Sharing space with other entrepreneurs leads to synergy

Synergy — The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

There’s more to shared office space than a business bargain. Not only does investing in a shared office space save you money it provides you with lots of intangible benefits. If you are going to compete in the competitive Vancouver market, you need to be at your best. An isolated entrepreneur loses his or her edge in communication skills.  It’s impossible to sell your product or ideas if you never practice the language of business.

Shared office space gives you a built in group of colleagues who can act as sounding boards and moral support.  You can do more business from a shared Vancouver office space because you are working in the heart of the business community.  Association with a group of carefully vetted tenants like those at The Network Hub gives you access to a dynamic networking group as well as their varied talents. Successful entrepreneurs need teams; the days of “wearing all the hats” are over.  A shared Vancouver office space can cut down on the time you spend searching for expertise in areas outside your core business.

The perfect partner or collaborator could be sitting at the desk next to you.

About the author: “Karen Southall Watts has been training and coaching entrepreneurs for over a decade. She teaches business courses for Bellingham Technical College.”

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Thinking about guiding principles for coworking spaces

Coworking spaces vary in design, implementation models and philosophies/strategic views. Coworking spaces may share many attributes of entrepreneurial incubators, yet they may also have fundamental differences. A quick overview of philosophies and ground principles of coworking spaces in the US shows a few shared commonalities.

Carrboro Creative Coworking Principles (Adapted from the Citizen Space Philosophy)

1. Collaboration – We strive to include a diverse group of people with a wide range of knowledge.
2. Openness – Transparency is important. We all benefit from sharing ideas.
3. Community – Creating good social connections for business and personal life benefits our work.
4. Localism – Working in our downtown helps achieve our principles and contributes to our local economy.
5. Sustainability – Sharing resources is good for our local community and the planet. Plus when we share we save money.
6. Accessibility – Coworking spaces are affordable for a diverse group of people. Spaces are handicap and wheelchair accessible.

Since the very concept of coworking is rather new (arguably around 2005), having guiding principles hasn’t become yet a pre-requisite for coworking spaces to emerge. While it’s true that explicit guidelines are not yet a requirement for one of these spaces to succeed, but they are very useful.

Having principles or philosophies made explicit within each coworking space allows for potential entrepreneurs to filter themselves according to where they are located within a spectrum of collaboration.

As I had mentioned before, the mere geographical proximity does not guarantee that an entrepreneur that spends his or her time in a coworking environment will succeed. But a healthy combination of physical closeness, collaborative environment, coworking principles and entrepreneurial spirit are all factors that might lead to success.

About the author: Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega is a Vancouver-based researcher, educator and consultant in the environmental public policy field. He conducts research in water governance, urban sustainability, comparative environmental policy and economic geography. Dr. Pacheco-Vega’s consulting studio has a home at The Network Hub.

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Answering services keep customers happier for mobile entrepreneurs

Telephone tag—that annoying thing that happens when you and your customers call and call and never connect. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your customers could leave a message with an actual person? Think of how annoyed you are when you need to leave a message and you end up listening to a recorded voice. Well your customers feel the same way.

The Network Hub can help you avoid losing customers because of telephone tag. People are far more likely to leave a message when they get a real person on the phone. This means thatlive answering services from The Network Hub can get more of your customers to leave messages for you—giving you the chance to follow-up with them. Discouraged customers who hang up on your voice mail mean lost business and lost dollars. An answering service can be especially beneficial for mobile entrepreneurs. If your business has you traveling all over Vancouver, Canada or even farther, professional answering services allow you to still be “there” for your customers.

Flexibility is a key to success as an entrepreneur, and The Network Hub provides additional phone services designed just for entrepreneurs who need scheduling and meeting room access. No more telephone tag and no more hunting for a coffee shop that’s quiet enough for your meeting.

About the author: “Karen Southall Watts has been training and coaching entrepreneurs for over a decade. She teaches business courses for Bellingham Technical College.”

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Coworking and knowledge spillovers: When does being in close proximity help?

The concept of coworking isn’t really an original thought. Humans have a gregarious nature, gathering around the dinner table to break the bread and share meals. The same can be said about coworking. People like to work around others, particularly in an environment where the risk of office politics is much lower. A shift in the economic production paradigm from an industrial to a knowledge society has also contributed to the popularization of shared office space that can be rented by the hour, the week or the month.

