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09/14/2010

How The Layout Of A Space Dictates “The Vibe” - Lessons From A Jelly

The following is a re-post from the Jelly Long Island blog.

One of the initial triggers that led to the blog post, Why are there no Coworking Spaces In Long Island?, and eventually into our growing bi-weekly Jelly event, was the book Emergence – The Story of the Centre for Social Innovation.

Emergence is the first of a three part series published by CSI entitled Shared Spaces for Social Innovation. The three part series offers a comprehensive overview of the CSI shared space model.

Part 1 – Emergence – The Story of The Centre for Social Innovation

Part 2 – Rigour – How To Create World-Changing Spaces

Part 3 – Proof – How Shared Spaces Are Changing The World

Having read all three books now, one of the concepts I found most fascinating (especially after our last Jelly) came from Part 2 – Rigour.
The most important thing to remember is that you are not just creating a physical space – you are creating a social, environmental, and psychological space too. Each of these elements deserves careful and deliberate “curating“ to achieve the vision and goals you have set.

Heres Why.

Yesterday’s Jelly was held at the Citibank Conference/Breakout Room, generously donated by Citibank and RXR Realty. As I’ve probably said a hundred times already, “the space was awesome!” We had a huge U-shaped conference table, a big area with couches, private bathrooms and more…the perfect space to aspire to when we are ready to move to a permanent space.

Anyway, as yesterday’s event went on, I was not the only one to realize that the vibe was not quite as energetic as the previous Jelly. While I heard from several folks they were able to get a lot of work done during the day, something was a little off. I even heard the word “library” thrown around a couple of times.

Around 3:30 PM, several of us in attendance gathered outside the work area to discuss the days event, and how we could improve things for Jelly #4.

Larry Reiter, President at EcoEnergy Consulting and Supply Corp, wins the prize for the most insightful post-event feedback. He noted that u-shaped configuration/formal layout of the work area was the culprit for not encouraging as much interaction as there could have been. After thinking about the layout of the room in our previous Jelly, Larry was 100% right.

In our previous location, we made a concerted effort to randomize how the tables were laid out. As a result, people felt much more comfortable walking around the room and interacting with others in attendance. The U-shaped conference configuration tended to limit the interaction in the workspace to only those who were seated right next to each other. Larry’s point was highlighted further during lunchtime where several of the attendees sat together at a rectangular cafeteria table and the conversation flowed much more readily.

While we easily could have adjusted the layout mid-stream yesterday, I am kind of glad we didn’t as it taught us an important lesson about how much the space dictates the overall vibe of the room.

On the positive side, some of the other issues we had during our first two events were non-factors, and most importantly, we added several interesting and passionate members to our growing Long Island Jelly community.

If you’re a Long Island solopreneur, start-up, freelancer or small business and want to work alongside other passionate folks “fighting the fight”, our next Jelly is for you.

Spaces are filling quickly and there is only room for 25 people. To RSVP please click here.

Image Source: Part 2 – Rigour – How To Create World-Changing Spaces

Sep 14, 2010 8:42:24 AM | affordable office space, Co-Working Space, collaborative office space, find unused office space, officebytes tv, renting an office, share office space, shared office space, small business resources, startup, sublease office space, sublet office space

06/30/2010

The Single Best Piece of Business Advice I Ever Received

I was recently invited to attend a Working Lunch with Rob Basso.

At each Working Lunch event, guests view the premiere of the latest Basso On Business episode, and get involved in a live, interactive business discussion with Rob and leading experts.The goal of Rob's lunch program is to motivate and support small businesses with innovative presentations, business growth strategies and informative speakers.

The focus of the event I attended was Matt Silver of Ultimate Class Limousine. Matt runs a very successful company but seems to have a little trouble managing the long list of tasks that he is faced with on a daily basis. In many cases, even handling tasks that are responsibilities of his employees.

After the 30 or so business owners watched Matt's video a spirited conversation ensued regarding what Matt could/should do to better organize his business. My contribution during the event = a BIG ZERO!

