When someone asks me if we should meet in my office, I always say: “SURE! In What part of town would you like to meet?” . . . while I DO have a “Real Office,” there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 “conference/Meeting rooms”
How many of us have made our entire city our office?
Panera Bread is a great place to meet. They were the first of their kind (IMHO) to really “Get” the power of offering ample nooks and crannies, booths, and table space to accommodate intimate 1:1 meetings up to a dozen folks in need of a place to hammer out final details on a proposal . . . all impromptu – No reservations required 🙂
Starbucks is EVERYWHERE also.
When the weather’s nice, I might be found at a picnic table in the middle of Percy Warner Park. I can get more work done in that natural setting in 2 hours than I can usually accomplish in the real office in a day . . . and it’s a blast to see the occasional opossum or mouse or rabbit or deer or coyote wander through and give me that look. OH! and if someone needs to come for a quick meeting, I just guide them in 🙂
My favorite Local Bank Pinnacle Financial Partners had the foresight to install in EVERY branch a “Learning Center” with plush, comfortable chairs and access to display monitors to seat 12-15 people . . . and FREE to those who bank with them (which I proudly do). I use these rooms almost every week to host Mastermind Sessions with 12-15 High-minded REALTORS. Do you think that Pinnacle might just get some residual benefit with this arrangement? I know they do . . . A decent number of my “participants” in my Masterminds have opened accounts.
In Nashville, our Mayor Karl Dean (Who’s sweating a little these days because he just put forth a clunky tax increase for property taxes) is TOTALLY committed to making Nashville the best city on the planet in which to live – and part of his plan is “Health conscious living” including LOTS of city parks . . . He’s making good on this, and every park he adds is a new potential OFFICE.
So . . . Get your head out of that BOX that an office has to be an office . . . Anywhere in your MSA works just fine – Just DO IT!
OBTW . . . BONUS . . . every office space I mention above is FREE.
Special BONUS . . . If the weather’s nice . . . Wouldn’t you rather be working OUTSIDE with natural light (and air)?
YES?
Me too . . .
Just sayin’
Best,
b