Today’s question comes from Kali at our live recording at Being Boss Miami about how to know you’re ready to make a boss investment or major purchase in your business. We’re coaching Kali through how to know whether or not the purchase of an office space will be worth it.
Emily Thompson 0:00
Hello and welcome to being boss. For this minisode we got a question live from one of our Miami bosses.
Emily Thompson 0:14
Hey bosses, Kathleen and I are honored to be speaking at venture pop a conference for creative entrepreneurs in New Orleans in September. That's right. Again, Helene and I are hitting the Crescent City, my very favorite city again, and we're hoping that you will join us. Venture pop is a two day conference held September 17 and 18th. Designed to gather creatives with the guts and grit to grow their business sounds like a place for bosses. To me, purchasing a ticket for venture pop is more than an excuse for a lively weekend in New Orleans. It's an investment in you and your business. Join us for two days of influential speakers and activities built to invigorate and educate and probably a couple of sides are x to find your community grow your business To learn more visit being boss club slash venture pop. We hope to see you there.
Kali Edwards 1:06
Okay, so I'm Kali Edwards and I am a graphic and web designer. And my business is June mango. My question is about making boss purchases. So right now I'm trying to decide if I want to basically rent an office space. And the problem I'm having with that is deciding if it's worth it if the benefit is going to outweigh the cost. So how do you kind of determine, you know, if this and this could be you know, maybe you're thinking about buying a course or like something like this, like you want to come to a conference. So how do you kind of determine that that's something that is definitely gonna be worth the money and, and everything else?
Kali Edwards 1:46
All right, I think we're gonna keep you up here. Okay, coach you through this a little bit? Um, what would you say like your core values in your design business are,
Kali Edwards 1:58
um, being as creative as possible, and working with boss ladies, basically, and also having the freedom to sort of run my business as I want. And lots of light in my life, like literally all the windows. So that's like,
Kathleen Shannon 2:22
wait, sorry, one more time be as creative as possible light and what else?
Kali Edwards 2:26
Did you working with boss, ladies? Other creatives?
Kathleen Shannon 2:31
Okay, will having an office space, help you be more creative, have more light, or work with more boss, ladies?
Kali Edwards 2:40
I think the main thing it would do is give me a better sense of structure for my day. So that's kind of like it's it's kind of like an off way of answering it. So yes, in that maybe I will be more productive is sort of where I'm at with it right now.
Kathleen Shannon 2:58
Can you practice having structure and being productive without the office space?
Kali Edwards 3:02
Yes.
Kathleen Shannon 3:04
So like what I like literally what I would do if I were you is I would practice being productive and having a structure in my day for like,
Kathleen Shannon 3:19
I just get really?
Kathleen Shannon 3:25
No, I'm just kidding. So what I would do, if I were you is practice having structure and being productive, because that's what you're visualizing an office space would give you and so literally, if I were you, I said okay, I'm going to practice being productive and structured for one month. And that might look like going to a coffee shop for a month and see what it feels like to get out of your house to work from somewhere else with light. And then reward yourself with the office space, if it's actually working for you, because that's a big financial commitment. If it's something that's not actually working for you. So my recommendation would be Practice, practice having an office space first.
Emily Thompson 4:03
My recommendation is creating like a really solid pros and cons list like if you haven't done it already. And then also like a looking forward pros and cons list like because you can think in the moment like what your pros and cons are, but let's say six months from now, like what could be a con for me whenever I had a physical office space, I sort of recreated the nine to five for myself, like I gave myself too much structure and lost the freedom of having my own business. And then think about what some potential pros could be like maybe you open yourself up to like a whole new world of like local entrepreneurs that are local businesses that you can work with. And do just a solid pros and cons with like a future potential pros and cons to and then just wait out.
Kathleen Shannon 4:48
So I actually recently went through this very same discussion with my sister Tara. We were thinking about getting an office space for braid. locally. We literally live across The street from each other. And instead of doing a pros and cons list, what Tara did was get out an organized stack of note cards. And we had kind of different like, instead of pros and cons, we had probably three or four different categories of consideration, and then just wrote on our note cards, and that way we could kind of move the note cards around based on priority and hierarchy. That's my poems, pros and cons list is that sometimes, some of my pros are weighted heavier than just the quantity of pros and cons
Kali Edwards 5:35
do like a pros cons. Interesting. Never heard of this?
