I’m excited to share with you all my new office and meeting space in the heart of Goffstown village!
Erika Follansbee Photography has a new home at 11 North Mast St. in Goffstown, right across from Sully’s, in a gorgeous old brick building which houses a couple other businesses and some apartments on the upper floors. My space is in the rear of the building on the first floor. I have 3 windows in total, 2 of which face out the back of the house, and 1 peeks out the side onto Mast Rd.
My space is very “cozy.” In fact, it’s pretty small at just under 300 square feet! I have 2 rooms: one is about the size of a bedroom, and the smaller “room” is more like the size of a walk in closet. But it’s perfect for my needs.
I had been thinking in the back of my mind that someday I’d love a little office space that I could use for meeting with clients. Currently I meet clients in places like Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts which certainly serves the purpose but I’m always limited in what I can bring to the meetings. I can sometimes bring a sample album or two, but I definitely can’t bring large wall canvases to show clients, and they don’t get a good sense of the scope of my work. Now, hopefully all that will be different as I have a homey space decorated in a way that shows off beautiful prints on the walls, and lots of albums and things to look at. I’ve turned it into a bit of a showroom, so clients can get a better sense of my style of work, and take away ideas for things they can do with their own wedding photos.
This has been a really scary leap, for sure. I’d been kind of poking around the idea of renting a small space in the area, but I really didn’t want to go very far like Manchester or Bedford, and spaces on the really small side either don’t come up very often, or aren’t quite right, or are just very expensive. I truly wanted a space in Goffstown, but never thought in a million years that anything would ever come up, so when I saw an “Office Space for Rent” sign go up at this building, I was excited and terrified at the same time. Because my first reaction to things like that is to say “Nope. I can’t do it. Not me. I would fail so bad. I would crash and burn.” But still, something kept nagging at me, and I knew I would really regret it if I didn’t call about it. I had no idea the size of it, or the price, or even what it looked like and if it was suitable for what I wanted to do. It took me days to work up the nerve to call about it, and then when Peter called me back I was still terrified and thought I’d just let it pass by. Somehow I worked up the nerve to go see the space, and met the landlord Peter, and frankly it all went so fast and agreeable that we set things in motion that same day. Because I knew that spaces like that just don’t come up often. It was the right size, in the right place (it’s right around the corner from my kids’ school!), it had the right old fashioned look that I like, and with a little paint and creativity I knew I could make it look like a pretty space for my clients. I’m no interior decorator, but I could probably cobble something together.
It has been a lot of work (I pretty much had to cover up the worst wall prep and paint job in the history of the world), and a lot of money, and I’m still terrified that it won’t even be worth it. What if nobody comes? What if people would rather just talk on the phone than drive all the way out to Goffstown? I guess these are the worries and insecurities of any small business owner as we take a leap of faith to grow our business and take that big step from working at our kitchen tables to creating more of a public space.
I’m so excited to welcome future clients to visit me at my little meeting space! I don’t quite have the menu options and the baristas as the coffee shops but I do have great parking and a lot more space to ourselves! Hit me at the contact form and let’s set something up to chat about your outdoor, relaxed wedding!