When Bridget Ayers left her career as a loan broker to launch Get Smart Web Consulting, her digital marketing company, she started, like many entrepreneurs looking to get their businesses off the ground, working from home and setting up business meetings in coffee houses.
Though some might romanticize the idea of working from home and setting up shop at a local Starbucks, Ayers soon realized that these are less-than-ideal places to do business.
"Coffee shop meetings get old really fast," she said. "It's hard to have a conversation in a coffee shop, and when you want to show your client something, it's often difficult… and at home there are too many distractions."
Earlier this summer, Ayers and her husband, Evan Jastrow, launched Get Smart WorkSpaces, a co-working office nestled inside a business park building at 2888 Loker Ave. E., Ste. 111. The space is geared toward work-at-home business owners, telecommuters and entrepreneurs who want to move outside the home and other nontraditional work spaces.
Stylish and bright, with sleek custom-made desks (built by Jastrow), the workspace offers open areas and several shared offices, meeting rooms, a conference room for seminars, fully integrated Wi-Fi and easily accessible power outlets. Other amenities include smart TVs for video conferences, a kitchen area and walls painted with a dry erase coating that allows you to write and erase on them. One of the most striking features is the outside atrium, where bubbling waterfalls, green plants, natural light and thatched-roof palapas provide a work area with a tropical feel.
Customers can either rent the space by the hour, or obtain a membership that gives them 24/7 access.
Co-working spaces, once located mainly in urban areas, are becoming more popular in other areas. They have been known to foster relationship, communal spaces allowing the like-minded business owners to bounce ideas off each other and give each other advice as they work on their own project.
Ayers said the area's high concentration of small business-owners and track record for start-ups make it an ideal location for a co-working space.
"We want them to come in here and have a place where they can grow," said Ayers. "We wanted to create a place that wasn't too corporate, that had a cool vibe to it, that was fun."
David Davis, president of Winwood Design, has been holding contractor meetings at the space for a landscaping project.
"I didn't want to rent an office that was dingy and dark and didn't have anything set up," he said. "This space looks very professional … it's warm and welcoming and every time I come in I'm ready to work."
Davis said the last time he undertook a similar project, he was based out of his house, and met at hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and copy places.
None of these allowed him to set up his laptop to share what was in it with his clients on a big screen, something he can do with ease at the Get Smart WorkSpaces.
"There is only so much you can do at home and look like a professional when it comes to meetings," Davis said.
Ayers said she is hoping she can get a 3D printer that will draw more entrepreneurs to the space, and said she hopes the space can work as an incubator, helping establish new businesses.
"I would love to see someone come through here and then grow and need to move out into their own space," she said. "That would be really cool."
Though some might romanticize the idea of working from home and setting up shop at a local Starbucks, Ayers soon realized that these are less-than-ideal places to do business.
"Coffee shop meetings get old really fast," she said. "It's hard to have a conversation in a coffee shop, and when you want to show your client something, it's often difficult… and at home there are too many distractions."
Earlier this summer, Ayers and her husband, Evan Jastrow, launched Get Smart WorkSpaces, a co-working office nestled inside a business park building at 2888 Loker Ave. E., Ste. 111. The space is geared toward work-at-home business owners, telecommuters and entrepreneurs who want to move outside the home and other nontraditional work spaces.
Stylish and bright, with sleek custom-made desks (built by Jastrow), the workspace offers open areas and several shared offices, meeting rooms, a conference room for seminars, fully integrated Wi-Fi and easily accessible power outlets. Other amenities include smart TVs for video conferences, a kitchen area and walls painted with a dry erase coating that allows you to write and erase on them. One of the most striking features is the outside atrium, where bubbling waterfalls, green plants, natural light and thatched-roof palapas provide a work area with a tropical feel.
Customers can either rent the space by the hour, or obtain a membership that gives them 24/7 access.
Co-working spaces, once located mainly in urban areas, are becoming more popular in other areas. They have been known to foster relationship, communal spaces allowing the like-minded business owners to bounce ideas off each other and give each other advice as they work on their own project.
Ayers said the area's high concentration of small business-owners and track record for start-ups make it an ideal location for a co-working space.
"We want them to come in here and have a place where they can grow," said Ayers. "We wanted to create a place that wasn't too corporate, that had a cool vibe to it, that was fun."
David Davis, president of Winwood Design, has been holding contractor meetings at the space for a landscaping project.
"I didn't want to rent an office that was dingy and dark and didn't have anything set up," he said. "This space looks very professional … it's warm and welcoming and every time I come in I'm ready to work."
Davis said the last time he undertook a similar project, he was based out of his house, and met at hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and copy places.
None of these allowed him to set up his laptop to share what was in it with his clients on a big screen, something he can do with ease at the Get Smart WorkSpaces.
"There is only so much you can do at home and look like a professional when it comes to meetings," Davis said.
Ayers said she is hoping she can get a 3D printer that will draw more entrepreneurs to the space, and said she hopes the space can work as an incubator, helping establish new businesses.
"I would love to see someone come through here and then grow and need to move out into their own space," she said. "That would be really cool."