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Steve Phillips
Founder of Purple Trout
Newport, Ky.
When Steve Phillips was ready to move his search engine marketing firm out of his home and into an office, he envisioned finding a good deal on a standard office building.
"I thought we would end being in a smaller space with tiny offices, or it would just be a big empty room with a bunch of cubicles," he says.
Instead, he was amazed at what landlords would do to compete for his business. The offers included months of free rent, steep discounts and free office furniture. One serious contender even painted the walls of the proposed office space purple to fit with Phillips' technology company's name, Purple Trout.
In the end, Phillips fell in love with an office that has more character than your standard cube farm. Purple Trout's new workspace is an old steamboat captain's residence, complete with stained glass windows and exposed brick. It's in Newport, a cross-border suburb of Cincinnati, and it's listed on Kentucky's historical registry.
Phillips loves the new setup and even went a little over budget to rent it. "Originally, nobody was looking at this space because he was asking too much for it," he says. After negotiations, Phillips was able to get one-third knocked off the rental price and began a long-term lease in May.
Purple Trout's 13 employees are happy -- they're less cramped and even have space for ice cream socials in the exposed-brick dining area. "We have oodles of room here," says Phillips.
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