It’s been exactly one year since we collected keys to our current office in Tai Seng, and it’s still surreal that we’re here. Moving from Joo Chiat so soon was never in the plans, but it happened.

I had already been there for 6 years, and I wanted to steady the ship (new company!) by accumulating cash reserves before we were able to facilitate a move. But that’s not the hand we were dealt with.

I met with the (previous) landlord sometime early 2022 where she informed me that she was selling the unit, and it was sold by mid-year, to a new landlord who agreed to maintain the existing lease till its expiry (May 2023).

As 2023 kicked into gear, renewal talks started… After meeting with the new landlord, I made an offer that was 40% more than what I was paying, for a two-year lease.

My plan was simple – Secure the lease for two years and use that time to grow the reserves.

Most would remember 22-23 as the time real estate prices started to skyrocket, as did interest rates and inflation. With a proposed 40% increase over two years, I felt it was a good offer. If he negotiated for a 50-60% increase, I could knock it down to one year.

He declined.

The landlord informed me that he was looking for at least a 90% increase to ‘match’ the market rate. I declined, and started the hunt for a new place.

This actually couldn’t have come at a worser time, especially as we were up to our necks in work. Imagine, 20 videos to complete in 2 months with a 3-man team (honestly it was really effectively only 2), a budget to plan for, a place to find and a lease to sign. Finding a place would actually be the easiest part. And it really was.

We loved the unit from the moment we saw it for the first time. Ironically, it was at a place that I decided to cross out very early on because I just didn’t like the place. However, the asking price was attractive.

Only 110% more than the old lease. But so much more space! The size increase was at least 3-fold, and it came with partitioned offices, tall windows, and it was the only unit on that side of the building, almost like having a private entryway from the lift. The only thing we didn’t like was the carpet, but that would be an easy fix.

Then came one more caveat… The current tenant would only be moving at the end of May, which was three weeks after the end of our previous lease. So I made the difficult decision of agreeing to the landlord’s price for an extra month’s stay as we confirmed the new place and paid the security deposit (2+1). This would give us about 7 days’ of operating between two locations as we moved.

Now, the difficult part – How to minimise disruption to operations as we made the move. But we did it and made the move, to little fanfare as I had intended.

To be honest I never wanted to move so soon. But I’m really glad we did.

Moving proved eventually to be the right decision. Business started to grow exponentially after the move. The projects we were doing started to increase in size and value and our capability started to grow even further. The extra space we had afforded us the room to be creative and could be utilised for small-scale indoor productions if needed. Less than six months later, we hired our first full-timer.

The stability of our finances was something that truly surprised me. We could have stayed and paid what the landlord was asking for, which wouldn’t have incurred moving and renovation expenses. But it would have been extremely bad value compared to what we have now.

If I was never forced to rethink the lease, I would never have truly grasped the level of progress that Playbox had made in a short span of 12 months. We had unlocked the ability to make critical decisions based on long-term value and not just simply going for whatever is lower priced for short-term savings.

As of today, we have exactly 365 days left on this current lease. What will happen in the next 12 months? Only time will tell, but I hope the odds will continue be in our favour.

(Also, the featured image is the view from our windows. Lovely and poignant, isn’t it?)