When the theory just works

I’d like to share a bit of a feel-good story with you all.

In December ’12 I was approached by someone looking for temporary shared “office space”. The conversation went along very familiar lines; how does it all work at Cape Town Office, what kind of professionals are in the space now and of course the most important question of all… how much does it cost?

The underlying theme here was quite familiar. This was a start-up and like so many start up ventures they faced a heap of challenges and if you work in this space you’ll be very familiar with some of these…

• Company registration
• Tax clearance [SARS]
• Systems and processes
• Sales & Marketing
• Recruitment
• New business

But perhaps the biggest and arguably most tedious of challenges the start-up faces is office space, so when M4verick Digital found the Cape Town Office, they immediately understood how this would benefit them.

They moved in on the first day of 2013 with a team of just 4 – not knowing where this venture would lead, how long it would take for them to establish themselves and ultimately whether it would work, but at least they had an office space that didn’t tie them into a long and expensive lease, they didn’t have to furnish their office and they didn’t have to arrange internet. (Love you Telkom, but you’re hard work sometimes)

They walked in – sat down – and started work.

And my goodness, did they work hard! Early mornings and late (very late) nights, weekends too and so it was no surprise that they were quickly rewarded with more customers. Being in a space where they could scale up (or down if needed) meant that taking on extra staff was easy. Easy on the cash flow and easy to manage. I’ve watched them grow into what is now an established player in the digital field with a growing list of blue chip clients and outstanding quality of work. With a strong full time team of 6 and a network of freelancers they can outsource to it was time for M4verick to move into their own space. Luckily they haven’t gone far… just 2 floors up, but we do miss them here in the office, that’s for sure!

Check them out http://m4verick.co.za/clients/

The bottom line is that from my perspective it puts into practice the theory of co-working, of sharing costs and sharing a work space. It works. And that makes me very happy indeed.

Happy Spring everyone 🙂