Anyway, a few days after the event it dawned on me that I missed an opportunity to share one of the single best pieces of business advice I ever received...especially as it is so relevant to Matt's organization challenges.

The following is a letter I sent to Rob detailing this advice (It was re-posted as a guest blog on Rob's site)

Hi Rob,

Not sure if this is too little too late, but before you write me off as a chickensh** for not participating during your event, here is my 2 cents.

My focus for the last 10 years has been growing various internet ventures which in most cases has been a relatively one-man show. Unfortunately, during the event I did not participate simply because I did not go back far enough in my pea brain to recall (aka “blocked out”) a 3 year period in which I was in a very similar situation to Matt.

In 1999-2001 I gave up my 15 client per day/7 day per week personal training business to become the managing partner in a 30,000 sq. ft health club in Long Beach that we took over from an existing company. The health club had well over 75 employees, 6 Indoor Pools, Indoor Track, Sauna, Steam Room, Nursery, Physical Therapy, Aqua Therapy, free weights, cardio, and much more.

Much like Tony’s business, the pace was frenetic and I dealt with one problem after another, making it almost impossible to ever get ahead of the oncoming barrage of problems.

Unlike Matt however, I really had NO experience in the health club business, so it was doubly challenging for me as far as getting organized. (ex. Running a facility, sales, personnel management, bookkeeping, etc. ).

Here is a small sample of a few of the “small” (yeah right) problems I had to deal with:

- The Hydraulic line which powered the underwater therapy bikes and treadmills ruptured filling an entire pool filled with jet black oil from top to bottom (think BP disaster in Long Beach)

- The entire wall of one side of the building fell into the parking lot

- The heavy glass/steel lid on the pool filter exploded nearly decapitating one of our maintenance workers

Anyway just when I thought I was never going to get my arms around this huge disaster of a business, I received the BEST piece of business advice that I ever received.

It was called the 20-80 rule for employees. If a problem occurred in any area of the health club, an employee should spend 20% of the time focused on determining the root of the problem and 80% of the time should be focused on a solution to the problem. AND most importantly, employees were not allowed to come to ME with a problem without 3 possible solutions.

I basically called for a one on one meeting with every single employee and told them that moving forward if they wanted to keep their jobs they would have to abide by this rule.

The results were amazing!!!

1) It empowered every single employee to OWN their dept, even if their dept. was simply keeping the bathrooms clean. Almost immediately everyone became an expert in their position.

2) It allowed me to make quick decisions to fix problems without having to delve into possible solutions myself.

3) It made it much easier to see which departments might require staff changes

Most importantly, it allowed me to oversee the business without having to “do it all myself”. Based on what I heard at the event, this seems to be one of Matt’s biggest issues.

Perhaps this piece of advice that was so helpful to me can also be helpful to Matt.

Dave

If you or your company has a knowledge that would help entrepreneurs or small businesses to improve the quality of their workplace, openofficespace.com would love to interview you.

Topics might include:

- Commercial Real Estate Expertise

- Workplace Wellness

- How To...(any topic related to improving the workplace)

- Creating an Eco-Friendly Office

- Office Products and Office Furniture

- Workplace Interior Design

- Streamlining Office Expenses

- Property Marketing Solutions

Jun 30, 2010 9:42:34 AM | cheap office rent, collaborative office space, commercial property for rent, corporate fitness, coworking long island, eco-friendly office, entrepreneur, find office space, flexible office space, friendly sublease, industrial space for lease, inexpensive office for rent, month to month office space, office furniture, office interior design, office space marketing, officebytes tv, open office space, propety marketing, real estate tools, renting an office space, retail space for rent, share office space, startup, sublease office space, warehouse space, workplace wellness

06/01/2010

Tips For Entrepreneurs & Small Businesses On How To Furnish The "Optimal" Office Space For Their Company

In Part 1 of a two part interview on Officebytes TV, Jenny-Lynn Georgiades, Director of Architectural and Design Support Services at Waldners Business Environments, offers entrepreneurs & small businesses some very sound advice on choosing the right office furniture to create the optimal working environment for their company.

