When is the right time to invest?

How do you decide when is the right time to invest in a bespoke garden workspace?

It would be very easy to write a few paragraphs to say why you should choose a bespoke garden office now. From Mybridity, of course! If we sold ‘off the shelf’ prefabricated garden buildings we might have a ‘buy now’ button, but we don’t.

A bespoke workspace is probably something you’ve been thinking about for a while; doing your research, working out the sums, imagining the space you could redeploy to transform your working world. In all likelihood, you will have more information and ideas than is useful and fatigue may set in as you try to resolve all the considerations on the path to a decision.

Choose a lens.

Let’s start at the beginning by getting comfortable with 4 headline factors...

Budget – not just the total spend but also the method of financing the project.

Productivity – more productive time bringing the prospect of higher profits.

Investment – the potential increase in the value of your property.

Values – beyond the spend, prioritising personal working or living preferences.

Prioritising an expanded view of these four topics, or a level of ‘weighting’ that is meaningful to you, will begin to describe a level of urgency that might be enough to clarify the timing of a decision.

Even if these factors make the timing of a decision obvious, we are still only dealing with the ‘here and now’. Most of us will still have a talk track describing the ‘possibles and maybes’ of the future where there will be more that we don’t know than that which we do.

So how do we reach a decision?

KISS me not!

Through much of my early career acronyms became the business language of choice with new ideas more easily validated and adopted when they were delivered in a helpful one word format. One such example was KISS – keep it simple, stupid. Brilliant! Patronising, plausible, and transformational, all wrapped up in a memory jogger you could etch on the surface of a small ring.

This works well where there are clear terms of reference, an established process, or an escalation for a final decision. It also works well for personality types dedicated to the ‘here and now’ who comfortably blaze through life’s shadows and rumble confidently from idea to action – particularly if someone else has done the groundwork. If that’s you, please jump to the ‘Contact us’ button or skip us a call!

For most people, decision making, including the decision to commission a bespoke workspace, is complicated by the practicalities of tangible needs and the seemingly endless flow of choice, promises and competing priorities which must be navigated in an increasingly uncertain world.

It’s all too easy to become consumed by analysis paralysis when we have so many channels telling us what to do and what to think.

So, what now?

If you are reading this far then let’s assume you have more than a passing interest in changing the way you work, but let’s acknowledge there is no ‘right’ answer.

We write about a number of personal and business considerations in other articles including fundamental needs or wants, space, budget and your working environment. That’s fun and intended to help, but only adds to the number of voices you could add or delete from your thinking. It is unlikely to cut through the noise and lead you to an obvious path to reaching a decision.

Stephen Bungay, Anthony Feeling and Rebecca Homkes published an excellent article in 2020 entitled How to assess uncertainty in an unpredictable world. In it they describe two disciplines to help drive through uncertainty and reach a decision. The article is focused on business decision making but offers helpful reference points including:

1. Overcome the temptation to make predictions.

No matter how much information is available, people are not very good at making predictions. If they were, we would see a lot less advertising from betting companies and I would have fewer requests to help founders and leadership teams with their sales forecasting!

If we have resolved the fundamental questions, we should accept we live in uncertain times and recognise that those factors that cause us to pause may never be relevant. Instead, acknowledge the potential for twists and turns and accommodate them as reality unfolds. The alternative is to do nothing. Ever!

2. Recognise that uncertainty is not inherently good or bad.

We almost never have all the information we think we need and it can be overwhelmingly seductive to pursue a state of complete knowledge (trust me, I’ve spent many years treading those waters!). The authors describe the future as ‘... simply the totality of events that have not yet been fully determined.’ I’ve also heard the anxiety associated with making big decisions described as emotional interest on a loan you haven’t yet drawn down. Both point to the futility of trying to resolve risks or fears associated with future events such as, for example, not billing enough to justify the workspace investment or perhaps the risk of investing in bespoke when cheaper prefabricated options might have been ‘good enough’.

There is no neat resolution, only the prioritisation of knowns and unknowns and the inevitable reshaping of events once a decision is made. Trust that you will find ways to make sure your billing grows (driven by the benefits of a bespoke workspace) and, equally, you will commit to making the best of your workspace once the decision is made either by design or through necessity.

Margin notes

Mybridity writes about factors that influence the decision to invest in a bespoke workspace but the timing of a decision will be something only you can commit to. Our observations of people who embrace the world of remote work encourage us to believe in the positive benefits a bespoke space can bring. The environment in which we work will directly impact our attitude and energy, and the utility of the space will affect our focus and productivity and the version of ‘us’ that we bring to the tasks, projects and relationships we are passionate about. While I figure out how to fit that sentence into small ring sized acronym, consider how Mybridity could help you evaluate your own options.

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Image by Florian Berger on Unsplash

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