Sharing Space: need tips, please

[Bill]

I have had a home office for the past 4 years, and I will be moving at the end of June. So, I'm looking for a new place to live, and an office space.

I decided to have a separate office space, from my living space, and I've been looking the past week.

Anyway, I have found a share situation, that seems to fit my needs so far:

right amount of time, days, excellent price, right location, and likely new clients from overflow. Also, the woman I will be sharing with, and subleasing from seems very nice, we do the same type of work, and hit it off on the phone. (haven't met or seen the space in person yet--this Thursday)

The main thing we got out of the way, is that we both desire to have set days and times, so that we don't have to be calling each other 5x a day to coordinate schedules.-- And the days she has open to share are my busy days. She is open to changing/adjusting the furnishings in the office. We will keep our supplies separate.

If you have, or are currently sharing space, is there anything that surprises you? How is it a good experience? Bad?

Thanks in advance for any advice you have,
Noel

 

[Jolly Rancher <3]

Hi,
Like any agreement you have with a person there are always assumptions made by both parties which may need discussing later if these assumptions cause problems.

Assumptions might be
1) I thought you were going to...
2) I assumed that ....

Any issues are best discussed early on rather than letting them fester. By building a good relationship with your sharer you can then discuss the little things that can irritate and defuse them before they build up.

I would suggest that you meet regularly with your sharer, rather than be a bit like ships that pass in the night. Meeting up on a regular basis will help form a good honest relationship and you never know might lead to other joint ventures like sharing a stall at a health event or joint advertising.

Best wishes

 

[Mathan]

A great Free Calendar to organize shared offices

http://www.MyCalender.net offers FREE calendars that you can create unlimited number of users who can post events or schedule certain hours as needed. No one can delete another persons post *except for the admin person.

It can be public or private. And each morning it will email you the upcoming days pre-scheduled appts. Pretty cool for free

 

[Bff Mistery!]

i was sharing a room with a girl once. she was very messy. when i'd come in her bottles would be laying all around the table. i bought in a small table to hold a warmer for towels. it had a drawer in it that i was planning on putting my wallet and keys in while i was working. it quickly became her aromatherapy bottle drawer.

make it clear that the room will be clean and always ready for appointments before you leave. this includes wiping down the table.

 

[confused.]

I have been sharing an office for almost 2 years with another person. We both do totally different modalities and use different tables, and I would say my biggest inconvenience is when she would leave her table set up and I would have to break it down and move it out of the room (VERY heavy, over 60 pounds I'd say) and just leaving her stuff set up in the room has been my biggest problem, but she is rarely there these days (she also works in another office) so it hasn't been a problem, but I just take my table down when I'm done for the week and make sure the room is clean and my stuff is put away and she does the same, but again, she's not there much these days. Just make sure you keep the lines of communication open, if you have designated days where you will be in the office, that is good because those are YOUR days. It can get tricky if someone isn't keeping up with things on their end, but as long as you have everything figured out before hand, there shouldn't be a problem.

Good luck!

 

[Mystery...]

I share space with 2 other therapists. I keep track of the schedule. It works very well for us. We leave the table as we found it. Dressed and ready to go. If one of us is booked behind the other, we leave the air on, table ready, supplies put away. Common curtesy has worked well for us.