Studio Space Thoughts?

[Bob Cole]

I’ve gone the home office route. You can’t beat the commute.

For a few years, I rented space in an old high school that was being turned into an arts center. You had to agree to do some teaching, etc. in exchange for low rent. It was a neat atmosphere, and I was able to collaborate on some film projects with artists “down the hall.” But long hours in the editing room persuaded me to go back to the home studio.

Do you need the additional space? Will the benefits of a studio generate enough profit to offset the added cost of rent, utilities, insurance, commuting? If you took two years’ rent money and applied it to your home office (or a better kit, etc.), could you make that space good enough to compete with the outside office?

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Hi Bob – thanks for the thoughts. From a current financial calculation, no it wouldn’t make me more money by setting up elsewhere. However, I have one client that keeps growing and growing and having some more room (an additional office to keep a 2nd/3rd fully equipped editing system working burning, rendering, encoding, etc) would really help me. It’s hard to think about looking for new clients when you *feel* like you are working at capacity already.

I’m still kicking this idea around.

Thanks everyone.

Jeff

[Mike Smith]

Expansion based on one client is really risky, and can make you vulnerable. Your negotiating position weakens, and if your client decides s/he’s p[aying you too much, what’s your negotiating leverage?

I’d thnk long and hard about taking on the extra overhead, unless you have a contracted workflow ahead.

Maybe it’s time to think about hiring help (freelance, short term, contract, trainee?) with some of the more routine aspects of what you’re doing, so you can put some more time into developing at least one other client?

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Thanks for the reminder Mike. It is risky having one client account for too much of your income. If nothing else it makes you feel stressed that this one big account could go away and you’d be down over 50% of your income. I’ll keep that in mind as I consider some other options.

-jeff

[Steve]

Monthly rental overhead competes with the funds available to improve the level of your video productions. As Roger Corman once said, “I put my budget in front of the camera…not into my offices.

Steve

[Chris Anderson]

I too am in this position and have decided to add an addition to my home. You can refinance your mortgage to pay for it and build equity into your home. Why spend the money on rent. Plus all the additional costs, phone, electric, cable, security etc. These are always more expensive when commercial. You can build what you want for a fractrion of the costs. Working at home maked the hours of this business more tolerable.

However, if you plan to have employees one day this can be a zoning issue.

Chris