Working from home and when to stop putting off premises

Aug 29
3 min read

Introduction

A business has operated from home for four years. Stock is in the garage, the spare room is an office, deliveries arrive at the front door, and two members of staff work remotely because there is nowhere for them to sit.

Nobody has decided that this is the arrangement; it simply continued because taking premises felt like a large step and there was always a reason to defer it. Meanwhile the business is constrained in ways that are hard to see from inside, and the family is living with a warehouse. Neither of those costs appears anywhere in the accounts.

1. Working from home and when to stop is a decision, not a default

Make it deliberately.

Continuing is a choice with consequences, and it is usually made by not choosing. Setting a review point, with criteria, turns a drift into a decision you can actually evaluate.

2. Identify what home is currently preventing

The clearest signal.

Turning away work for lack of space, being unable to hire, not being able to hold stock, or an inability to have customers visit. Where growth is being limited by the premises, the constraint is costing more than the rent would.

3. Watch for the signals that it has gone too far

They are usually obvious in hindsight.

Stock in living space, deliveries disrupting the household, staff with nowhere to work, and an inability to separate work from home at any point in the day. Each of these has a cost that does not appear in the accounts.

4. Cost the alternatives honestly

Both directions.

Rent, rates, service charge, utilities, insurance, fit-out and travel, against what home is costing in constrained growth and personal disruption. Businesses frequently overestimate the first and never calculate the second.

5. Consider the intermediate options

It is not a binary choice.

A serviced office, a coworking desk, a small storage unit, a shared workshop or a day-rate space for customer meetings. These solve specific constraints at a fraction of the cost of a full lease.

6. Check what you are permitted to do at home

Frequently overlooked.

Mortgage conditions, tenancy agreements, leasehold restrictions, planning rules and insurance may all limit business use, particularly where there are visitors, deliveries or stock. A breach can be expensive.

7. Think about what premises would signal to customers

Real in some sectors and irrelevant in others.

Some customers care about a business address and some do not care at all. Being honest about which applies to you prevents both taking premises for appearance and dismissing the point where it matters.

8. Do not take more than you need

The opposite mistake.

Overcommitting on a first lease is a common and expensive error. A smaller space with room to move, or a flexible arrangement, is a better first step than a five-year commitment sized for optimism.

9. Recognise the personal cost of not moving

The factor nobody puts in the model.

Living in the business, being unable to close the door, and a household absorbing the consequences. This is a legitimate reason to take premises, and owners frequently treat it as insufficient justification.

Set a trigger in advance: a level of turnover, a number of staff, or a specific constraint. Deciding now what would prompt the move converts an indefinite postponement into a plan, and it removes the need to relitigate the decision every few months.

Conclusion

Treat continuing at home as a choice rather than a default and set criteria for changing it.

Identify what home is actively preventing, watch for the signals that the arrangement has become untenable, cost the alternatives against the real cost of staying including constrained growth, consider serviced offices, storage and shared space as intermediate steps, check what your mortgage, tenancy and insurance actually permit, be honest about whether premises matter to your customers, avoid overcommitting on a first lease, count the personal cost, and set a specific trigger for the move.