The last day on my 9-5 is getting closer and closer and we need an office to run a software development service business with my two partners pretty soon. Found a nice office already and now we need furniture + equipment and here comes trouble.
Our inial estimate was ~1k per employee ($600 for a used laptop, $100 table, $250 chair). Pretty soon we realized that we definitely need 2 monitors, cause it boosts productivity quite a lot. I've done some research and came with $60 for Ikea tables (2 options), $100-$200 chairs (decided that everyone would pick what's comfortable for them) and $500 used laptop + $150 used monitor or $300 for 2 used monitors and $200 for a used PC. So still under $1k.
But now one of my partners insists that we should look very cool & modern so proposes $400-500 chairs, $200+ table and $2.5k MacBooks pro (which are not serviced in our country, so warranty repairs would take months) and the other one is more on his side, except maybe laptops. At least monitors that I've found are fine for them. Still, that's $3.5k+ for a workplace.
I agree that we should look modern and cool in the eyes of our future employees, but now we have one mid-term paying customer and would blow up half of our day 0 money on the office. I've done it before and know that service business is full of ups and downs, especially in the beginning and while it's still small. We can spend weeks looking for our next client with 0 income and that money would help to survive those periods. They have pink glasses mode on.
At least everyone agrees that we don't need a full blown kitchen, for now...
Yeah, Ikea tables are not very rigid and those $500 laptops are heavy and bulky, maybe even scratched here and there.
But does it matter that much?
P. S. We do need an attractive, nice looking and comfortable office...
Our inial estimate was ~1k per employee ($600 for a used laptop, $100 table, $250 chair). Pretty soon we realized that we definitely need 2 monitors, cause it boosts productivity quite a lot. I've done some research and came with $60 for Ikea tables (2 options), $100-$200 chairs (decided that everyone would pick what's comfortable for them) and $500 used laptop + $150 used monitor or $300 for 2 used monitors and $200 for a used PC. So still under $1k.
But now one of my partners insists that we should look very cool & modern so proposes $400-500 chairs, $200+ table and $2.5k MacBooks pro (which are not serviced in our country, so warranty repairs would take months) and the other one is more on his side, except maybe laptops. At least monitors that I've found are fine for them. Still, that's $3.5k+ for a workplace.
I agree that we should look modern and cool in the eyes of our future employees, but now we have one mid-term paying customer and would blow up half of our day 0 money on the office. I've done it before and know that service business is full of ups and downs, especially in the beginning and while it's still small. We can spend weeks looking for our next client with 0 income and that money would help to survive those periods. They have pink glasses mode on.
At least everyone agrees that we don't need a full blown kitchen, for now...
Yeah, Ikea tables are not very rigid and those $500 laptops are heavy and bulky, maybe even scratched here and there.
But does it matter that much?
P. S. We do need an attractive, nice looking and comfortable office...
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