When I started Rimu Marketing, 2yrs ago, I was amazed, delighted and surprised to find a whole new world out there. There are hundreds of passionate and inspirational small businesses in Berkshire all making a living from working independently, rather than within large corporations. More often than not there is a trigger and a reason why people make this choice, maybe because they have been made redundant, fancy something different or have a young family making it difficult to continue working in the corporate world. On the whole, people I speak are delighted with this choice and would not return to the corporate world. Having said this, there is definitely a re-occuring theme about what people miss from the corporate life and that is the team spirit, support and friendships. There is a new concept which seems to be developing in the local area which helps to solve this challenge, it is the idea of co-working, which is gaining momentum across Berkshire, it is the idea of building an office environment in an informal setting.
Co-working focuses on the idea of working with other like minded business owners in a designated space. When you want to work, head down and off you go but when you are ready to take a small breather then you can, there is someone there to chat to. It has a side advantage of helping with networking and you never know who you will meet, but that is not the main objective.
So what could you expect from this kind of experience? Well, I recently went along to “Laptop Mondays”, held at The Bird in Hand Country Inn, near Maidenhead, run my Mark Harris from the Enterprise Doctor CLICK HERE to find out more. There were 11 of us sat around the table, all busily working away. Then someone asks an open question – “What is Hootsuite? and how can it help me”, unsurprisingly conversation and debate then follows. It was a really productive day and the energy in the room was fantastic, I will definitely look to return another day.
Slough Aspire also seem to be offering a similar co-working environment with their “Pop Up Office”, available between 1-5pm every Thursday in their Langley campus. You can just turn up and use their designated space to either hold meetings, get your head down and work or engage with fellow co-workers.
There is also the slightly more expensive and formal setting of Regus offices, where you can just turn up, hire a desk and off you go.
As an aside there are of course some fantastic network events out there including The Business Girls Network, Business Biscotti, BNI, Fabulous Women, etc, it is just a question of finding the right group for you and your business.
So is this the way forward of working life of the future? If we are able to resolve this final challenge – why would you not wish to work for yourself? I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences?
Wishing you a busy and focused February!
Sophie x
