Tag Archives: Business

Busy Day and Night

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The coworking has picked up during the day with new Full Time and some new Part Time, uh, Coworkers, signing up since September. The evenings and weekends are busy too with a mixer for Mosaicinfo.org and a photog workshop with Justin Moore a Saturday or two ago. We even have the NOWCast San Antonio citizen journalism project working here temporarily until their new digs at Central Library are available.

In the meantime, checkout some of these upcoming events:

  • Nov. 4 – Brownbag Lunch (FREE) – 11:30 am – 1 pm – Open to members and everyone
  • Nov. 5-6 – Non-profit Grant Writing Workshop ($) – 5-6, 8:30 am – 5 pm – hosted by Mosaicinfo.org
  • Nov. 6 – First Friday Open House (FREE) – 6-8 pm – James Hendricks, painter and sculptor
  • Nov. 7 – Teach a Friend to Homebrew Workshop (FREE) – 9 am – 3 pm – Hosted by Original Gomez Homebrew Club
  • Nov. 12 – Jelly San Antonio FREE coworking say – 8:30 – 6 pm

Keep an eye on our calendar. There’s more to come!

Coworking as Economic Development Engine

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Our motto down here at C4 Workspace is “Building a Sustainable Professional Community for San Antonio.” That means we’re building an internal community that is connected to the external community. And that the coworkers in our community will prosper together which will in turn benefit the the San Antonio community at large.

So it looks like New York City is thinking the same thing. In this article from the New York Observer, Mayor Announces $1.5 Million Bailout Plan for City’s Media and Tech Industry, you can read about a variety of things Mayor Bloomberg and company are trying to do to help the city recover from the financial meltdown.

I like this part…

Finding affordable office space among the city’s tech startups has been an ongoing struggle for many entrepreneurs and freelance new media bloggers in New York, too. New Work City on Varick Street, a co-working space for freelancers and startups, offers memberships for $50 to $500 per month. But discounted office space, with enough juice to power computers and servers, is in high demand. So the city is also partnering with economic and business advocacy organization Downtown Alliance to build “hives,” or coworking spaces. The first, called “Hive@55,” will be an affordable co-working space for up to about 50 freelancers at a time in a 5,000 square foot space at 55 Broad Street, the high-tech highrise built to attract more tech companies to the city.

Small and micro business have the same problems all over. One of the biggest challenges freelancers and other home based businesses face is having an affordable, professional, physical presence. And having other professionals to connect with. Which solves the universal problem of isolation. That is what coworking is all about. And it looks like New York is about to tap into that in a serious way.

So…what does NYC got that San Antonio ain’t got? KnowotI’mtalkinbout?

[Thanks to our friends at OpenSpace Coworking in Charlottesville, Virginia for the link. Hi Nikki! Hi Jeff!]

Outright.com on Co-working

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This just popped up on my Google Reader and I thought I would share. The Pros and Cons of Co-Working comes from the Outright.com blog which is full of good nuggets about running a small business and the issues that face them.

So what do you see as the Pros and Cons of Co-working? Did they miss anything? Leave a Comment!

[I really like Outright. They provide income and expense tracking for small and solo businesses through a free website. They are also part of something called the Small Business Web, a group of companies that provide online applications that help small businesses manage their day to day operations. They have integrated their apps so you can pass information from one to another. It's like having a whole staff to do your bidding. More about that in another post.]

Coworking in the Wall Street Journal

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The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article in their Small Business section about coworking. And the title struck a chord with us.

The article, Start-Ups Share Space to Shave Costs in Slump: ‘Co-Working’ Rental Deals Find Fresh Impetus as Entrepreneurs Enjoy Both Lower Overhead and Networking, goes right to the point of C4 Workspace. No matter the economy small and solo businesses have the same basic needs: a professional presence and an environment where they can grow.

Stormy Weather

Right now, the economy is not so good. Obvious, but it had to be said. What doesn’t change is that our businesses still need to prosper. Prosperity is not a solo enterprise; it depends on collaborating and cooperating with others. That may mean paying a stranger to perform some anonymous service for you or connecting with a colleague, a known quantity, to perform the same service. Which would you rather do?

Doing “commerce” is not easy. It can get messy. But doing commerce all by yourself is impossible. You will always need other people to make it fly.

What we are trying to offer at C4 Workspace is a place where you can work around other people, get to know them while they get to know you, and discover each other’s strengths. Want to be a coach? We have a few of those. Need some project management advice? C4 Workspace has a member or two that do that. Looking for people facing the same challenges as you everyday? Oh yeah, we have plenty of those.

I’m Their Best Customer!

I hope this doesn’t sound like a big sales pitch. I’m one of the people that invested to make C4 Workspace happen. You could say I have an “invested” interest. But I’m also a small business person (DoingMedia LLC) that works full time from the space. I work with great people everyday, some who do things that I do and many who don’t. I know my business image has changed since I moved into C4 Workspace. DoingMedia is perceived differently by clients, prospects and colleagues.

Is any of that a reason to cowork? Maybe. If you want to work alone it’s not for you. If you need a dose of social interaction with your business life then probably so. If you’re a lone ranger who can only do everything themself then come on down and check it out. Seriously. The worse that can happen is you still work alone and you use some of our printer ink or drink some of our ice tea. The best that could happen? Well, that’s all up to you.

p.s. Don’t you love title alliteration?