Archive for the ‘Essential Series’ Category

Essentials of a startup

Friday, September 26th, 2008

Windchimes is as startup as it gets. So we decided to chronicle our journey and give budding entrepreneurs a little flavor of what entails starting off on your own. So pick and choose what works for you and enjoy the rest. We are always on hand for a quick chat if you need any help. You can contact us here.

Today’s post is about Office Space. If you are two people starting out, like in our case, it is always better to have an office of your own. Working out of individual homes just does not work. You need to spend the initial phase getting attuned to each other’s working styles, swapping ideas and thriving off each other’s energy.

When we started looking for office space, between us we looked at least 40 offices! We struck paydirt when we finally found a lovely little office at Bandra Kurla Complex (incidentally one of the poshest business addresses to flaunt in Mumbai!).

So what should you look for in a office?

  • Accessibility to public transport – close to a railway station if in Mumbai
  • Proximity to your clients – so you don’t end up wasting half a day just travelling to your client’s office
  • Flexible timings – there are times you might want to do all nighters
  • Low Deposits – you are a startup, you can’t be blocking your capital in deposit.
  • Basic furniture – since you don’t want to be spending too much money doing up your office
  • Not too big, not too small – you want to factor in future expansion
  • A place you instinctively feel good about – you are going to be spending long hours here

Some other pointers:

  • Make sure you thoroughly check the place and give the owner a list of repairs/changes to be done before you move in
  • Make sure you have good chairs since you are going to be spending an awful lot of time in them

Coming back to our office, we have a lovely little garden that you can sit in and work out of. More often than not there is a lovely breeze. And the best part – we feel good coming in here everyday. So here are some pics of our office. Do drop in if you are in this part of town by getting in touch with us here.