Time Capsule - Company Business and Marketing

Home Office Computing, March, 2001 by Lisa Kanarek

Tracking a decade of changes in one home office

WHO WOULD HAVE PREDICTED THAT Susan Miller, the first-prize winner of HOME OFFICE COMPUTING'S "Best Business" contest in 1991, would still be running her businesses from the same home office she worked from a decade ago?

Over the years, Miller, an author and photographer's representative, kept changes to her office to a minimum even as her businesses and employees kept growing. Miller's desk and couches are the only pieces of furniture she's added in the past decade. "I love what I have, it worked well over the years, so I haven't changed much of anything," admits Miller. Though she didn't go out and buy a new suite of office furniture, Miller accommodated changes in her businesses as the need arose by rearranging office space in her spacious 1,275-square-foot, three-bedroom Manhattan apartment.

In 1992, Miller suffered a serious leg injury that required bed rest for a full year. During that time, she continued to run a thriving photographer's rep business, Susan Miller Represents, with her business partner, Jennifer Min. But as she endured weeks of bed rest, she began to develop an interest in astrology (her mother is also an astrologer), began writing about the subject, and suddenly she had writing contracts with magazines such as McCall's, Self Magazine, and E-Company Now. In 1995, she founded Susan Miller Omni Media Inc., created Astrology Zone, and as her businesses expanded, moved her office space into the larger living room.

Miller's office is now located in her 18-foot-by-16-foot living room that looks out into the Manhattan skyline. Since her office is also her living space, Miller made a conscious decision to design a desk that looked softer and more residential than typical office furnishings. She took the brass semicircular legs from a dining room table and put a one-inch thick piece of glass over it to create a large workspace. "I don't like small desks," says Miller. "You either have to have a real desk or no desk at all!"

The hub of her office is the 13-foot-by-6-foot dining room adjacent to her living room. With a constant flow of art directors, new and current photographers, editors, and messengers on a regular basis, the dining room is as busy with traffic as Grand Central Station. She also uses a large dining/conference table for assembling press kits and mailings.

Miller turned over her former office--a 12-foot-by-11-foot spare bedroom--to her business partner, Min. The bedroom gives Min the privacy she needs while negotiating with clients. The spare bedroom office, with wall-to-wall gray carpeting, has remained the same for the past decade. "Ten years ago I made the office furniture in my spare bedroom by measuring and ordering Formica to go on top of everything," Miller remembers. She set the Formica on white sawhorses to create a trestle-style desk, then added matching Formica to extend the length of one wall.

Miller's employees like the casual office atmosphere. Edward Rubinstein, Omni Media's vice president of customer support, works wherever he feels most comfortable, whether it's on the couch, at Miller's desk, and even in the bedroom when he needs space. Her three assistants also work throughout the apartment according to their schedules.

While some home office professionals wouldn't be able to concentrate with so many distractions, Miller likes everyone working in the same room. "It makes for a friendly atmosphere," she says.

Though Miller has made few changes to her physical space over the years, she's made great leaps when it comes to technology. "I keep upgrading the technology because we are on the computer all the time," says Miller.

Does Miller ever get bored working out of the same office space she's used for two decades? "Boredom isn't an issue," she says. "I work from dawn to dusk, I never sleep or deal with traffic--what more excitement could I want?"

SNAPSHOT 1991: Susan Miller

Profession: Susan Miller Represents, an agency representing top commercial photographers

Hardware: Macintosh IIcx, Apple LaserWriter IINT, Apple color monitor, Canon PC 25 copier, AT&T 1330 answering system and telephones, Panasonic answering machine, Page America beeper with voice mail, AT&T Fax 35300, Abaton Interfax 24/90

Software: Microsoft Word, QuarkXPress, Wingz, Panorama, Prodigy, Big Thesaurus, Grammatik Mac, MacPhone Book, After Dark, Disk Fit, Suitcase II, Type Reunion

Design Mission: To carve out a professional office space in her New York City apartment

SNAPSHOT 2001: Susan Miller

Profession: CEO of Omni Media Inc.; owner of Susan Miller Represents; author of Planets and Possibilities ($27; Warner Books)

Hardware: Macintosh 64 Dual Processor with 22-inch flat cinema display, G3 laptop, two iBooks, Mac 1400c; Xerox machine #5113; Panasonic fax machine KX-5-F1000, IBM Wheelwriter 30 for envelopes and labels, three Nokia AT&T cell phones, Iomega Zip 100 drive

Software: Microsoft Word 2000; Virex 6.0; Filemaker Pro; Panorama; Quark version 4.11; Photoshop; Norton Utilities 5.2