Office Space

[Brando CalPankian]

We are at another weird plateau.

Our office and clerical duties have evolved enough that looking into someone to take the load off would be helpful, especially as my wife is 6+ months pregnant.

Our problem is we are operating from home. We have a couple of garages, and the office is in the house on 3 acres.

Folks who operated from home, when did you hire an external secretary staff? I think having anyone in my house working would be a no go, since we have kids. So maybe making a garage office would suffice?

I've not done much office work, so I have no idea what would make someone comfortable for their job.

Thanks for any input.

 

[Rusticus]

I deal with a tree company as a subcontractor that has a remote administrator. She works out of her house, schedules and administrates without ever going in to the shop. Do you think you'd lose anything if that person didn't report to the "office"?

 

[ATH]

I deal with a tree company as a subcontractor that has a remote administrator. She works out of her house, schedules and administrates without ever going in to the shop. Do you think you'd lose anything if that person didn't report to the "office"?

That'd be my first go to. Yeah, there will be some adjustments, but once those are set, smooth sailing. There are even professional administrative assistant companies where you have a good quality full time person who you are only paying part time because they are also doing the same for another company.

If you want someone onsite, is it realistic to build an office into one of the garages? I kinda thought about the possibility of building an office into the barn when I had it built. Not done, may never happen, but it would be easy to do because I left 16' between the last door and the side of the building.

Do you have water/plumbing there? AC/heat? Would bringing in a modular unit be an option?

 

[Njdelaney]

Find someone reliable to work remotely. Having them somewhere else will be less stressful if they are competent.

 

[Brando CalPankian]

Find someone reliable to work remotely. Having them somewhere else will be less stressful if they are competent.

That's the kicker. Competency is hard to come by. We'd have to make sure our SOP and job design are on point. It is a route I haven't thought of though.

 

[Brando CalPankian]

That'd be my first go to. Yeah, there will be some adjustments, but once those are set, smooth sailing. There are even professional administrative assistant companies where you have a good quality full time person who you are only paying part time because they are also doing the same for another company.

If you want someone onsite, is it realistic to build an office into one of the garages? I kinda thought about the possibility of building an office into the barn when I had it built. Not done, may never happen, but it would be easy to do because I left 16' between the last door and the side of the building.

Do you have water/plumbing there? AC/heat? Would bringing in a modular unit be an option?

I have a similar situation with my "woodworking shop". It's got everything but water, but would be easy to add water to it.

A modular would be stellar too. But again, who would be happy coming to a lonely office like that?

The remote thing is intriguing, as y'all and @Rusticus mentioned. I'll look into that more. We'd have to be super strict and clear on what tasks said person would take over as there's way less fluidity if they aren't on site. I.e less oversight and ability to adapt or improvise.

Have y'all tried this option?

 

[ATH]

...

The remote thing is intriguing, as y'all and @Rusticus mentioned. I'll look into that more. We'd have to be super strict and clear on what tasks said person would take over as there's way less fluidity if they aren't on site. I.e less oversight and ability to adapt or improvise.

Have y'all tried this option?

I have not. A friend who runs a several million dollars (probably tens of millions?) has a remote personal assistant and it works great.

I'd look into contracting with a professional management firm. They'll be more $...but they'll take care of training, etc. if one person leaves it's not starting from square 1 again, they have others who are up to speed on their system and just need to learn your specific stuff.

 

[evo]

In my county a barn/shop or outbuilding cannot have wired in heat. The county states if it’s heated it could be used for a dwelling, that pisses me off to no end

 

[southsoundtree]

That's stupid!


I Think here, you can have a kitchen or a bathroom, but not both in the same non-residential building.

 

[ATH]

That's nuts. I cannot tell you how many people I know who have heated "hobby" shops for woodworking, working on their cars, etc... not to mention commercial barns, agricultural barns, etc... It will help equipment last longer if nothing else to control condensation.

I built an "agricultural" building in an unzoned township, so nobody bothers me. Neighboring property is building a wedding venue...and has a commercial loan so has to follow state commercial building codes. At least 2 stupid things that are holding up starting:
1) Initial plans for a 4-sided open pavilion didn't include exit signs.
2) Storage barn that will be about 200 yards back will be required to have electricity. He just wants a place to keep the mower and a tractor. Probably adds $10K to the building cost, at least.

 

[evo]

Yeah it’s utterly stupid… I think you can have water but no bathroom. Space heaters are ok, but no permanent heat source including wood!
One can have these things but then it either shifts to a ‘dwelling’ or separate the parcel and the foot print of the building as ‘commercial’.
A client of mine has an old farm with a bunch of barns. He partitioned off a small corner for an office and installed a heat pump. Another barn, converted the loft for a play room for the kids and another heat pump.
Fast forward a few years and he applied for a building permit for a small house addition.
The county didn’t have record of the house (built in the early 1900’s) initially told him he had to gut the whole building to make sure it’s up-to code. Remove all the heat pumps in the barns and they wouldn’t grant a permit for that (the dwelling issue). And he has to redo his ROW access that’s been in place since forever because it’s too close to the intersection. This blocks access to one of the barns because the septic and drainfeild is in the only other alternative access point.

All this shit just to add a bedroom!