“The economy’s been tight, and it’s hit every sector, including mine,” said Deborah, who advises families in search of long term living situations for aging relatives. “For a while I was renting office space in Boston, but that became cost prohibitive very, very quickly. I met with a consultant, who pointed out that I met with the vast majority of my clients either over the phone or via video conference. In person meetings happened maybe once or twice a quarter – and half of those took place at the client’s home.”
The consultant acknowledged that having a Boston address was prestigious, but asked Deborah if she was willing to pay thousands of dollars each year for that prestige. “Investing in creating a home office was an up-front expense,” Deborah said, “but over the long term, it made the most financial sense for my business.”
There was only one problem. Deborah’s Plymouth home didn’t have any available space for a home office. “I thought about converting the garage,” she said, “but it gets cold out there, and I hate being cold. Besides, my husband wasn’t thrilled with losing ‘his’ space for my business.”
“We looked into having the basement remodeled,” Deborah said. She’d had concerns about working next to the family’s sometimes noisy boiler, but the Plymouth basement finishing company had an answer for that. “The system they use has these wall panels that buffer the sound,” Deborah explained. “There’s an access panel built in so the boiler can be serviced as needed, but otherwise, I hardly know it’s there. I can hear it when it turns on, but let’s be real: I could hear the heat in my old office as well.”
Having her Plymouth basement remodeled enabled Deborah to reduce her business expenses significantly. “Not only did I save on rent,” she said, “but when you factor in the costs of commuting back and forth, and stopping to grab a coffee and lunch – all those things add up fast!” She didn’t have an exact number on how much she saved, but said, “When you figure that I’m going to be running this business for the foreseeable future, it’s clear the basement remodel more than paid for itself!”
