Moving the business from Home.

When we first started Bubba Moe Slings, it was when we were still Aster Moe Kids Clothing. I was a WAHM, working hard with my mum (aren't mums great) who offered to help out for one day. She ended up working tirelessly everyday for me until Dad was diagnosed with cancer several years later.

We had converted 2 bedrooms into the workshop, but when the slings took over from the clothing the little workshop was bulging. The spare bedroom became the office, the foyer became the parcel point (it was hard getting through the front door at times) and the laundry became the Art dept. Slings covered the couches and the press machine lived in the lounge room.
When the then very little Ritch spilled a bowl of cereal over freshly made slings, safely waiting till my anger cooled down, the family emerged from their hiding places and promptly gave the business it's marching orders. Time to leave!
We went on the hunt. There were a few factory units for lease around but most were well, lets say plain yuk!. Most were ex mechanic shops, there was grease and grime everywhere. A new complex was just finished that had 14 units of differing sizes. One, number 11 was just the right size. At home we did the figures, the maths etc and approached the bank. The bank took around 6 weeks to give an approval, alas my desired unit was already taken, the only one out of the 14, dam!.
We spent months looking at premises that were either too big, too small, too dirty, too dodgy, too expensive.
Stuck in a post office queue one day behind an old school chum we got to chatting. It turned out that he owned the unit 11 I originally wanted. The current tenant was having difficulty making the lease payment and since he didn't use the mezzanine level, he offered us the upstairs to help ease the financial burden. It was a win-win situation. We moved in 3 weeks later. Once our sign was on the top of the building, the business seemed to be so real.
The fight began at home for the now empty double sized bedroom. Before we had moved everything out, No1 daughter had her posters on the wall and her bed already in place. I had spent the week before thinking about the layout of the room, where I was going to put my bed and the parents retreat I was designing in my minds eye. Teenagers will be teenagers and with the plethora of friends constantly at home it made sense that she occupied the mammoth room. I resigned to the fact that the natural pecking order wasn't going to be effective here. Let it be known that I do have dibs on that room when she moves out.
Home became a real home after so many years and I had to do something that I haven't done in years, get dressed and commute. The pyjama state was now at an end.
I also found that I could "close the door" to the business and concentrate on the family after 'work'. Though as a business owner it's never far from mind, I could separate myself enough to work on the business, not in the business once the gaggle of children were in bed or off doing their own things.

I left the layout to our then production manager Sarah, who is superbly brilliant with the flow of things. The seemingly huge mezzanine level with abundant space was beyond capacity 8 months later. Working her magic over and over, Sarah found more space to fit things in with the growing work flow, even devising a roundabout system. Becoming trapped in between large rolls of Dacron one day she said "It's time to move to bigger premises". This sent our landlord and downstairs business into a spin of despair. They relied heavily on the rental income. We were groaning at the thought of moving the heavy equipment. The landlord came up with the idea of extending the mezzanine level right across, tripling the current space.
At increased rent, but not with the burden of relocating it was once again a win-win situation. As the entire complex started to fill with businesses, there was also the camaraderie of business friendships that would be missed if we moved. In summer, Friday afternoons are spent at the "Complex" BBQ, a get together for all the tenants. Jamie from next door wheels out the industrial sized BBQ, everyone pitches in, with business and other issues discussed over a drink or two, it's a great finish to the working week.

Working from home is very insular and can be lonely at times if you don't have staff. There are many home business networking groups which provide vitally important connections, sounding boards and at times a reprieve from being a single entity. Government bodies such as councils and BEC's as well as private groups are found in every area. Online forums are a great resource too, which I still use myself today, but talking face to face with another person in the same situation is the best way to keep up with the demands emotionally.