This Crazy Audio Business. A real problem.

Sorry Guy's I'm venting today but I spent 3 hours last night looking for stuff I know I have but couldn't find:
How many of you guys (girls) have a shop outside of your home. And how much does it cost you?? I have slightly over sized garage that's full, and (2X) 10' X 20' mini storages at a cost of $300.00 a month. I also use the formal living room in the house for the office, design and CAD ect area. I'm considering looking at some commercial space to get it all under one roof.
The problem is cost. If I look long and hard, I might find say 2000 square feet for $900.00 a month. Add another $300.00 for utilities and phone and we're at $1200.00 a month just to have a place to work. This doesn't include the insurance to cover all you expensive equipment. NOW let's say we make a minimum of 30% profit in our work and we've got plenty of work to do. This means we have to BILL $3600.00 a month to have the profit available just to pay the rent! and this means you don't get to pay YOURSELF ANY of the first $3600.00 of each month income.

How many members here are faced with the same problem? and what solutions are you considering?

RonL

I have the same issues, but no matter how I turn it over I can't see a way to make it work economically. Unless you can comfortably handle the cost of the new space from existing business, or the new space itself will bring an increase in income large enough to cover itself - like an additional mastering room or increased productivity, then it's just a drag on cash flow. I also have the issue of my work intruding on my family and my family distracting me when I work, but I just can't see how to make it happen without something else in the equation changing. I wish I could.

The other possiblity is, could you find a space in an existing business where there might be some symbiosis? Just be sure your deal spells out what belongs to you, because if you have a parting of the ways or they go broke possession is 90% of the law, as they say.

Good luck :thumb:

Does your lot have any space to build a detached building, or any way to add on to the house? Although the initial expense would be greater (and maybe bump your property taxes a little), in the long run it would be cheaper and more convenient. Does your garage being full mean you have no place to work? (I certainly hope you don't have a car in it.) Maybe you could put some Tuffshed type storage outside to offload some of the crap in the garage.

The downside to anything you do, if you're like me, is that you just keep accumulating crap and pretty soon you're back to square one, no matter how much space you've added on. I told myself several years ago that I wasn't going to buy anything that I could still get at a store, even if it was a killer deal or just sitting in a dumpster, and only go buy something when I needed it. But then there were those speakers out in the loose trash pickup, the cable box in the dumpster, the electroconvulsive therapy machine ("Reiter Electrostimulator") at St. Vincent de Paul's, ...

going to commercial space outside of residential property is a tough task... overhead goes up big time....

understand there will be other costs you havent even considered.

take that $3600 and add another 50 to 75% to it...

do you have clients that will be coming into your business? if so what type of client? I would rather take that kind of money and apply it to a new residence with enough land to build up a small building on property... (again depending on the type of business... if your reselling audio equip this probably isnt the best choice... if your repairing equip or your doing the studio thing then it could work)

just be sure to keep your residential and business assets sepperate incase theres ever a bankruptcy...

the electroconvulsive therapy machine

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I almost bought one of those also - it looked really cool. Nice oak cabinet, tubes, cool meters, long frame jacks and switches. I thought I'd call it "the betterizer". When nothing you do makes the client happy, you plug in the betterizer, crank up the switch, pin the meters and say, "There, is that better?"

:green:

It was hard for me to pass up, but I knew it was going to wind up another piece of crap in the heap.

Sharing space seems to make the most sense. It would have to be a synergistic situation where my customers would complement the other business and vice versa. Then there's a problem of securing the area. And BTW no cars are in the garage.

Thanks Group
I feel better now.

RonL

[quote author="jrmintz"]When nothing you do makes the client happy, you plug in the betterizer, crank up the switch, pin the meters and say, "There, is that better?"[/quote]
I thought of using it on myself to try to cure this addiction to accumulation, but it sort of scares me when the instructions say:

"After the patient stiffens into the seizure fully, slowly reduce the current to about half value used at maximum, and maintain this current till the end of the seizure or a total time of 40 seconds to 45 seconds has elapsed. At the end of the seizure reducee current to zero, or stimulate breathing with 1 or 2 m.a. If any difficulty in breathing occurs, it may be off-set by a burst of current.

Of course, since ECT can cause memory problems, I'd probably forget what I already have and just get more stuff.

Space is a problem.

I have chosen to build a solution in my backyard.
7mx9m metal and lined with Tontine insulation stuff I use for speakers (cos I had heaps of it) and 9 mm MDF. I haven't decided what I will use on the ceiling yet. This is the physical version of the DIY Factory. I still have a long way to go.

Moving into an existing space would have been much quicker.

Much of this will come down to cost vers. benefit. These are always tough choices.

[quote author="jrmintz"]

the electroconvulsive therapy machine

Click to expand...

I almost bought one of those also - it looked really cool. Nice oak cabinet, tubes, cool meters, long frame jacks and switches.[/quote]
This is too much of a coincidence...I was in a chiropractor's office recently and saw one of those stimulator things not unlike this. And I thought, "That looks like an old tube comp.....DING!" :idea: Funny that there are other people in the world with thoughts that run as weird as my own. I love this forum...makes me feel sane!

