Start to Cowork
I’m Matthew Kendall and the following is taken from our podcast – Coworking In T’North, featuring Paul Hill from Hill Event Hire. This episode we talked about when you start to cowork – the do’s and don’t and how to pick a space.
Hi Paul, who are you and what do you do?
“I’m Paul Hill and I run a business called Hill Events Hire and I am a member of Newtons and I work here a few times a week usually. So my business is hiring out sound and lighting equipment for pretty much any event where you might need something like that. So it might be something like event lighting or just a disco light and if you to have a bit of a rave then you know, we can sort out the sound and lighting for that. So it’s pretty varied. And the business idea is hiring out the stuff out, delivering it, setting it up and then taking it away afterwards”.
Paul, why did you choose Newtons of Bury?
“It was literally because my wife works next door and she knew about it. So she works at the Vets next door. And obviously you’ve got a lot of information on the outside of the building that explains, you know, that you can come in, you can just have a bit of space, you know, to get some work done. Obviously, you know what it says on the outside of the building, so it just explains what it is. And she suggested it to me. I thought it sounded like a good idea. So I came along.”
So it was more to do with proximity?
“Yeah, but in fairness I was looking for some, I was actually looking for somewhere to meet customers as well”.
Does coworking work for your business?
“One thing I would say is that I never actually took seriously the aspects of working with other people. I thought it’d be more of a sort of library environment before I came here where it’d be really quiet. You know, you just sit down, get your head down and sort of work on your laptop and then, you know, if you end make making a brew with someone at the same time, then you can have a quick chat. But otherwise you basically work to yourself. And what I found is it’s actually much more involved than that because, you know, there’s a lot of conversation that will kind of break out where people will be discussing marketing ideas or something like that because most of the people here, although they’re very different businesses, the all run some sort of business where they will have similar needs such as, you know, social media marketing and stuff like that or design work”.
My advice…
You need to look at what you actually want for space. So like you’re looking for an office or home – I suppose you’d look at maybe the size of the office and what’s on offer, the parking, facilites, bills, neighbours etc. This is all relevant form a coworking space. So think about the things you need and that you’re actually looking for and note these down. So do you want a creative setting, an informal or a more formal space, meeting rooms or extra facilities like the coffee shop? I wouldn’t always advise going for the closest, it’s the one that can give you kind of the best benefits for your business and maybe the community you’re networking with.
Have you been able to pass business within the coworking space?
“Yeah, it happened almost immediately which I imagine is, you know, a bit more good luck than anything. But it was yourself, you passed on my details to Tony Hayes from the networking group business, Business For Breakfast. So he gave me a call, we had a chat and then he ended up booking me for something and off the back of that booking I received another booking. So from someone who was at the events and they wanted the same thing.
Any advice before you start coworking?
” I’d recommend just making sure that you’ve got a productive setup. Get yourself a mouse, make it a bit more comfortable, something like that.
And there we have it the tips from our January’s episode of Coworking In T’North. You can subscribe to the podcast by searching for Coworking In T’North pressing the subscribe button in most apps. The next episode’s going to be February. It’s going to be looking at the coffee culture and how that is joining in with coworking and the benefits of coffee if we drink it.
Matthew Kendall
Founder of Newtons of Bury. Rethinking property management with Newtons Estates. Helping pollinators with Bury Bee Co. Aiding those in need with apresShower Dryer.