When my company started more than a decade ago, we started as a few guys working out of a rented condo unit in
San Francisco's SOMA district. Back then, SOMA had a reputation for being multimedia gulch due to a lot of internet/media start-ups located in the area and everywhere you looked, there was an internet company in a
loft hacking away.
While researching office possibilities in China, I thought immediately back to our company beginnings. As I looked around more, the idea of a condo office went to the top of my list. In Taishan, there are no office buildings except for those housing the major utilities in the city -- for example, power authority, cable company, phone company, etc. Other white collar settings are smaller retail bank and insurance offices but beyond that, almost all industry in Taishan is either retail, manufacturing, construction or transportation. This meant my office choice was limited to either a retail store or a residential unit.
Hence during our house hunting phase, we had to keep the office at the back of our minds. Because the plan was to follow San Francisco time, we would hire employees in China to work during the hours of 10PM to 6AM. While Taishan is comparatively crime free, erring on the side of caution is always a good policy when the risk-reward is minimal. That meant any place we chose as home needed to be a quick and safe commute to work.
Fortunately, the place we liked best for a home also had store fronts and smaller condos (800sf to 1000sf) in the same complex available for purchase. I briefly considered picking a store front. Long-long-long term, no business is forever and hence a store front might have better rental possibilities in that scenario. However, the size would be 75% smaller than a residential unit for the same price. In addition, there would be more security issues since a store front is exposed/open to the outside public. Because forecasting so far into the future is a wild guessing game, we chose the more sure route with a 960sf residential condo. At 1932rmb/sm, the cost was 172,000rmb or $24963 USD.
Now this unit was nothing but concrete so our next step was to hire a contractor to design and build out the office. Because the design was from scratch, I was able to specify a server cabinet located in a private office with cat5e wires to 9 different stations in the office. We could even knock down existing walls to make a fat L for the main area (convertible to living room plus dining room). 2 smaller rooms would be private offices (convertible to bedrooms). After negotiating with the contractor, we agreed on a price of 62,000rmb (697/sm) or $9104 USD. (Delivery price was discounted to 61,000rmb upon reviewing the workmanship.) Combined with the purchase price, my company's China office was right about $34K USD.
While I use the term "company office", my wife and I personally financed the unit for expediency's sake. Setting up a foreign corporation in China would have taken who knows how long and who knows how much. Since we don't make sales to Chinese customers, everybody told us to avoid this route as the annual taxes and fees would have been just a waste of money. Hence for official purposes, my brother-in-law is both the landlord and employer. My company contracts with him at net costs for rent, payroll and expenses. In turn, he defrays 2000rmb/mo in our cost of living in China.
Stay tuned for more about the office launch (furnishing, computers, hiring, training, work schedule).
(Filed in business capital, china)
With office build-out done, my next task was to implement the necessary technology to integrate with the main San Francisco office. Step 1 was easy -- I put together detailed specifications for my desired hardware and got quotes from... Read More
China Office Build-Out
Posted by Mossy
March 22, 2010 11:11 AM
While researching office possibilities in China, I thought immediately back to our company beginnings. As I looked around more, the idea of a condo office went to the top of my list. In Taishan, there are no office buildings except for those housing the major utilities in the city -- for example, power authority, cable company, phone company, etc. Other white collar settings are smaller retail bank and insurance offices but beyond that, almost all industry in Taishan is either retail, manufacturing, construction or transportation. This meant my office choice was limited to either a retail store or a residential unit.
Hence during our house hunting phase, we had to keep the office at the back of our minds. Because the plan was to follow San Francisco time, we would hire employees in China to work during the hours of 10PM to 6AM. While Taishan is comparatively crime free, erring on the side of caution is always a good policy when the risk-reward is minimal. That meant any place we chose as home needed to be a quick and safe commute to work.
Fortunately, the place we liked best for a home also had store fronts and smaller condos (800sf to 1000sf) in the same complex available for purchase. I briefly considered picking a store front. Long-long-long term, no business is forever and hence a store front might have better rental possibilities in that scenario. However, the size would be 75% smaller than a residential unit for the same price. In addition, there would be more security issues since a store front is exposed/open to the outside public. Because forecasting so far into the future is a wild guessing game, we chose the more sure route with a 960sf residential condo. At 1932rmb/sm, the cost was 172,000rmb or $24963 USD.
While I use the term "company office", my wife and I personally financed the unit for expediency's sake. Setting up a foreign corporation in China would have taken who knows how long and who knows how much. Since we don't make sales to Chinese customers, everybody told us to avoid this route as the annual taxes and fees would have been just a waste of money. Hence for official purposes, my brother-in-law is both the landlord and employer. My company contracts with him at net costs for rent, payroll and expenses. In turn, he defrays 2000rmb/mo in our cost of living in China.
Stay tuned for more about the office launch (furnishing, computers, hiring, training, work schedule).
(Filed in business capital, china)
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With office build-out done, my next task was to implement the necessary technology to integrate with the main San Francisco office. Step 1 was easy -- I put together detailed specifications for my desired hardware and got quotes from... Read More
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