Our Home-Office

We used to have a home-office set-up for VitalStrats during its first few months of operation.

We set-up our own telephone line, bought a fax machine along with our then powerful single PC workstation. I sleep next to the computer and fax machine and we have no definite working hours. I work till the wee hours of the morning and wake up with the sound of the phone ringing. I answer the clients with a husky bedroom voice.

Whenever we leave for meetings, I tell my mother to answer the phone with our company greeting spiel, and to note down client messages and queries. We don’t pay electrical bills, I just contribute a meager amount to my parents. Meals are served for breakfast till dinner and I am free to watch tv anytime I want. It was so comforting and I felt so free. It’s like being a bum and working when I just feel like it.

So what made us decide to rent our own place when working at home can be oh so comforting?

After a few months, we started to feel that it’s about time to move out. Being a below the line advertising company, we can’t avoid situations where clients have to come over, view our work as we revise impromptu. One time, a client-friend surprised us and I had no choice but to let him in my messy room where our workstation is. He had to tip-toe through my unmade bed and scattered pillows. There was another time when a prospective American-Swedish client called to discuss a website design project. I had to breathe deep before engaging in the call because I have to project a very confident, business-like, articulate English-speaking conversational tone to be able to impress him and close the deal. As I manage to control my nose and ears from bleeding, suddenly my 8–month old visiting baby cousin helplessly cries in the background. Can you imagine that? On other scenarios, our dog Nina barks furiously whenever somebody peaks at our gate. It’s even worse when speeding motorcycles and tricycles pass by.

Last April was our third year in our humble Quezon City office. We plan to stay there in the next couple of years until we feel the need to get a bigger space. The rent, the electricity, the distance from my home, the 9-6 work hours – having a real working space --- has been a big leap for the company and has brought us a lot of opportunities.

Whenever I dream big and have a vision of the very long road we still need to take to realize our vision, sometimes looking back to where we were a few years back makes me realize that we’ve traveled a long way after all. It makes me feel good and inspired that we have managed to survive the three long years. Up to now our client base is still growing and there are plans of expanding. We’re taking it slowly but surely. We’re walking in the right direction and there’s no turning back.