Coworking has gained more traction in recent years (some argue thatBrad Neuberg created the first shared office space in San Francisco), particularly with increasing telecommuting options and the rise of a whole new breed of entrepreneurs. While sharing office space with other impresarios can be seen as one of the world’s greatest ideas, the pure geographical proximity does not guarantee that cross-pollination and knowledge-sharing will occur.

Research in the field of economic geography (by the way, economic geography was the main theoretical lens of my doctoral dissertation) has found that for knowledge spillovers to occur, geographical proximity is a necessary but not sufficient condition. In the case of coworking spaces, having like-minded entrepreneurs can have a very positive impact in the general morale of each individual, some cross-pollination and sharing of ideas. However, I believe that a necessary condition for coworking spaces to succeed in fostering knowledge spillovers is to offer a foundational framework (in the form of formal or informal rules or guidelines).

Another great way to encourage the sharing of ideas in a coworking space is to organize monthly/bi-monthly gatherings where like-minded individuals can mingle and exchange thoughts on potential business ideas. It’s important to realize that just by “being there” (e.g. sitting in close proximity) does not guarantee that we will learn from each other. We need to take a first step.

About the author: Dr. Raul

 Pacheco-Vega is a Vancouver-based researcher, educator and consultant in the environmental public policy field. He conducts research in water governance, urban sustainability, comparative environmental policy and economic geography. Dr. Pacheco-Vega’s consulting studio has a home at The Network Hub.

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Leaving the kitchen table

When should you move from your home into office space?

In the early stages of your business when you are working out of your house you can keep your costs low and spend time making absolutely sure that entrepreneurship is the path you want to take. However, most entrepreneurs wake up one day, look at the pile of files spread all over the kitchen table, and wonder if it’s time to move into real office space.

Growth is the best reason for moving into new digs. You are seeing more clients or selling more products and the cash flow is good. Expanding out of your home office and into regular office space at this time helps to solidify your growth and sets you up for the next phase of business. Getting out of your home and into a dedicated space allows you to focus clearly on the core of your business. You will find you can be more productive without the distractions of television, family interruptions and unplanned visits from well-meaning friends.

“Real” office space can provide a boost to your image and marketing efforts. If you are meeting with clients, suppliers and colleagues in a room with a view to your laundry, you are not making the best impression you could. Clients expect to talk with you without hearing your children crying or smelling your pets. Image is especially important for solo entrepreneurs; you are your brand.

Shared space situations, like business incubators, provide a way for you to have real office space and to share in amenities like reception and mail service. Entrepreneurs who use shared resources can create a more professional and polished image than they would otherwise be able to afford. An additional benefit of getting out of your home office and into regular office space is increased visibility and networking opportunities. Getting out of your house and into an office can be an important step to becoming fully integrated into the business community.

About the author: “Karen Southall Watts has been training and coaching entrepreneurs for over a decade. She teaches business courses for Bellingham Technical College.”

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Being a WOMAN entrepreneur

There are moments you reflect back that are monumental moments that shifted your paradigm but at that moment you didn’t realize it. I had one of those last week at PNE of all places. Growing up I remember walking around envious of the big toys that people win playing games. As a young girl, I don’t know how this got in my head but the norm for me was a guy was supposed to win it for me (although my parents were huge advocate in me being independent and self-sufficient). It was against some sort of rules of nature to have a girl win by herself or she was incapable of doing so.

As I walk around with my friend with Elysia and after we ate everything in sight, we played some games. We played the easy games – whac-a-mole, fishing a fish and picking out some cute little ducks to win some small toys. As we were about to leave, there was a bunch of guys gathered around the test your strength game, the goal is to whack the base of the game with a mallet as hard as possible to ring a bell. As I watched guys after guys attempting to ring the bell for the big toy, they walk away with sad faces and small little toys. I thought what the heck… why not? My friend tried to talk me out of it because 1) I was wearing a tube dress, 2) I dressed like “an old woman” – her words not mine, and 3) there were too many guys watching. There was something inherently wrong about a girl wearing a dress (outwardly feminine) challenging the guys perhaps but whatever, I didn’t care about embarrassment. We were passed that after my eating marathon. Handed my $5 dollars and took a swing. At my first try, I rang the bell… the second and third try I did even better. I walked away with the biggest toy. I even heard one guy yelling to another guy, “Dude, the chick did better than you!”