A few good quotes from the interview:

"When and entrepreneur or a small business is planning to do a new space, I think its really important to examine closely where your company is now, and where you want to be in the future. It's important to examine your work processes..."

"Something as simple as walking through the space, and looking at some of the work arounds that people do to their environments to make it work for them. Are their pads on the chairs? Maybe they need a new chair. Are their monitors up on a bunch of books because the there not at the right height? Are their storage components empty and filled with just their shoes and their purses. These are the type of things that can help you look at how to design a new space, and to design it in a way that's functional for your employees."

"For instance, the younger generation, Generation-Y, there not going to want to work in the typical cubicle, they want to work in these different office environments, they want to work in the lounge areas in the cafes...so you want design your space accordingly if you want to attract and retain that type of employee."

"What we're really finding is the most important workplace issue for employees these days is access. Access to people that they work with, access to technology and access to information, and that's what's really driving the trends."

About Waldners Waldner’s Business Environments Inc. markets office furniture of brands such as OFS, Metro, Kimball, Steelcase, KI, and Hon. The company also offers furniture storage and refurbishing services. Its clientele include SAP, Ernst & Young, PrimeMedia, Readers’ Digest, MTV, HomeLoanBank, PepsiCo. Random House, GE Capital, Canon, and Sony. The company has strategic alliances with Adden, Buro, Falcon, Golden Oak, ISE, Jofcon, Lucia Group, and Vitra. Waldner’s Business Environments was founded in 1939 and is based in New York City.

Shared Office Space Part 1 | An Entrepreneurs Perspective

Small Biz/Entrepreneurs - Estimating The Right Amount of Office Space For Your Company

If you or your company has a knowledge that would help entrepreneurs or small businesses to improve the quality of their workplace, openofficespace.com would love to interview you.

Topics might include:

- Commercial Real Estate Expertise

- Workplace Wellness

- How To...(any topic related to improving the workplace)

- Creating an Eco-Friendly Office

- Office Products and Office Furniture

- Workplace Interior Design

- Streamlining Office Expenses

- Property Marketing Solutions

Jun 1, 2010 9:44:58 AM | commerical real estate, corporate fitness, Coworking Space, month to month office space, office decor, office design, office furniture, office interior design, officebytes tv, open office space, share office space, shared office space, small business resources, temporary office space, used office furniture

05/25/2010

How Do You Encourage Collaboration in Your Shared Office/Coworking Space?

The following is a re-post from an article I came across a few weeks ago on Fastcompany.com entitled: 11 Ways You Can Make Your Space as Collaborative as the Stanford d.school. The article gives some very good suggestions for creating a collaborative workspace within an organization. (all 11 suggestions are below)

But what about environments such as coworking spaces or shared office spaces where many different companies are residing in the same space? As we continue to tour/interview founders and residents of coworking/shared office spaces, here are a few of the questions we will consistently seek answers to.

Is collaboration actively encouraged or does it happen naturally on its own?

Was the layout of your space specifically designed to encourage collaboration?

Have you made changes to the original design of your space to improve the interaction between your residents?

Does your space offer any special type of furniture/equipment that has increased the collaboration within your space?

We will compile all of our findings and release them as part of a future article as well as a new section on our interactive guide to leasing office space for entrepreneurs and startups. If have founded or worked in a coworking/shared office space, and can speak on behalf of the questions above, please email us: info at openofficespace.com . Of course we will give full credit for any participation.

Later this week we will be interviewing one of the top office furniture dealers on the east coast to discuss (affordable) new advances in workstation design, specifically as they pertain to maximizing interaction/collaboration in the office.

Here are the 11 suggestions from the Fast Company article:

1. Start with what you have. "We started in a trailer," Kembel points out, "with the 'd.school' as a sign on the table." Kembel's advice: Claim a space and label it.

2. Go to the people who are interested first. Form a crack team of true believers to spearhead your campaign. Revolutions start from the bottom up.

