Virtual Assistant Forums | Work from Home

Office Goddess · #1 (**permalink**) 02-11-2010

This is probably not the right place to post this, but I REALLY don't want my boss to 'accidentally' find it...

My 9-5 is now down to 4 people (from 21 a year ago) - the boss, me, and 2 p-ts who are both planning on going back to school in 6 months. Da boss works out of his house 2-3 days/week and with only 2 p-ts 'in-house' so to speak, I'm just rattling around here all alone most of the day. We have several subs who work out of their own offices/homes/wherever.

In an effort to save money, he is talking about moving our offices to a rental apartment he has attached to his house when the lease is up at the end of September. Yeah, it IS 5 blocks from my house but still...

I already know I'm going to be stuck with dismantling, organizing, moving the office if this goes through so I've been looking at 'moving checklists' to make this less painful.

I think this is the perfect time to 'try' to convince him that we should take the company 'virtual' instead of just moving everything, especially since he is already used to his subs working 'off-site.' I can't find a 'how to take your physical office virtual' anywhere - I know lots of companies are doing it, I just can't find anything on HOW they did it!

Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look? I'm beginning to think I may have to create one myself...

virtual writing · #2 (**permalink**) 02-11-2010

Lily, of course you have to create it yourself! Every situation is unique, and no one knows your company better than you. For petey's sake, you're already doing the job virtually, by your description of things! Right?!?

The writing is not just on the wall, it's all over the sky, the floor, and your boss' forehead.

(Please don't mind my dramatics ... and know I offer this in hopes for nothing but the very best for you.)

PamH53 · #3 (**permalink**) 02-11-2010

Sounds to me that you do the job, create the checklist, take the office virtual, write a book about it and make a ton of money. What is the problem????

Office Goddess · #4 (**permalink**) 02-12-2010

Originally Posted by PamH53

Sounds to me that you do the job, create the checklist, take the office virtual, write a book about it and make a ton of money. What is the problem????

I was afraid of that *sigh* I guess I'll add that to my 'what to do with myself' list (right after I: fill my 9-5 job duties, handle my Goddess clients, teach my bookkeeping class, help out w/my 92-yr-old father-in-law, deal w/my 21-yr-old son and 22-yr-old new mother niece...

Maybe I'll just find an 'office moving checklist' and use that as the base to build my own 'going from brick/morter to virtual' checklist.

Any suggestions AT ALL on where to start would be appreciated.

AJ326 · #5 (**permalink**) 02-12-2010

I believe you can take this organization to a whole new level if you can present a great plan for going virtual. Something like this will only add to your skill set. Think about how you got to where you are in your business. Use that same process and tailor it to his needs and before you realize it, you can be closer to making this a reality. Your boss would really appreciate you in the long run, because it sounds like he is looking for ways to save money and you have the answer he is looking for

.

Go for it girl, you can do this!

Wordpro Wizard · #6 (**permalink**) 02-12-2010

Lily, perhaps first draw up a proposal to present to the boss so he'll go for it without hesitation. Using "what's in it for me":

You and he are the only full time staff
If you go virtual, you and he are only 5 blocks apart so meeting is easy
Going virtual will allow him to rent off the apartment again and he'll not be paying rent on an office $kaching$!

(That last one should get him falling over himself to co-operate!)

Moving the bricks & mortar office depends on what is physically there. Furniture and equipment that can be used by either of you can go to your home offices, surplus can be sold or auctioned off. I expect you will need a reputable tech to deal with a server if you have one and getting everyone set up on some collaborative platform such as basecamp. Only you know what you have and will need.

I tried to get the partial virtual thing going with my last J.O.B. but, even though it would have saved them a lot of money, they preferred to pay me a huge salary to sit around most of the day ... no wonder they were going under.

I so hope this works out for you ... it's a dream come true!

Lynne

Office Goddess · #7 (**permalink**) 02-12-2010

Thanks Lynne. It's what I was hoping for EVENTUALLY when he retired! Good point about letting him re-rent the apartment! Since Goddess is a 1-woman operation, I hadn't really thought about the best way to collaborate as a sub but I just need to readjust my thinking to 'if he were a client', which is my ultimate goal anyway!

I'm going to start building the 'if we move' checklist and make a secondary 'if we go virtual' checklist; either way we have to do something with the furniture, utilities, etc. and will need to seriously tone down the 'personal property' unless he wants to pay for storage (which is nearly $100/month in this area for a dinky storage unit). The kicker is what to do with all his paper files (we have more than a dozen cabinets full of crap - hmmm... hiring a broke college kid to scan it all?

I'm thinking maybe continuing to use the current network server, networked to his computer at home and set up with a VNC connection for me to do the accounting directly to his server form my office without interrupting his day-to-day computer work and maybe picking up the mail 2x weekly from a post office box. The biggest issue for me is if I go sub I lose my insurance and as a diabetic private insurance is ridiculously expenseive.

Looks like I'll be doing some serious thinking about this stuff in the next few weeks. I want to have all my 'ducks in a row' before I submit the "this is what is will cost either way" scenario and maybe present three proposals - we move to his apt, we go virtual w/me as an employee, we go virtual and he hires Goddess (and, since he doesn't know about Goddess, I'll have to REALLY word that one carefully!).

dognose · #8 (**permalink**) 02-12-2010

Hi Lily,

Try "office relocation checklist" in your Google search. I came up with several hits that I think would be helpful for you.

But I think your idea of taking the office virtual is really the best! He's practically there, already!

Good luck!