Need advice on shared workspace - maybe from other small business owners? or consultants?

[Anonymous]

I own a small consulting company - very small as I am really the only employee other than someone I have to do administrative tasks from time to time! I would say that I usually have 5-10 clients per year, and most of these people I see on a regular repeat basis - ie weekly or biweekly. Sometimes monthly. I would say 50% -75% of my initial consultation meetings (ie where they decide if they would like to hire me or not) are at my office, and the rest are at the client's homes. The vast majority of the followups take place at the client's homes. It varies, but I would say that 6 months out of the year I do not use the office space at all- there is no need for me to go in. Maybe 3 months I use 5ish hours of time and I would say in my busy months I might use 15 hours during another 3 months.

So, my big ongoing dilemma is about how much money I should be investing in office space. It honestly just does not make sense for me to pay for an office that I hardly ever use, and since having a baby I have dialed back the consulting a bit more (temporarily), so I am really in a place now where I could not afford a private office even if I did want one.

For the last 3 years I have been using a shared workspace in downtown DC. It gives me a great address and is super super cheap. I think they charge me $25/mo for 4 hours and then $12/each additional hour I use. About a year ago I started to really lose it with the receptionists (the place is run horribly, they kept double booking conference spaces) and I researched many other alternatives. I could not find a space anywhere in downtown DC, Tysons, Arlington or Alexandria that looks somewhat professional for anywhere near this price. I think I would really need to keep it under $200/mo. All of the other shared workspaces were just prohibitively expensive and I would have to pay for a minimum amount of hours each month (at a very high rate) that I would not even use most months.

Today I feel like I have reached my limit again. I am sitting in a small conference room that looks like shit. Extra furniture just hanging out here, a random white board that is off the wall sitting in the corner, a painting that is crooked on the wall. It's just a joke. I can't bring clients here with what I am charging them.

Does anyone have any advice or tips for me? Ideas of workspaces that I may not have heard of, or just other alternatives? I just feel like I am stuck here because of the prohibitive cost of going elsewhere and I'm hoping that there is another idea that I have not thought of yet.

[Anonymous]

The price for your current space is really cheap. Try the Mason Enterpse Center or maybe a Chamber incubator program.

[Anonymous]

We used a lawyer who had "hoteling" office space in this building:
http://www.dcexecutivespace.com/featured-locations/10411-motor-city-drive-bethesda-md-20817/

The receptionists seemed competent, his office was moderate in size and he had access to a respectable (if bland and generic) conference room.