Last month marked our 2-year anniversary in our current office — or, rather, one of our current office suites.
Now we're looking at some possible new office spaces where we will make our home next, and that has me looking back at the life lived inside these walls. In a way, it's hard to believe we've been here two years already. Yet it also feels like where we were two years ago was more like a million years ago. Times change.

Before getting into this building, we were doing the bulk of our work out of a home office, and used a virtual office for meetings, etc. We knew then that getting into a "real" office would constitute a huge improvement in our productivity.

In hindsight, I think we underestimated just how much of an improvement that would in fact make.

When we first moved into the building starting on the Monday after Thanksgiving 2006, we had just Suite 1, a 4-room (plus full bathroom) space on a split-level. It was not all that big, especially during our meet-ups....But we did our best to spruce it up and make it a comfy place to work.

As we grew and suites opened up in our building, we started taking them over, spreading out ... until we reached the point where we are now, with 5 out of the 6 suites and over 5,000 square feet of space....

...including a decent-sized room for our Drupal meet-ups.

Having a bricks-and-mortar presence has really helped us as a company. We start off every day with our morning huddle. We confer on things as they come up. We meet with clients in-person -- which in itself is more valuable than most people imagine. And we learn from each other.

While there apparently are companies considering going virtual — and there's no doubt many companies are doing well as virtual shops — that is something we will not do, not if we can at all avoid it. The benefits for us from being in the same space to date have far outweighed the savings in lease and commuting costs.

Yes, this little building has done us a good turn.

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