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Transcript

Office Space: Is the Price Right? · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're continuing our series on upgrading or moving your office.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, I watched the game show The Prices Right all the time.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a certain age, you probably remember that show also.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the show is still on today, even though Bob Barker hasn't been the host in quite a while.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think Drew Carey is still the host of the show, if I'm not mistaken.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've never seen The Price is Right, which is probably very unlikely since the show's been around about 600 years, but if you've never seen the show, the basic idea of the price is right is that contestants have to guess the correct price of an item in order to win, and they have all kinds of games around that central concept.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when it comes to this idea of the price is right, that's not just a game show, though.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is a concept that is also true when you're considering the price of an office outside your house.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: If the price isn't right, it's not going to work.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the first element that I want you to think about for an office is whether you can actually afford it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me just break this down for you how this happened for me, and hopefully this will be helpful for you too.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you can learn some things from my experience.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: When I was looking for an office recently, my limit was$500 a month.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: That was my own amount that I had set in my own mind that I was not under any circumstances going to spend more than$500 a month.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter how good it was or how close it was, I just, I just didn't want to spend any more than that.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, fortunately, my current office is$400 a month because I signed up for a longer lease period.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was going to be$500 a month, but I signed up for a five-year lease, and therefore I got$400 a month.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, hang on though, as they say in infomercials, but wait, there's more.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to totally admit my ignorance here.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Those of you who have rented office spaces before or you've been involved in real estate, those kinds of things, you're going to hear what I have to say in the next couple of minutes and you're going to think, probably I'm really naive about this stuff, or I'm a complete idiot, which is totally true.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I am a complete idiot when it comes to these kinds of things because I've never rented a house before.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've never rented an office before.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So all this kind of thing was really new to me.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: If I would have known all these things ahead of time, I would have asked more questions before I went into the office, but I'm still very happy with my decision.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let me break this down here.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: When I inquired about my current office, I didn't realize that there would be other costs.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought whatever the office cost would be my only expenses, basically.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let me break this down for you.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, number one, there is something called triple net, which I had never heard of.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: That idea and that term was completely new to me.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, triple net means that certain costs of building upkeep are split between renters.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that means I'm paying about an extra 30 or 35 bucks a month.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, I didn't realize that I needed renter's insurance as well.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it turns out I do.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: They were very insistent that I have renter's insurance, which they should have.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they should because they've got tenants in there.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's about another 35 bucks a month or so.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: The office is about 100 square feet total.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a big office.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a lot in there except my computer's in there and a few other tech things, but I don't really have a lot of stuff in there.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So the renter's insurance is not really that much.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, item number three was kind of a surprise to me, and it turned out that the Wi-Fi in this building is actually pretty bad.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if I wanted good solid internet, which by the way is absolutely essential for my business, I needed to have it installed myself.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I had the guys from, so the company that we use around here is called Charter Spectrum.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I had them come and install a line.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now there was actually internet already running into the building.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I learned that many of the tenants in this office space actually have their own internet installed just because they can ensure it's really super fast and everything.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's totally fine.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: But that amounted to about another 60 bucks a month.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I just kind of assumed that whenever you rent an office, that fast Wi-Fi is automatically included.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that it wasn't an automatic thing.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So lesson learned, I guess, there.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So all these things were honestly surprises to me.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But there were some other costs that I had anticipated, like buying duplicate cords, cables, and other office accessories that I would need to set up a second office.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, fortunately, I had a lot of this stuff for my old college office where I had basically a duplicate office set up there, just like I do in my home office.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I did take the opportunity to upgrade my desk mat and to buy a new Apple Mouse and keyboard, which I had needed for a long time, honestly.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I also bought a couple of inexpensive bookshelves for my new office, and I'm also going to be buying some canvas prints of my business logos and uh book covers and other kinds of stuff, so that whenever I get on Zoom calls with people, they'll be able to see those logos in the background on the wall, which is pretty cool.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: I got that idea from my ghostwriting mentor, Nick Pavlitas.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nick is an awesome guy.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And every time I get on Zoom calls for our ghostwriting mastermind that I'm in with him, I see these really cool canvas prints he has on the wall.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're super, super cool.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so glad that he gave me that idea.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, all told, I'm in for a little over$500 a month, plus around$300 that I've spent in some accessories and duplicate items for my second office.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So technically, I've gone over the$500 limit per month that I initially set out, but I didn't realize these extra costs were going to be baked into it.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, still for me, it's totally worth it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: For me, this is a no-brainer.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: The new sense of energy and productivity that I feel from being in an office outside the home has really been priceless.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I could never get that by staying at home all day or going from random coffee shop to random coffee shop or the library or whatever.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, those kind of expenses that I've talked about might be out of your range right now.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, don't worry about it.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'd also ask you is this what is the price of staying in your current writing location?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't feel productive or happy in your home office, maybe it's time to consider switching it up.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I also want to add that this isn't just a black or white thing.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily just an issue of staying in your home office that you have or renting an expensive outside office.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are some other solutions as well.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You might consider, for example, looking at some area businesses or churches that have vacant offices and would be willing to cut you some kind of a deal.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, before signing the lease on my current office, I strongly considered approaching some area churches about using one of their empty offices a few days a week in exchange for maybe doing some writing or some content work for them.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot of creative solutions.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to think outside the box a little bit.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, all this said, I don't want you to just take my word for it because everybody's situation is different.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: For me, at my life stage and for my situation and at this stage of my business, renting an office was the right step.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: That was an acceptable expense for me.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I don't look at it as really just an expense.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I look at this as an investment because it's helping me to be more productive and focused.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: The same might not be true for you, though.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just ask that you consider whether you're happy in your current work area and what you might be able to do to change it.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's challenge.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Think about what you might be willing to spend on an office outside the home if that's something that you're looking into.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And on the flip side of that same question, if you're not happy working from home, think about what it might be costing you in terms of mental health or productivity.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: We always think of the money that we spend as an expense, but is is it actually costing you more in terms of your productivity and mental health to work from home rather than spending some money to get an outside office, if that's a concern for you.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully this has given you some things to think about.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for checking out this episode, as always, and I will catch you on the flip side.