3. Empower your team to change their space. Somebody high enough up the food chain needs to defend this activity against facilities managers who may not be amused. Then, be willing to keep changing things. Try out different ways to configure space to see what works best.

4. Watch the behavior of the group and take notes. Have somebody in your band of innovators own this task. What's working, what isn't? "Try, reflect, modify," says Kembel.

5. Develop group-sized artifacts. Whaa? In short, forget the spreadsheets with the tiny type. "Get your ideas up in big enough form so that others can see and add to them."

6. Keep any prototypes, sketches, or idea-jam artifacts low-rez and not precious. "Don't get too formal too fast," says Kembel. Making things precious locks them in too soon, short-circuiting potential improvements.

7. Show your work in progress. "Put your underwear up on the line and let people comment. But keep it safe," Kembel says. No rude comments allowed.

8. Do something simple to surprise people. At the d.school, they painted the women's restroom lipstick pink, and hung disco balls. "That makes people realize that somebody cares about your experience," Kembel says.

9. Invest more in "we" spaces than in "I" spaces. Cozy nooks for teams, not plush corner offices for the alpha dogs.

10. Mix up seating options. Take the table out of the room and sit on the floor. Vary seat heights. Change customary positions at meetings. For example, put the group leader in the middle, instead of at the head of the table. Try holding a meeting where only standing is allowed. In general, work to lower status markers.

11. Make idea generation and capture easy. Any non-porous surface can be a whiteboard, says Kembel. Buy a sheet of sheer acrylic at Home Depot and mount it on a wall as a writing space. Keep markers handy. Put prototyping tools out where people can grab them when an idea strikes.

"Creativity follows context," says Kembel. The main idea, he says, is not to segregate creativity from other activities. "You don't need to be fancy to do it," he says.

Content Source: Fast Company

Shared Office Space Part 1 | An Entrepreneurs Perspective

Shared Office Space Part 2 | A Space Holders Perspective

May 25, 2010 10:10:46 AM | Coworking Space, entrepreneur, find office space, friendly sublease, furnished office space, office space marketing, officebytes tv, renting a desk, renting an office, share office space, shared office space, small business resources, startup, temporary office space, used office furniture, workplace wellness

05/20/2010

Officebytes TV - Officeport CHI (Coworking in Chicago) A Quick Tour + An Interview

During my visit to Chicago this weekend, I had the opportunity to visit a very cool coworking space located right in the heart of the city. From the minute I walked in the space I received a warm welcome and was invited to take a tour of the space. Immediately following the tour, I requested an opportunity to film the space and interview the manager and some of the entrepreneurs doing business at Officeport CHI.

Listening to a few of the residents discuss how the space has improved their productivity as well as the overall image of their company really drives home the value of the coworking concept.

The space was huge, clean and well designed, complete with it's own man-made putting green. The only amenity that I felt was missing was a full court nerf basketball hoop...perhaps that is in their future plans.

The interview is below along with some good quotes from some of the residents of the space:

James Carver, site Manager of OfficePort CHI, a coworking space in Chicago, discusses how the idea for creating the space was conceived, the convenience of the location also describes the endless list of features offered by Officeport CHI.

"It definitely presents my company in a better light. Having the downtown address on my business card that doesn't look like obviously like a residential address, goes a long way in make me look like the professional that I want to look." James Epstein-Reeves | Founder - Do Well. Do Good. (www.dowelldogood.net)

"One day I just decided that there might be kind of a healthier way to live, where home can be home, and work can be work. It makes for a more professional impression I think." Tiffany Meyers | Freelance Writer, Journalist, Copywriter (www.tiffanymeyers.com)

"I was working for home for about 4 years prior to this. And, unfortunately the walls in my house don't speak back to me. So, I wanted to get to a place where I could talk to others. Even just asking questions of people that are not even into my industry really helps me out alot. The fact that everything included from the wireless, to the fax and the printer and the coffee, it just makes for a great environment." Brian Lefkowitz | President (www.theblueswing.com and www.thechillster.com)

If you or your company has a knowledge that would help entrepreneurs or small businesses to improve the quality of their workplace, openofficespace.com would love to interview you.

