots of good references to read more about this, but there is a well-observed phenomena where meetings and conversations that happen in a novel location are easier to remember later. So actually the worst-case-scenario is having a recurring team meeting in a fixed meeting room! On the other hand, there are probably 2,000+ different locations available to LoveMachine just in San Francisco. It’s already a big advantage – I can easily remember meetings with people by keying to the location where we were sitting. This is a tangible competitive advantage.

Better use of Capital: In San Francisco, a startup office with room for 10 people is going to cost something like $5,000 per month for the rent, cleaning, bandwidth and other admin costs. So that’s like $500/month per person. Why don’t we just give everyone a $500 monthly budget for food and coffee and not have the office? Let’s see… would you rather “Our office is at 350 Brannan Street, we expect you to be there by 10 every morning, and we don’t cover parking”, or “Here is $500 you can use it all on coffee or maybe save it this month and instead get a hotel room at the Phoenix for your teammembers to party in all day.”

But what about security?

Do you really want your trade secrets and full control of your operation accessible from any cafe or bar? If you can control your entire business from anywhere, then anyone can. Is someone sniffing your data, logging your activity? What about financial data? Do you want to work on spreadsheets with people looking over your shoulder?

Another issue is process, familiarity, convenience and comfort–you save tons of time when you know where things are. I’m seconds away from a glass of water, a shower, a change of clothes, a comfortable bed, a treadmill, a quiet place to make a phone call, a healthy snack, etc.

Freelance Camp PRO – San Francisco 2010 – Barcamp- Eventbrite

Freelance Camp PRO San Francisco 2010 is a new twist on the established series of BarCamps for freelancers and independent contractors. If you are or plan on being a PRO at running your business, this event is for you. Trade notes and network with your peers, learn how to run your business better, and get cool free stuff. And, it’s right downtown at the brand-spanking new NextSpace San Francisco, right at 2nd and Market.

Past attendees told us “I became a better designer, coder and business woman in the course of one day.” Another said, “I realized that I am not alone in some of my concerns and insecurities related to marketing myself.” A third attendee told us, “I had many opportunities to share my experience and ideas regarding design, e-commerce, sales and marketing, pricing structures, balancing work and family…etc.” So, its gonna be pretty extraordinary.

Some of the topics we imagine might surface (just to prime the pump). Of course, you the attendee will chose the topics on the day of the conference:

* Transitioning from Freelance to Agency
* Balancing Products with Services
* Running 100% Remote
* Freelance Coops & Coworking
* The Art of Subcontracting
* Advanced Toolkits: PM Systems
* Finance & Communication
* Beyond the Basic Services
* Long Term Clients

You ask: Wait, what is a Barcamp? BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. The day consists of sessions proposed by attendees and the schedule is created on site the morning of the event. BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn from each other in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants. Visit www.freelancecamp.org for more info.

WHAT TO EXPECT AT FREELANCE CAMP PRO:
The day will start at 8am with an hour of socializing over coffee and pastries. We will be handing out cool swag to registrants at the sign up. It is really important you arrive by 9am so you can participate in creating the day’s agenda. At 9am sharp we will begin introductions, explain the rules of barcamp and then we will create a schedule. We will be harvesting the minds and expertise of all the people in the room to come up with topics pertinent to freelancers.

FOOD
Breakfast, Lunch and light snacks are included with the day’s event. Lunch will be held in the first floor of the same building at Bindi SF, the delicious Indian restaurant in the very same building. View their lunch menu here.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO BRING:

* Your own coffee mug (coffee, tea and filtered water will be available)
* A head full of topic ideas
* Your laptop (fast and free wi-fi provided.) If you are not so inclined to arrive with electronic note-taking items a simple notebook and pen will do.
* Lots of business cards. This is a great networking opportunity. You can get a quick turnaround from moo.com if you are in need of cards.

VOLUNTEERS
Interested in helping out with the event the day of? Please contact us at volunteer@freelancecamp.org.

