Advice on choosing office location

I’m looking for some advice from those here on the forum with more experience than me. My partner and I have started looking for office space to move our bonding/ fugitive recovery operation out of my house. The upside to the putrid economy is the abundance of rental property available. We have two options. The first is simply finidng some space very close to the county and city courts. The second, which I am a big fan of is to get an old storefront in a bad area of town. The pluses of this are numerous. First, it puts us closer to the customer base. The simple fact that potential clients would walk and drive by the office daily would be a plus. The surrounding neighborhood is rough to put it nicely. Also due to a lack of any businesses wanting to be there, the rent would be low. We would still only be five to ten blocks from the court and only two to four minutes away, depending on how we hit the lights. The downside is we would be away from the courts and more importantly the competition. There are pros and cons to each. What do you folks think?

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John Bates
Eastern Ohio Bail Bonds
(330) 349-4443
Covering the Youngstown/Warren Area

John, I'm gonna give you some advice... it's probably worth about what you are paying for it but you might think about what I am going to say....


I have found that the best office space is located in your cell phone... I have remote forwarded numbers that ring to my office line which is located in my home... all my records and other related stuff is in one room of my home... no one comes to this location... I meet everyone either at the jail or the courthouse, whichever is convenient at the time. All those remote lines are forwarded to one line... my office line... if you want a store front... make up some very professional signs and get permission from local businesses to place them either in the window of their business or in little signs that stick in the ground near your jails, courthouses or other close proximity areas... I have small (real-estate size) signs all over and several 4x8 signs also... the remote phones are listed in the local phone books and relate directly to the area of service.... for example... my number in Farmville is a local number, the same in Halifax, Blackstone, Boydton and all the other jurisdictions I work... the ads in the book are not real large... you can spend $2000 a month if you want to for a full page in the Verizon book or the Yellow page book... I have found that if you are in a large metro area that might be what you want to do............. I did not opt for that much exposure.... depends on the size of your organization of course... my monthly phone and add bill runs less that $500 and that is in ALL the books and for ALL the phones... I also have 5 toll free numbers which are cheap, my lines are forwarded to the toll frees which in turn are forwarded to my office number, when I go out on a call I forward my office to my cell... if my daughter takes the phones I simply forward them to her... I have a friend that spends $1500 month on the same stuff and I do more business that he does.... so go figure... he also has an office in one of the AO... My little web-page, which is self developed, costs me about $150 a year... I also spend time in the courtrooms and jails and place myself in the public view... that seems to help a lot also. Putting cards in public places also helps... there are so many activities that costs little or nothing that can increase business.

My MOS has always been the KISS principle.... "Keep It Simple Stupid" If you have a stable of agents and are looking to expand and business is that good....... go for the office......... if not........... move slow.... it's hard to absorb a large utility bill or continue with a long term lease when business drops off for whatever reason... I have considered an office many times but when the pencil is put to the paper... it always comes up "no".

I am not saying do not open an office, only to study the situation very, very closely before you commit... there are many options available in this business and often times... working smarter and smaller is better... of course, you have to make that choice.

Good luck with whatever you choose. I have seen very good bondsmen go down the tube when they start to get too big... on the other hand...I might mention also, there are some really big time members in this business and in fact, on this site, that have done very well with offices and large stables of agents... fancy web-pages and other cost effective practices... I only offer a bit of advise from my side.

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Bill Marx, Sr.
"FREE STATE BAIL BONDS"
"FREE STATE INVESTIGATIONS"
DCJS: 99-176979
Cell: 434-294-0222

"Endeavor to Persevere" "Lone Watie"

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that , comes from bad judgment" "Will Rogers"

We do the same thing. We have a office but none of us are there very often. 4 phone lines forwared to our cell phones. I really dont know why the boss even pays for pffice space. Save the money unless you have a very high traffic bussiness.

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Mike
Norcal Bail Enforcement
San Jose Ca.
360 237 1721 efax
408 402 2710 work cell
DOI Bail Agent Lic 1844214
BSIS G1533544

Go hug a Tree

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Heritage and Profession Together

J.G. Marshall
MARSHALL FUGITIVE SERVICE
Lic. # 2008-392
Moderator


Its the Irish in my mind that keeps me sane,
and the Irish in my heart that keeps me strong.