Topics might include:

- Commercial Real Estate Expertise

- Workplace Wellness

- How To...(any topic related to improving the workplace)

- Creating an Eco-Friendly Office

- Office Products and Office Furniture

- Workplace Interior Design

- Streamlining Office Expenses

- Property Marketing Solutions

10 Inexpensive Ways To Spruce Up a Small/Shared Office Space

Small Biz/Entrepreneurs - Estimating The Right Amount of Office Space For Your Company

May 20, 2010 10:59:00 AM | affordable office space, collaborative office space, corporate fitness, Coworking Space, entrepreneur, find office space, find unused office space, friendly sublease, office space marketing, officebytes tv, property marketing technology, rent office space, renting an office, share office space, startup, workplace wellness

05/11/2010

Officebytes TV - 3 Common Mistakes Made By Many Entrepreneurs Looking for Office Space

On today's episode of Officebytes TV, Patrick Braswell, Founder of MOSAtlanta.com and Assistant Vice President with Colliers Spectrum Cauble discusses 3 of the top 10 mistakes made by many entrepreneurs and small businesses when looking for office space.

A few good quotes from the interview:

"Companies that come out of executive suites or that are looking for traditional office space for the first time, they tend to fail to look at their current and future priorities. They don't list them out and make sure they have those ducks in a row before they actually go out and look for space."

"Going to an office suite or an office space based solely off of price. This one for entrepreneurs, people coming out of executive suites, looking for office space and traditional office space for the first time, make this mistake all the time."

"Determining the amount of square footage you need up-front. Get an architect involved if you can afford one, if you can't afford one, here's a general rule that you want to keep in your head. For every employee that you have, you need to think that it's going to be about 250 rentable square feet of office space that you need for them."

About MOSAtlanta.com

MOSatlanta.com, short for My Office Search Atlanta, was designed to be a single point of reference for companies looking for office space in Metro Atlanta.

The goal of MOSatlanta.com is to provide their clients with a web based application that will simplify the office leasing process from start to finish, therefore, saving their clients time and money. Ultimately, their approach will align your business initiatives and financial objectives with the right real estate strategy to meet both.

10 Inexpensive Ways To Spruce Up a Small/Shared Office Space

Shared Office Space Part 1 | An Entrepreneurs Perspective

Shared Office Space Part 2 | A Space Holders Perspective

Small Biz/Entrepreneurs - Estimating The Right Amount of Office Space For Your Company

If you or your company has a knowledge that would help entrepreneurs or small businesses to improve the quality of their workplace, openofficespace.com would love to interview you.

Topics might include:

- Commercial Real Estate Expertise

- Workplace Wellness

- How To...(any topic related to improving the workplace)

- Creating an Eco-Friendly Office

- Office Products and Office Furniture

- Workplace Interior Design

- Streamlining Office Expenses

- Property Marketing Solutions

May 11, 2010 8:06:55 AM | affordable office space, cheap office rent, Co-Working Space, office space marketing, officebytes tv, open office space, property marketing technology, renting a cubicle, renting a desk, renting an office, share office space, shared office space, small business resources, startup, sublease office space, term office space, used office furniture, workplace wellness

04/21/2010

An Inspirational Story + Why Entrepreneurs MUST Bring Health and Fitness Into Their Office

Officebytes TV had the pleasure of interviewing Rahsheen Slaugter and Greg Kalafatic of Breakthroughs to Fitness, a successful personal training company located in Long Island, New York.

Rahsheen Slaughter shares the inspirational story of how he "never let his disability become a liability" on the road to becoming a college All American freestyle wrestler, and eventually founding Breakthroughs To Fitness. (Rahsheen was born without a quadricep or hamstring on his right leg)

During the interview, Rahsheen and Greg also give some VERY good reasons why entrepreneurs MUST adopt health and fitness as part of their business/life plan.

A few good quotes from the interview:

"The #1 excuse entrepreneurs will tell me is that they do not have enough time to workout."