LOCATION
We’re pretty sure this event could not be more centrally located! Right at the corner of 2nd and Market, NextSpace Coworking San Francisco is about 50 feet away from BART and more than half a dozen bus lines. We are also close to the ferry, a number of parking garages, and a short walk from CalTrain.

PARKING
Hearst Parking Center‎
45 3rd St
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 989-4000
(2 blocks from venue) ($20 max all day)

St. Francis Pl. Parking Garage
1 St. Francis Pl
Turn right onto 1 St. Francis Place into the covered parking garage.
The garage is open at 6:00 a.m., gates close at 7:00 p.m. If you need access after 7:00 p.m., buzz the concierge who will let you into the garage.
(5 blocks/10 min walk from venue) $5 all day

OUR SPONSORS
We have been blessed with a phenomenal outpouring of sponsorship offers this year so we wanted to give a quick shout out to some pretty special groups that are nurturing this year’s event!

Speck

Outright

Mozilla

24 Seven

Bottom Line Law Group

Colliers International

NextSpace Coworking San Francisco

Shane & Peter, Inc.

Pennbrook I CAIB Insurance Services

Cosmic Design Company

THIS EVENT WILL SELL OUT. Please register to ensure a spot. We look forward to seeing you there!

Freelance Radio, Episode 43: Full-Time Experience | FreelanceSwitch

The latest episode of Freelance Radio, the official FreelanceSwitch podcast, is now available! This episode, the panel (John Brougher, Dickie Adams, Kristen Fischer and Von Glitschka) talks about full-time experience and its value for freelancers.

Should you jump into freelancing right out of high school or college without acquiring work experience first? In this economy, maybe you don’t really have a choice? This podcast mostly says working for someone else first (before you go solo) is recommended, to expand your network, expose yourself to new markets, resources, frames of reference, etc.

I also think it’s a good idea to work for another business first, assuming you don’t have a ton of experience already by the time you graduate.

Working for someone else gives you some credibility when you’re starting out. For example, my IBM internship in college made landing my first SEO gig easier–essentially I made one phone call, mentioned my IBM internship and I was offered the job immediately without much discussion.

Freelance Radio, Episode 38: Family Life | FreelanceSwitch

The latest episode of Freelance Radio, the official FreelanceSwitch podcast, is now available! This episode, the panel (John Brougher, Dickie Adams, Kristen Fischer and Von Glitschka) talks about family life.

Interesting “freelance radio” podcast (audio) discussion of issues that arise while working at home with family, with example distractions. Exploration of advantages of working at home. Example: you’re able to pursue an idea that pops into your head, you can get to work on it immediately while the idea is fresh in your mind–rather than holding off on that idea until find time to drive to your office.

There is also a section on self-doubt that explores internal dialogue related to work decisions, such as time management. The panel doesn’t mention cost/benefit analysis that could help reduce this element of self-doubt.

I’m finding I enjoy listening to Internet radio/audio streams while I’m working, like right now I’m working on a spreadsheet and half-listening to the remainder of this podcast with my headset on.

I’d really like to know how this podcast was recorded. Skype? I could really use some help presenting my own podcasts in more effective ways.

I found this article by way of Odesk’s Twitter account. Includes some tips and photo examples:

Demand For Home Offices Rises, And So Do Design Options – Courant.com

A 2008 World at Work consortium study found that more than 17 million Americans telecommute at least part time, a number that continues to grow as companies look for ways to cut costs and increase productivity.

This article reminded me of my visit to Star Furniture last week. My fiancée was trying on dresses with her sister, so I had some time to kill. Their desks are gorgeous–made of real wood!

My Ikea desk is practical, easy to move, and gets the job done. But the craftsmanship of Star Furniture desks, they are undeniably luxurious compared to what you’ll get at Ikea.

In April of 2010, “The Virtual Company” appeared in Inc. Magazine. The article by Max Chafkin documents an internal Inc. experiment to “ditch the office.” Inc. temporarily moved its writers out of their New York high-rise office to see if they could work from home, to increase productivity, save money, save energy, drink better coffee, etc.