Ron: My advice is...move outta N'Ville where the property is cheeper! I did! Of course then maybe you'd lose proximity to your clients...that's another problem.:roll:

Peace!
Charlie

Hi Ron,

Looking at your website I can see you have considerably more experience in the field than myself, so I'm not sure how useful you'll find my comments :wink: (and I have visited pub this evening...)

One issue with working from home (apart from being disturbed by family / pets / friends / sport on tv / domestic issues / etc) I've found is that it never quite feels like "work"... When you rent a commercial unit somewhere and get up in the morning and make the journey to "work" it feels more formal, and there's a psychological issue to this in my experience.

Maybe I'm easily distracted and lack certain discipline, but I always find I get more work done when I make a journey somewhere to more "formal" surroundings. I would also argue that there can be an amount of inspiration that one obtains interacting with other people in your daily routine that you may not get at home, working from home can make one feel somewhat "isolated" occasionally.

I do most my work from home (the "business" end), but the minute I have the cash and time to set up a proper unit I'm off.

Maybe this viewpoint is due to my peculiarities :?

Cheers,
Justin

I agree. When you get up and go somewhere to work I belive you get more done. I just know somewhere there's an old cotton wherehouse with about 4000 sq feet for $450.00 just waiting. (dream) I'm looking.

RonL

I think my viewpoint is tainted somewhat by the state of the property market in London :twisted:

What this means practically is that if there's a bunch of warehouse units going cheap, "artists" tend to flock to them like flies to a jam doughnut. Therefore, when I've worked in lockups where there are several units you tend to get a "community" vibe going, if you need a blank CDRW you can nip down the hall and borrow one, and you also get a surplus of ears to demo stuff.

J

One issue with working from home (apart from being disturbed by family / pets / friends / sport on tv / domestic issues / etc) I've found is that it never quite feels like "work"...

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That works both ways - although I've learned to be very disciplined - I've found that my family doesn't view my home work as seriously either. If I'm home and working I'm fair game to settle disputes, empty out the wallet, and my favorite: "What do you want for dinner?" I likened the disruption to approaching someone working on a potter's wheel, squashing what they're working on into a formless lump and saying, "Can I speak to you for a second?" On the other hand, there is never a moment day or night when I couldn't be working. Not good for the obsessive type who doesn't know when to quit.

:roll:

That works both ways - although I've learned to be very disciplined - I've found that my family doesn't view my home work as seriously either.

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Tell me about it! Friends also seem to think they can turn up at any time and pick your brains as well. Not only that but door-door sales, jehova's witnesses etc.

J

"Can I speak to you for a second?"

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Always when you're in the "zone" as well

It takes an hour to get into the "zone" during which time no-one distracts you, and then when you finally get that riff in your head all hell breaks loose.

J

If I look long and hard, I might find say 2000 square feet for $900.00 a month.

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Just be glad you're not in NYC-that same 2000sf would cost at least $2500 to $3000. And that's not even in a nice area . I'm looking a place to live right now, actually have been for a couple months, and have yet to find something even within a couple hundred of what I can afford. Nashville sounds pretty good to me!

Zach

[quote author="SPG"]Just be glad you're not in NYC-that same 2000sf would cost at least $2500 to $3000.[/quote]

LOL! I read this thread last night and thought the same thing (I'm in MA)... I was like "That's it! Pack your bags honey, we're moving to Nashville!" :green:

Peace,
Al.

Just 30 minutes outside Nashville, my neighbor who's a real estate agent , mentioned a property to me a few days ago...

2 story - 3300 sq foot brick colonial house, with wrap around porch
and 8.5 acres of land sitting in front of your house
and your private road.
only $550,000

Think of tree lined private road, with the different colors of fall painting the whole countryside, different colored leaves falling down on the road as you drive under the trees in your luxury car (classical music playing in your car stereo), you turn around a slight bend then you see your red brick 2 story house.... now that's priceless.

Now think it's summer time and you're moaning and complaining, and sweating as you sit in your lawn mower trying to mow the lawn.

I have to chime in with my own gripes on this one. It is becoming very difficult to start and make a small business successful in the US. This is not just an issue with audio related business. Technology is becoming really cheap and most of the times both manufacturing and repair (once major source of income) become non-profitable in light other costs. It seems that your only economical path is staying in your home and work there until you have at least double the income of the overhead of a separate place.

Global competition is your slide on a slippery slope that has no bottom. There will always be repressed societies with lower wages than the ones before.

So get ready for this wonderful new service economy where Wall-Mart type jobs will be plenty at $7 an hour. You will have to work harder, longer, under worse conditions than before and make less money just to have a job.

Not So Cheerful,
Tamas

Thanks group.
Here's my plan so far. Look for a 2-3 acre lot outside of the city where I can put an 1800 sq ft modular home. Then build a 40' X 60' metal building
on the lot. Modular homes have come a long way in the last few years and you can expand them pretty easy.