As I walk away I thought of a quote by Dr. Maya Angelou “You did what you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better.” I didn’t need any one to win me anything, I can do it myself. While it took me 27 years for me to realize it – to the young ladies in my life who think they need to compromise their feminine qualities to “act like a man” to get further ahead or to rely a on guy to give them permissions shine, forget it – find your passion, follow it and do it on your term.

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The Style Spy - Erica Lam

In the business world mostly full of men, I am always excited to meet fellow female entrepreneurs.  I am very honoured to count Erica as one of my friends but our relationship is a bit more special, she was the very FIRST tenant when The Network Hub opened.  She is fierce, glamorous, stylish, charismatic, powerful but she does it all with heart.  In her pink lipstick, perfectly curled hair and her trendy garb she controls the situation whether it is in a business situation or an event for a thousand plus people.  Whether it is commanding attention in the board room or fighting for that last pair of Manolo, she does it with style – she is The Style Spy afterall.

1. Tell us what you do
Where do I start! I run the editorial arm of TheStyleSpy.com, a popular fashion/shopping blog. I work with a team of talented freelance writers, keeping women in Canada in-the-know on the hottest fashion trends, beauty must-haves and sales & deals going on around town. I’m a city expert on all things shopping. TheStyleSpy.com also hosts a monthly fashion segment onCityLights on NovusTV. I also run a marketing arm under The Style Spy Media Inc. I work with fashion retailers and shopping centres on their marketing, whether it be interactive shopping events, marketing campaigns, public relations or social media initiatives.

2. When and why did you decide to be an entrepreneur?
Just over three years ago. I had worked a few jobs post university in marketing and sales. One day I started the TheStyleSpy.com blog by suggestion of a co-worker, my concept was shopping for everyday girls. Fashion has always been reserved for the elite, I always felt that fashion should be more accessible, cause reality is, most of us don’t shop in the pages of Vogue and we do shop at chain stores and try to duplicate looks for less. Once I started the blog, it became a bit of an obsession. I thought “how could I make this a business?” – how could this passion of mine, be more then just a hobby. That was three years ago. It’s been nothing short of amazing. I honestly didn’t exactly know how I was going to make money. Sure there are advertising dollars associated with the site, but I don’t have numbers like PerezHilton.com, so I definitely had to be creative to find ways to generate revenue. I realized my strength was the loyal network of female shoppers I had built. So I started to doing events with companies likeThe Bay and Richmond Centre, driving my audience and others through social media to events and promoting their brands. I execute the events or marketing campaigns with no traditional advertising dollars – utilizing Facebook, Twitter, the Style Spy network and doing traditional public relations on behalf of my clients. It’s worked out well, with companies wanting to take chances with smaller companies and wanting to find creative ways to engage their audiences. My clients have included the aforementioned Bay, Richmond Centre, as well as Metropolis at Metrotown, the Yaletown Business Improvement Association and boutiques like Ishara, Fine Finds, Orb Clothing and Wink Beauty Lounge.

3. What was the most challenging aspect of being a woman entrepreneur from your perspective?
I’ve been very lucky in this aspect. My audience is also female, which allows me to relate and understand them well. I also work with a lot of decision makers who are female and it’s worked my advantage. They often relate to me and see me as the very demographic and market they’re trying to reach. Giving me an inside edge, cause who better to speak to an audience then someone who is part of it.

4. What is a key personal attribute you see in successful entrepreneurs?
Determination. There will be many obstacles placed in front of you. Being an entrepreneur, and a successful one at that, takes lots of hard work, perseverance, determination and a bit of luck. There will be many moments when you wonder why you are doing this, but those who succeed are those who keep going despite the hurdles. I believe the journey is also part of the story, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

5. Any advice you would like to give to someone contemplating a start-up?
Do your homework, always educate yourself. I read countless blogs, from fashion to tech to small business. You want to be in on the action, always in-the-know. Networking is also huge. You could spend countless hours studying something, but if you know the right people – it can take you there that much faster. Be humble. I find lots of “pseudo-entrepreneurs” get caught up in the whole excitement of being an entrepreneur and lose sight of what is really the nuts and bolts their business. It’s really about the business, not the fame of being an entrepreneur. Lastly, bootstrap it. There are lots of things I spent money on that I wish I hadn’t. At first, you just have to make do with the basics and forgo the fancy office, spend wisely.

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