Not caring to reveal specific numbers, only a few round estimates, the article drifts away from serious consideration of cost savings and productivity. The savings are simply “enormous” but that’s not a good enough reason to leave the office and go virtual, according to the article.

The article suggests serendipitous water-cooler conversations are irreplaceable and priceless, whereas family interruptions are not. A “2-and-a-half-year-old son” mentioned is a constant interruption. One employee says he misses his friends at work, which is the “most powerful argument” according to the article.

Working at home causes psychological and physical problems, according to Inc. But no solutions are offered.

“Our backs ached.” Employees miss their ergonomic chairs at the office, but not enough to buy their own. (For a month-long experiment, why bother investing in a new chair?) With their newfound freedom comes forgetfulness of how and when to eat and exercise. (It seems to me they could have found a routine with more practice.) There is no mention of the benefits of fresher food or home-cooked meals.

Psychologically, many Inc. writers lost their minds. Inc. suggests “work-life” at the office is better, where your “friends” are, but work-life at home “sucks.” Family and relationship problems are referenced, but again no solutions. (I suspect the out-of-sight, out-of-mind relationship problems were waiting at home all along.)

I question Inc.’s openness here. Would Inc. criticize its own culture and workplace problems? Who would want to apply to work with miserable, dysfunctional people with workplace complaints? Better yet: Who would ever hire Max Chafkin after admitting an anti-office, anti-social, work-at-home preference? Better to criticize your own family at home, probably they won’t fire you for writing a destructive, scathing article. But does that make it right? Did Inc. sell out to sell a few “must-have” gadgets?

Inc. decided to keep the office, or at least stay until the lease is up. So why bother criticizing it?

I’m guessing Inc. originally wanted to write something fashionable. Virtual office celebrities like Matt Mullenweg (page 69) should help sell the magazine. At the same time, the article tries to soothe existing office dwellers: offices offer focus, collaboration and command respect. Then Inc. could declare victory (after a month) over its “officeless” competition: the Internet.

At least Inc. tried? “The Virtual Company” should give Inc. at least some street credit in an increasingly electronic world. Inc.’s virtual readiness test lifts its writers ostensibly closer in coolness to the virtual companies it now regularly praises.

–PJ

(Published on: Feb 17, 2010)

New freelancer office space in Austin,

Join Us | Cospace – A coworking community in North Austin

Keymaster ($300/month)
# Unlimited coworking 24/7 with keyed access to Cospace
# Access to a dedicated desk and private storage space
# Use of Cospace mailing address
# 1 free guest coworker pass per month
# Priority access to conference room

Found this via Geek Austin,

– North Austin’s first coworking space.
Cospace ( http://www.cospaceatx.com ) has just opened its doors.
To help them launch in style, GeekAustin will be hosting an open house on Monday, February 22, 6PM-10PM. For more details, visit the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=491446070105

Watching Chris Pirillo right now. You could say this is a motivational video. He says there are plenty of opportunities out there and he recommends blogging. I agree with him there.

I found this video interesting because you get a view of his office workspace. And the video has over 400,000 views. That tells you people found it interesting for whatever reason. What is that reason? His eye-catching dual-display setup? The crazy blinking lights in the background? Is it simply the quality of the content?

OK, 400k views isn’t *that* impressive, but it would take me 40 days to get that much traffic to my blogs. I have not spent much time playing with YouTube yet, but I’m going to assume he gets a fair amount of traffic to his website(s) from his YouTube videos.

What percentage of viewers actually hit his site after watching his YouTube videos? Is there really a way to measure that? I don’t think so, because that is “type in” traffic, which means no URL-referral data. In other words: no way to track it.

Also I’m wondering how he’s promoting his videos, if he’s promoting them at all outside of YouTube.

I unfollowed Chris (on Twitter) a while back because I found his comments a little too random–not very useful. Regardless, I’m on his site now and it looks like he’s using Ustream to live-broadcast himself working in his office. Takes a while for his site to load, probably from all the java code required to run the video streamer and chat app. This slow-loading could impact his ad revenue, increase bounce rate, etc. But it’s also possible this engages people in good way, enough to offset any loss in revenue.