First off Bill thank you for the thoughtful response. Secondly I agree on keeping this stuff away from the home. The last thing I want is an angry client showing up at my residence. That is the situation that concerns me most in this business.

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John Bates
Eastern Ohio Bail Bonds
(330) 349-4443
Covering the Youngstown/Warren Area

The only legitimate reasons for having an office are if it is required, some jurisdictions require a bondsman to have an office with files accessible to the department of insurance during normal business hours, and secondly, if your operation is in a less than desireable neighborhood, as most are, and families are more comfortable doing business with a person in an office instead of out of the trunk of a car. There have been instances where people have given money to people posing as bondsmaen, and never had the bond posted. These are usually disgruntled former bond employees so that they have a cursory knowledge of the business.

Lean and Mean!

Scott

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R.E. "Scott" MacLean III

"Leaders are like Eagles, you never see them in a flock, but one at a time"

Chesapeake Group Investigations, Inc.
Chesapeake Bail Bonds
877-574-0500
301-392-1100 (fax)
301-392-1900 (Office)

I run my office directly out of my home. listed address for paperwork is a PO Box. Like they have said, there are busy times and slow times. I have also done recovery work where each states laws are different. In NV, you cannot list a PO Box as a residence, and it is recommended that you do not list your home address. The bondsman in Las Vegas have offices for two reasons. One is very high traffic, and two, they are all open twenty-four/seven. In MT, you'll find that bondsman tie their offices to either pawnshops they own, or out of their homes. In Wyoming, there aren't many offices. Most of them are home-based. This is because the bondsman generate business from multiple cities several hours away in distance. Most cities are approximately one to two and a half hours away minimum (with Cheyenne and Laramie as an exception). So, these bondsman travel long distances to bond people out. Some of the less professionals use Teletype or overnight fed-ex. I prefer to work bondsman that have physically met their defendants.

But, since working many states, in my personal opinion... unless you are physically open 24/7, there's high traffic volume, and the jurisdiction has a predetermined standardized bail schedule (eliminating pre-trial), then there is no need to have an office. The jail or courthouse is the best office because you meet the defendant (eliminating no-shows to sign papers), get documents pertaining to the defendant, and booking photos when necessary all in one trip.

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Timothy Soule
Soule & Associates Investigations
Sheridan, WY
307-763-3134

"As Professional Bail Enforcement Agents, we secure the Risk of the Surety by lawfully protecting the interest of not only the safety and security of our Clients and their Surety Agencies, but their Indemnitors and Defendants as well."

On the other hand, we do just fine with a physical office. Our location has been a bail bond office for over 60 years.

People still come in and think that we owned the company 20 or 30 years ago and bailed them or their parents out.

We have no external advertising anymore other than a website that is currently being updated and redesigned. No billboards, yellow pages, flyers, nada.

Even though business have dropped in the last couple of years, so has it for other bail companies in our area that still run phone book ads and tv commericals.

We also provide notary, copy and fax services at a much lower cost than the copy centers. So, in the future if a bond is needed, they already know about us. And most other local businesses send people that need a notary to us.

Our neighbothood is not the best. We are 1 block from city hall and all of the city administrative offices. Next door to the 911 call center and 1/2 block from a very large catholic church.

So we get plenty of foot and drive by traffic. ( Only one drive by shooting about 5 years ago aimed at a neighbors business. )

Since we have very few skips and don't operate a BFR operation out of the office, I'm not worried about family or personal safety.

Topny
I have had the same office since 1999. I had an additional one that was closed down when pre-trial got a foot hold in my back pocket, inspiring the lean and mean attitude.

Scott

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R.E. "Scott" MacLean III

"Leaders are like Eagles, you never see them in a flock, but one at a time"

Chesapeake Group Investigations, Inc.
Chesapeake Bail Bonds
877-574-0500
301-392-1100 (fax)
301-392-1900 (Office)

I operate a bail bond agency in Indianapolis Indiana. My office is located in the suburbs and that location has worked for me. I find lot of people don't like the traffic and parking hassles of a major city downtown. My bail bond office is on the bus line and I can offer free parking.

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Jeff Downer
Jeff Downer Bail Bonds
Indianapolis, IN