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20 February 2001
The only disadvantage I've found in having a virtual company are when we are judged negatively for being a virtual company. People love our work, they enjoy dealing with me, and then when I say they can't drop by and shake hands with everybody, some admit that makes them afraid. I considered getting a real office and putting real people in it just for the "look at us" effect, but the costs currently don't make sense. 1200 usable square feet in a very nice new building in an industrial (but not warehouse-y) area of Long Island would run me around $3,500 per month. I could get cheaper space, but if the whole point is to do this to show a certain appearance and image, cheap or average-looking space would not help the cause. Add at least $50,000 of furniture, interior decorating, and equipment to that PLUS the real salaries and benefits of real in-my-office workers PLUS monthly utilities and overhead expenses, and my first year in this office could easily cost $200,000. While $200,000 still comprises a noticeable fraction of annual revenues, those kind of expenses do not make sense. What makes more sense to me is focusing on attracting clients who are comfortable with who we are and how we do things rather than changing who we are to try to placate potential clients who have found something they don't like about us. At some point, real office space with real people might be right for us, and I'll get some. But while it's not prohibiting me from eating, I'll stick with staff living and working from wherever they want. So potential clients tend to hear about Greg in Ohio, Tony in Texas, Max, and Matt the designer in Indiana. I don't like to tell people Max is somewhere in the state of New York because I think my New York clients would want to meet with him, and I currently prefer to exclude staff from face-to-face meetings. In a way, I'd like to keep Max as email and maybe a few conference calls so that if I ever replaced him, which I currently can't imagine as he blows me away with his abilities, you're not too tied to him… you're more tied to me and As Was. Even though some clients have had direct dealings with the programmer assigned to their project, I have had no clients leave As Was to follow a programmer I chose to no longer work with. I think this is due mostly to clients trusting my judgment, as in "if they're not good enough to stick around As Was, then I probably don't want them either." |
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