Over 500 entrepreneurs were involved in the making of this movie. SHINE is an exploration of what entrepreneurs go through to find and maintain their independent lifestyle. I was both interviewer and interviewed and had an amazing experience being on both ends of SHINE. Find out how I view the path to entrepreneurship. You might be a little surprised by what you hear…
Susan Evans and Jacob Sayles created Office Nomads, a coworking community for entrepreneurs and freelancers. Independent types who had sworn off “the office” and went solo have been lured by the siren song of genuine community at this coworking space on Capitol Hill. The space is open so “Nomads” don’t feel boxed in by the very cubicles they once fled. The goal is to blur the often hard lines between people and let go of our cultural habit of living highly compartmentalized lives. Instead of going to a coffee shop or working at home alone, Nomads enjoy office banter, and all the amenities of an office space without the hierarchy of a corporate employer or the isolation of working alone.
Sayles says that we often fool ourselves into thinking we are “more efficient” working alone, “without distraction”. An underlying passion behind Office Nomads is the encouragement of healthy, human distraction–the connection so many crave. Nomads are a thriving example that you can get work done in the presence of others. Sayles and Evans poke some big holes in the erroneous assumption that isolation in the name of efficiency is the kind of culture people are seeking.
When a Nomad has a question, someone in the room might have the answer–imagine that! Instead of searching Google you can just ask someone! I’ve found coworking to be efficient and fun. Friendships and colleagues are made. Jokes are passed, bagels shared and indeed, work gets done!
Evans and Sayles are often encouraged to expand or franchise Office Nomads. “You should start one of these in Ballard!” to which they respond “We’d love to help you do that!” They are not trying to take over the world but instead they embody the very type of community they have created. That is something worth applauding.
There are other coworking spaces popping up around the country and Office Nomads participates in a visa program that allows any member of those communities free access to Office Nomads when they are in town. Office Nomads lives within a larger community, where indie professionals stay connected across the nation and have access to a friendly office space when on the road.
Did office space exist before? Sure, if you wanted to pay for a room with a key in an executive suites building. But community for the self-employed who want to remain independent but not isolated is hard to come by. Sayles and Evans have hit the sweet spot between independent spirit and thriving community, the intersection of cool and friendly, and have created a place where efficiency does not equal lonely. As a long-time entrepreneur, I’d have to say that’s innovative, and in our time, I’d even call it revolutionary.
What is your business worth? What steps can you take to make it more valuable?
Though it’s not a perfect comparison, let’s think about valuing your business the way you might value a home. Most people scramble to make a lot of changes to their home a few months before putting it on the market, hoping that the effort they put in will make the home more valuable to a buyer. Later, they look back at their finished masterpiece, ready to sell, and say to themselves “Why didn’t we do this sooner so we could enjoy it?”
In the same way, business owners typically don’t consider the value of their business in the eyes of a buyer until they are close to selling it. And they rarely realize that making these changes sooner, rather than later, can make the business easier to manage and market and even more fun to own. Unlike a home, it can take much longer to build greater value into a business so getting an early start is a good idea.
Beyond tangible assets like equipment and real estate, there is a lot of value in a business that goes unarticulated, under-developed, or unprotected. In a workshop I am co-leading with Michelle Bomberger of Equinox Business Law next Wednesday, I’ll be talking about ways to develop and articulate aspects of your business to make your business worth more not only to a buyer should you decide to sell, but also worth more to you, the business owner for as long as you continue to own the business, with all those amazing renovations to enjoy yourself. The great thing is, the type of changes I will suggest are also the kinds of changes that will make your business appear more valuable to your customers, clients and colleagues.
Michelle will speak to the legal side of protecting the assets you currently have. For those of you who don’t have any assets in place or aren’t sure how to create assets that will make your business more valuable, we’ll explore how you can use existing or under-developed processes of your business to create intellectual property that you can own and include as assets or simply value added elements of your business.
We will touch on how you name your business and the relevance that has to your business worth and we’ll include a discussion on how you are using tools like newsletters and social media to build or damage the value of your business.
We hope you will join us as this is going to be a fun afternoon of really delving into some deep questions about your business and how to make it worth more to you and your client base as well as worth more to potential buyers.
You’re invited to attend the launch party for ThoughtShot client Claire Barnett. Seattle Mosaic Arts in Wallingford opens this weekend and I hope you will come out to support this fun new concept. At Seattle Mosaic Arts, you can create your own mosaic piece with or without a background in art or mosaics. This very simple and gratifying process is also soothing to the soul.
Many brain studies have shown that doing simple manual tasks like puzzles and crafts are extremely calming and beneficial for the brain. Imagine an activity that allows you to stop thinking so damn much–something us entrepreneurs could use a little help with–and also yields a beautiful piece of functional art when you are done!
Claire wants to reach both the Mosaic Curious (she offers tutorials so you can learn the entire process or you can just do the “fun part” and let her do the “messy part” and pick up your piece in all it’s finished glory) and the Mosaic Seasoned (she offers studio memberships and sells glass in nearly every shade).
Claire says it’s all fun but some people don’t want to get their hands dirty so she’s come up with an easy way for even the artistically timid to get involved. “They all turn out beautifully. You just can’t mess up this process!” Something Claire has told me many times and demonstrated too. I am a believer and I’m excited about getting some friends together to spend a day in the studio.
It’s not intended to be an exclusive experience, but one that allows everyone to participate. You can do mosaics alone, with a partner, friend, family group, etc. It can be a purely fun activity or one that takes you within to experience and express your love for someone in a memorial piece. I keep thinking of ultra cool things my clients could make for their businesses: mosaic address numerals for their storefront, tabletop, vase, tea tray, flower pot for entry…What needs spicing up inside/outside your office space?
Kudos to the lovely Kelly Jean Davis of FarmGirl Works who designed the logo for Seattle Mosaic Arts. The website is in development but the splash page looks great! Another great example that sometimes you have to just move forward even if every little detail isn’t in place! The show must go on!
I’ll be there Saturday, June 6, but the Grand Opening is happening all weekend, so stop by and find Claire, cowork on a mosaic she’ll have out on the table and meet some cool new folks. See you there! (Hint: It’s next to Bizarro’s Restaurant behind 45th and near Stone Way.)
Friend and colleague, Darcey Morgan Howard, and her husband, Kent, needed to sell their house quickly. Instead of going the usual route: hosting open houses, listing in the MLS and hoping for the best in a down market; they did something smarter… [Read More…]
