Home Office to Office Suite

Last December, I founded Kelapo, (Kel-á-poe), the premium line of coconut oil for cooking and baking.  For the past ten months, I have been diligently working on importing product, hiring co-packers, scheduling deliveries, and building a brand from my home office.  Actually, it was really a gym, converted to my home office.  Over that time I’ve slowly started to acquire more and more stuff.  Shipping boxes, packaging tape, product samples and more, were no longer contained to my office/gym but were overflowing into the spare bedroom.  It was time to move out!

I went on the search for an office with air conditioned warehouse space to store our products.  It happened to be great timing because there were a lot of units available for lease, due to the downturn in the economy.  Most real estate and mortgage companies that used to be renting have since closed up shop.  I found a great space, a little bit larger than what we currently need, but it’s in a good location and has reasonable rent.  Our new Kelapo headquarters are just north of the Tampa airport.  If the runway were extended, it would run into the office!  Which means we can hear planes taking off and landing, but it’s not annoying, it’s actually sort of exciting, like when you used to be able to go to the airport when you were a kid and watch the planes take off and land.

Moving from a home office into an office suite is much more expensive but worth the undertaking.  We were fortunate enough to furnish most of the office with used furniture bought from Craigslist.  Although, some areas are still scarcely decorated.  This move marks the start of a big chapter in our history.  It means that we will be able to grow more rapidly, bring on more employees, and eventually help us reach our goals.  It’s good to be settled back into a business routine and be finished with the move.  I can re-focus my energy around our next big moves, which will be announced in the coming weeks!

I am excited to be sharing this journey with everyone out there who follows my blog.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to share my business experiences with other start-up entrepreneurs and you can gain some valuable insights.  Please feel free to contact me or share your opinions, thoughts, feelings with everyone by commenting below.  Thanks! 🙂