15th Anniversary: Celebrating our journey through spaces
When I first started Real Projectives in 2008 I worked out of my house.
Since my wife was already working from home at that time, I thought it would be a great idea to share her office by setting up a table and sitting back-to-back. Probably no surprise to you, that didn’t even last a day. So, I took my folding table and chair and moved to the basement. A short time later I bought some supplies and converted our exercise room into an office that I still occasionally use. That situation worked for a while through hiring one employee. Upon trying to hire the second employee, working out of my basement proved to be uncomfortable for candidates and awkward for my family when they wanted to do something, but an employee was still in the house it became clear that we needed a separate dedicated office space away from my house to work. [many of you may now realize what we learned over a decade ago – working from home is not always the best solution]
To grow the company with our employees, we started using a shared office space in Columbia, Maryland in 2014. For several years our company grew, and we moved around to larger rooms until we had to use three rooms that made communication difficult and work inefficient. We realized the shared office environment no longer worked well for us either. And the thought of why pay rent to others when we can own our own place (we are in the real estate business) won out. I targeted both Columbia and Laurel, Maryland as locations that could be reached by employees from both Baltimore and Washington, DC and having good demographics and amenities.
After looking at both rental spaces and making offers on several small buildings, my broker located an interesting office condominium in the City of Laurel and adjacent to a nice lake and park. After a couple months of negotiation, in 2016 we purchased and renovated two units into our office and moved in early 2017. We’ve modified the space a few times over the last six years to serve as an important place to call our stable headquarters for group collaboration and socialization even as we will continue to work hybrid office, home, and travel along with some employees working remotely in other areas of the U.S.
Our journey through space and time has been an interesting one. I’m proud of how we’ve adapted over the last 15 years and am curious where the next 15 will take us!
