In exactly 10 days we will move out of our office storage room and into the first dedicated home we will have had pretty much since 2001.

!!!

It’s true. Early 2002 we bought our loft in Edmonton, which doubled nicely as our first studio. We had about the same amount of space as we do now, but due to the layout it was all open and we at times had up to three separate shooting areas setup at once in it. It was also where we met clients, hung client work on the walls, and so on.

The truth is that we’ve outgrown our current space. We outgrew it a LONG time ago, but have been carefully stacking our things in neat piles and behind cupboard doors for a long time, pretending that we still fit. We don’t fit.

Not only do we have no shooting space where we’re at now, but our bedroom is most definitely a storage room complete with large shelving units holding everything from studio lights to packaging materials to the christmas decor that has no where else to go. We sleep in a storage room.

The plan for some time has been that at some distant point in the future our name would come up on the list for one of the few coveted double size suites in our building, and we would move. The reality, however, is that this could be anywhere from 3 – 5 years, to never. Not so good.

A few weeks ago Reilly ran into our building manager and casually asked about the large suites – again looking towards the future. Instead, our manager replied with a laugh about those suites, but mentioned that our neighbour might not be renewing his lease. As in, now.

Sure enough, at the beginning of the month it was confirmed that the neighbour to our immediate right was not staying past August 1st, and the lease was up for grabs. Did we want it?

There’s nothing like having to make major decisions with very little finite lead time. Had it been any other suite in the building, the answer would have been no. But right next door? And we can put in a door if we want? And then we’d have twice the space? And then we’d have an actual-not-doubling-as-client-area HOME? Way to put us on the spot…

We went back and forth. We want the extra space. Based on last year’s books, we could afford it – barely. It would give us a home. It would give us shooting space again – something we’ve missed, and has caused us to leave Reilly’s side of the business literally to the side. Despite how we did last year, though, it is probably a financially irresponsible decision. It is a lot of money. In fact, it is twice what we’re paying now for our lease (go figure, two places….). While we wanted it, maybe it wasn’t smart.

And then, we did it anyways.

Everything we’ve ever accomplished has been because of some risk that we took. Sometimes you just have to take a leap. There are some really great business reasons to do it – from a sanity perspective it means a separation of work and home which is HUGE. More realistically,  it means that we’ll officially be launching our headshot studio in the fall. This was something we did in Edmonton but without shooting space here we didn’t have the ability to do this properly, but now we do. We’ve also started targeting portraits more aggressively, which is great. Two portrait sessions a month or 6 headshots a month covers the additional overhead, and our goal – at minimum – is to hit both of those numbers in addition to our existing wedding clients.

We’re excited about not having to do the mad rush clean before each client. We’re excited about being able to start projects and not having to clean them up at regular intervals (like sewing or silk screening or other things that take over the house). We’re excited about decorating our new home. We’re excited about the official launch of the second half of our business.

I keep saying that I’m going to start my next business soon, and I still don’t know what it is. So, in the meantime, I’ll expand this one.

Yay for more space!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.