I take a lot of pride in being part of entrepreneurs’ success stories. Providing space where they can set up shop, hit up resources, and connect with community is awesome. When entrepreneurs start to scale, though, they tend to hit a space ceiling. They outgrow traditional coworking space, but aren’t big enough to buy their own building. If they’ve built their business out of a coworking space, they’ve grown up with a tightly-knit community and don’t really want to leave that support system.
It’s in this in-between space where the most rewarding opportunity (for me) shows up. Giving these entrepreneurs access to flexible workspace that still allows them to stay connected with their coworking family is huge. At MAC6, we’ve housed a lot of great businesses in our coworking space who were able to grow their teams, increase revenue, and truly take advantage of the flexible space we offer.
The Success Story
One of our greatest flexible-space success stories is CompuPartners, an IT company with “never quit” spirit that offers tailored services to small and medium-sized businesses.
CompuPartners started like so many other companies. They were a two-person outfit operating out of our coworking space with little to no resources of their own. In this stage of their business life, our coworking space was an ideal fit.
Through some really good fortune and a ton of hard work, they rapidly grew the business. They tripled revenue and eliminated their startup debt. They also grew from two to five full-time employees and added a number of contractors to their ranks. Suddenly, the coworking space didn’t seem as ideal for them.
But what makes their story so sweet is that CompuPartners was able to rapidly grow their ranks, revenue, and space needs under under roof.
CompuPartners’ CEO, John Noble, knew he needed more space during this rapid period of growth. Having been part of our coworking community, though, he didn’t want to sacrifice the relationships he’d built and retreat to some cold corporate building.
Instead, he took advantage of our flexible space and moved operations from the coworking floor to a stand-alone office suite within the same building. The transition was fast and efficient – music to any entrepreneur’s ears. John was able to maintain connections with the MAC6 coworking community and still use the same resources he was accustomed to without missing a beat.
This level of flexibility is so important when it comes to running a business. John said it best when he said,
“This space and its people has influenced our culture, products and revenue in a positive way. With a dynamic environment, when our needs change, the proper support can be had quickly or instantly.“
The Benefits
Flexibility, whether it be in coworking, co-manufacturing, or commercial spaces, is of huge value to any entrepreneur. It doesn’t matter if you have a two- or 10-person company. Being able to exercise flexibility when it comes to meeting space needs (and even structuring leases) is one way I help entrepreneurs grow organically and naturally without the additional headache of managing real estate.
And I love it.
But truly, there are more benefits than just flexibility when it comes to meeting entrepreneurs’ space needs. John and CompuPartners valued the culture development programs and community we provided as well.
John’s team participated in our 8-week Expedition course that aims to build higher performing teams. The team identified their dysfunctions and worked on better understanding and collaborating with each other. All this work happened mere steps away from their office suite since we offer these programs to our tenants as well as outside companies.
CompuPartners continued having access to our on-site gym facility, lunch and learns, food truck Tuesdays, community town hall lunches, and and a solid network of other entrepreneurs and business owners in various stages of growth.
CompuPartners’ future is still being written. I love that MAC6 has been (and continues to be) part of their journey. The ultimate win for me, though, would be to help a multitude of other companies do what ComputPartners did – eliminate the space headache by offering flexibility, continue to foster growth through resources and education, and maintain connection to a community of like-minded and relationship-driven entrepreneurs.
Frankly, that sounds like heaven to me.
If you want to learn more about MAC6, get in touch about a tour or joining us for community lunch every Wednesday.