This is Post No. 12 in  How to Start a Business  Series.

If you are building your first business, may be this thought crossed your mind – office or no office?.. can I start without an office.

My take. Start without an office.

Really large and significant startups with global reach have been built without an office. If you look around you will many freelancers and small business owners who work out of home. People in design, real estate and writing can all work from home.

If you doubt that you can do it without an office – hold on till you validate your idea and build the first version of your business.

You do not need an office at all, if you are,

• Going to run an online business
• Building a web app
• Starting a website
• Writing a book

If you are starting an ecommerce company, or a small consulting business, you do not need it during initial days.

If you plan to run a business like a career counselling service, you should invest in a good office. Any scenario where you expect clients to come to your office, go for an office. You can also start with a coworking space. All major cities have one or more. If you are in a smaller city with no coworking space or if the coworking space in your city is a bit far from where you live and you still want to work out of home – then get creative (still avoid getting an office for a while) and partner with another business to get desk space in their office.

If you plan to start a training venture – during initial days tie-up with a local university.

You can also tie-up with another training company that targets different industry than yours and use their space.

Good meeting rooms and virtual offices like Regus are expensive and should be avoided.