Most people dream of having a home office. For most of my professional career, I have lived that dream. But after a series of circumstances, including adding a part-time staffer to the team, I’ve decided to leave home. WholeHeart Communications is officially located in an office space.
It all started with my work for the East Central Indiana Small Business Development Center. They work with several small business incubators and co-working spaces. After reading a blog by business advisor Tom Steiner about co-working, I longed for a co-working space. I tried to make connections to start a co-working space in my hometown. It just was not taking off. While praying about it, I just did not have peace about co-working, even though the idea excited me.
Around the same time, a fellow Prime Time BNI member gave my name to a property owner who had office space available. This property owner happened to be a family friend of ours. He asked me to tour what he had available. I immediately fell in love with a nice corner office, but the price was more than I wanted to spend. I settled on a small workspace that would be just big enough for my assistant and me. We agreed that if it was available, we’d probably need the corner office in about three months at the pace the business is growing. We started making plans to move in to our little workspace.
Our timeline for moving in fell behind by a few days, and in that time I got a call from the property owner. He had a problem. He wanted to re-use the workspace I had selected for another purpose. Would I be willing to take the corner office for the same price for the first three months? I have to say, I nearly cried on the phone. It was just the kind of news my family needed after a rough week in other areas of our lives.
Moving my office became a family project. My wonderful husband repainted the hunter green walls with a more modern gray. My kids put together furniture to fill the office. They all helped with moving and listened to me cry when there was a delay installing my internet.
I continue to be astounded at my focus while in my office. I can get my work done at work and then go home be fully present there. It’s helping me fulfill my 2017 overarching goal of “Presence over Perfection.” As much as I love my work, it’s just a piece of who I am. I’m very focused while I’m here so I can accomplish what I need to do and not have to take work home with me. When I was at home, work chased me around in my life. The freedom is amazing!
I still can’t bring myself to keep office hours, although I’m usually here from about 8:30 am-5 pm. Let me know if you’d like to stop by to see our new “headquarters!”
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