Kathleen Shannon 5:38
No.
Kali Edwards 5:39
Okay, guys, so
Kathleen Shannon 5:40
laymen,
Kali Edwards 5:41
so it's called, it's Pro, I think it's plus minus interesting. So you write down to death, you technically have three columns. So you have the pluses, which are the pros, the minuses, which are the cons, and then you have interesting, which is just kind of neither, it's just interesting, you know, and you apply it. And then what you do is you go and you wait it so for the pluses, you would say this is plus two for me, this is plus five for me. And then the minuses, the same thing, this is minus one, you add them up, and then you kind of see where you fall. So it kind of becomes like a math game.
Kathleen Shannon 6:11
So do that.
Emily Thompson 6:16
done.
Kali Edwards 6:16
done
Emily Thompson 6:17
yeah, do that. And then I also want to point out like Kathleen and I both had physical office spaces before. And I feel like we've talked about even like this ebb and flow where like, sometimes I need to be working at home. And sometimes I need to be working out of the house in something more structured. And so maybe you are at a time in your life where you need more of the structure. So like signing a six month lease, or if it has to be here, like one year lease and do it, like do it and then know that you can not renew when you're done. But go into it. Knowing what you want to get out of it. Like knowing what those priorities are. And then committing to it either way, either committing to doing it and showing up and building that structure for yourself. Or if you don't do it not looking back and saying I wish I had done it just moving forward.
Kathleen Shannon 7:05
I was too hungry for an office space.
Kali Edwards 7:08
Can you bring snacks?
Kathleen Shannon 7:09
Yeah, but it's like not like going through my whole kitchen. I'm like, Yeah, don't do it if you're hungry.
Kali Edwards 7:25
Well, actually, that is what I'm thinking about. So I'd be a little less expensive. And I guess that'd be the other benefit is you meet other people there too. So that's,
Kathleen Shannon 7:34
I think, even before that, or you know, especially because I think co working spaces you can do month by month. And try it out. Oh yeah. So just try it. That's my thing is like, lean into it. Try it out. And for me, it's more of like, if I need to get out my house. I'm going to a coffee shop and then I feel part of the world.
Kali Edwards 7:53
Yeah, but the only problem with that is I can't take calls because it's so loud.
Kathleen Shannon 7:57
Oh, right. Sorry. No, you're good.
Kali Edwards 8:01
Some co working spaces have boosts that you can actually go and sit and have quiet like a private Yang. Yeah.
Kathleen Shannon 8:09
And if you're in a coffee shop, you can just duck into the bathroom.
Kali Edwards 8:12
Yeah, super professional.
Emily Thompson 8:16
They don't know you don't tell them. You're in the bath.
Kathleen Shannon 8:17
I've Skyped in my car from a coffee shop. I've Skyped in with our boss team, I just put my headphones on. I'm like, hey, guy. Like, it's just like, you're here's how I think of it. Like you're having a conversation with someone across the table. So I feel like I get like, 10 times louder on the phone. You guys, I try to be one of those people that like, talks quietly like I'm like, hello. Yeah. Yeah. Like you hear people talking like this. And it's no big deal. But like, if I was talking like this on the phone, like whoever I'm talking to, or whoever I'm talking to would be like, what? I can't hear you. And I'm like, how can everyone else have like these cute little feminine? Sexy voices and no one can hear me whenever I'm talking like this. I'm like, Oh, yeah. Okay. Did you guys get that intro on there? You know, whatever. Did you sign the con USC? Those guys like walking through airports? They're like, did you sign the contract? Like somebody says,
Kathleen Shannon 9:14
I used to get my phone and be like, is the podcast okay? Since you said the contract is being best clubs alive. Did you sign the contract? I don't do anything important. I'm sorry.
Emily Thompson 9:29
I'm gonna call you next month at your airport.
Kathleen Shannon 9:32
Okay, I love that. Sorry. I like a tangent. You're good. Okay. Thanks, Kali.
Emily Thompson 9:42
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