This was my first “commercial office.” This was about 15 years ago, and I rented it for $650 month.
I had my agency for 4 years by then, but had worked from home the whole time until getting this office.
The reason I started working here was because my wife is a licensed nail technician, so we built her a salon. To get it off the ground, I also rented the office next to the salon so I could be available.
We kept the salon for about 4 years before we started trying for another kid. The week we sold it we found out Hottie was pregnant with our second kid.
This office was a great learning lesson of many things:
Pay attention to opportunity cost
While being in the office next door helped the salon, looking back, for every dollar I made there I lost $100 not being available at my agency.
This office was a good “phase” to experience
I was in my early 30’s, having my first taste of financial freedom.
Was far from where I’m at now, but hitting $100,000 a year when you came from nothing was as good as being a millionaire.
It was great to experience wasting time and opportunity.
I’d have days where I’d just take it easy.
Days where I’d walk down the street to the 7-11, grab a six pack of beer, and walk back to the office and work.
Evenings I’d work all night in the office
There was zero consistency to my routine, and that’s about the time the lightbulb went off “If I’ve taken it this far without structure, just imagine what opportunities there are if I were completely intentional?”
That’s when I began hiring, and moving processes out of my head and into a project management system.
And that’s when I started doubling to $200k, $450k, $600k, and on, and eventually millions/year.
The office didn’t level me up
It showed me what I didn’t need, and what not leveling up looked like.
Foosball. Air hockey. An “office.”
None of it mattered.
Out of the 19 years I’ve ran SEO National, only twice have I had consistent spurts of working at an office outside of home. Even now owning a commercial building, 27 out of 30 days a month I’m at home.
In the end, I built a multi-million agency from my bedroom with just a thrift store desk and a refurbished laptop.
Simplicity and consistency wins.
