View Single Post
Old 10-19-2008, 10:54 AM   #3
Undertoad
Radical Centrist
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
It sounds like rationalization or pipe dream to me. I've been there - I rented space in a house, rather than buying it, but it was still just a bad idea which led me down a path of failure. Here then is your bad news.

Working at home is a distraction - instead, you'll have a storefront that random people can walk in at any time. Your current space is dreary - so you'll move into a 150 year old house with no built-in office lighting. Your retail idea is about a slowly dying industry, and you don't want to run it at night when people are shopping. You need to get out of the house, and it's okay for your family, because you won't have homework at night, but now you've scheduled poetry readings at night.

In order to make your monthly "nut" of mortgage, taxes and insurance, you'll have to work harder -- but you've already hired yourself an employee to do the things you don't want to do. This means you'll have to hire an accountant to do the other things you'll now be on the hook for, that you also don't want to do. The things you won't want to do will accumulate, believe me. You have a location where you're allowing the public in? Any plumbing or electrical problem has to be dealt with immediately -- and paid for immediately. Who does the cleaning? Who gets rid of the bees that take over the second floor? That porch doesn't look public-ready. Is all this under an incorporation or LLC, so that you and your family -- and your current house -- are not personally liable if somebody falls through the floorboards and sues you?

Quote:
I suppose it'd be wise to rent an office space somewhere on Main Street first to see if it works out -
Undertoad is offline   Reply With Quote