What do we do about the kids?

I noticed over the last few months that as I would talk with people about coworking, someone would ask about the idea of adding day care services.

I got very excited by the idea. Especially after reading about Cubes & Crayons in California. From a market demographic standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. More and more microbusinesses are parents, (ok, mostly moms), working out of their home.

You want your kid close, but not so close that you can’t focus on the business.

We were thinking the perfect solution would be to combine the the coworking facility with a day care service all in the same building.

Have a meeting? Need to focus? Just need some adult time?

Take your kid to the office and let the day care downstairs watch them while you get stuff done. No having to run across town or make special last minute arrangements.

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Coworking Featured on NPR Marketplace

The concept of coworking is gaining steam. I have a Google news alert set on the keywords coworking & co-working and I’m seeing new articles pop up every day.

The latest one here was from NPR’s Marketplace, the audio interview is below and they also have a great video excerpt as well.

One comment that really resonated with me:

It’s not just about socializing, it’s not just about hanging out. That is exactly the way that people find out where work is. So if they’re not getting out of their homes they will be truly unsuccessful.

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Location Shopping Update…

Spent some time this week zeroing in on locations. I toured 4 locations. 3 in Cuyahoga Falls, 1 in Akron.

I toured the 1 United Building in Akron. It’s a beautiful location right in the historic district of downtown Akron. Beautiful outside, although inside it felt very ‘corporate’.

Still, the surrounding area is cool - with Mocha Maiden, Crave & the Chop House right across the street…and an Einstein’s Bagel Bros on the corner.

The only problem was the cost. The cost per square foot and charges for parking — I think it would make the membership fees cost prohibitive for our target market.

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Here come the big boys…

Rockefeller Group Business Centers has announced the opening of it’s first coworking facility at their 48 Wall Street location in NYC. I also heard rumblings that Regus has been toying with the idea in San Francisco.

While I’ll admit the competitive side of me cringes at the thought of the heavy weights getting involved. I do think there’s plenty of room for everybody at this point.
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A Little Love for Our Local Chambers…

We had two really great meetings this week.

One with Laura Petrella, CEO of the Cuyahoga Falls Chamber of Commerce and one with Patricia Pell, Home business Network Leader & Brad Nellis, Director of Member Networks for COSE (Council of Smaller Enterprises).

Cuyahoga Falls Chamber

Laura was extremely helpful. No sooner had we left the meeting than she had several emails waiting for me in my inbox — all pointing me to local lots that were available and city programs designed to encourage economic growth in downtown Cuyahoga Falls. Stuff that would have taken us hours to track down ourselves, she was able to zero in on immediately.

She understood the concept of coworking and immediately got it.

That and Laura is just an extremely savvy & gregarious person. It was kind of cool because she mentioned she was reading Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, one of my favorites. We quickly agreed she was a ‘connector’ — someone who’s able to bring people together to make things happen — to paraphrase Gladwell.
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