"Stress is something we all encounter, especially for entrepreneurs. You need a way for you body to cope and deal with this stress."

"Some of my best ideas come from when I am just spacing out on the treadmill, elliptical or I just get into a real deep metabolic training session. After I'm done with that, I can go on and solve the problems or challenges I am having in my business that day."

"You have to make sure that you have those 5-6 meals, spread throughout the day so that you do not have those energy woes."

"Can you honestly say that you are in better shape today than 6 weeks ago? How about 6 months ago? How about an entire year? If you can't raise your hand and say yes I am, then your health is on a decline."

About Breakthroughs To Fitness Breakthroughs to Fitness provides a unique collaborative relationship that provides structure, accountability, and inspiration to enable clients to reach their goals.

The B2F health coaches guide, motivate, provide customized fitness programs, and assist each client to set achievable and challenging goals. They will not diagnose, prescribe, or come up with answers to your challenges but they will facilitate and guide you in the right direction to create the outcome you deserve.

Entrepreneurs - Are your thumbs the most fit part of your body?

If you or your company has a knowledge that would help entrepreneurs or small businesses to improve the quality of their workplace, openofficespace.com would love to interview you.

Topics might include:

- Commercial Real Estate Expertise

- Workplace Wellness

- How To...(any topic related to improving the workplace)

- Creating an Eco-Friendly Office

- Office Products and Office Furniture

- Workplace Interior Design

- Streamlining Office Expenses

- Property Marketing Solutions

Apr 21, 2010 3:00:11 PM | affordable office space, office leasing, renting an office space, share office space, shared office space, small business resources, startup, temporary office space, term office space, used office furniture, workplace wellness

03/22/2010

Marketing A Shared Office Space | Virtual Tours Go High-Def

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a full screen 360 degree view worth?

Always on the lookout for innovative technologies to help companies best showcase their unused office space, we recently came across a few samples of a high definition virtual tour...VERY COOL.

If you have an impressive coworking, executive suite or shared office space, adding this type of full screen presentation to your property listing will definitely make a powerful impact and potentially help improve your chances of generating qualified leads.

To better describe this technology, here are some excerpts and samples from a blog originally posted by Jason LaVanture, founder of Blue Lava Media and Real Tour Vision.

Could it really be High Definition Interactive Virtual Tours? Yes, times have changed drastically over the last two years and team BlueLaVaMedia is working hard to keep our virtual tour technology at the forefront of virtual tour technology.

Today we are proud to announce that we have upgraded our virtual tour viewer to support Full Screen High Definition images. Take a look at the virtual tours below and you will quickly see how our new HD full screen virtual tours transform the typical interactive virtual tour to something quite spectacular. Trust us that our new HD experience literally makes your audience feel like they are standing right in the room!

Sample our new HD Virtual Tours:

http://rtvpix.com/RE-3608-MEK2OV-01

http://rtvpix.com/RE-3273-5SCY8A-01

http://rtvpix.com/BU-2026-5KWOEM-01

Don't worry about load time. In fact, our virtual tours load faster than any of the other video or interactive virtual tour platforms out there! This is because we compress our images down to an amazingly small size before publishing them to our servers while maintaining strict standards in quality. No waiting for a huge video file to load only to get a tiny window. No more staring at a loading bar for two minutes only to end up viewing a simple full screen slide show. Now you can tell your customers that you're giving online shoppers a truly interactive HD virtual tour experience. Finally, our HD full screen virtual tours can also be easily converted into streaming video for YouTube deployment! It's truly amazing!

If you are aware of any other innovative technologies that would help companies market their unused office sp ace to entrepreneurs or small businesses, openofficespace.com would love to hear from you.

Related Posts

Virtual Office Staging - Make Your Unused Office Space Stand Out From The Crowd

Create a Virtual Tour Of Your Unused Office Space and Stand Out From The Crowd

Mar 22, 2010 8:24:39 AM | cheap office rent, Co-Working Space, commerical real estate, Coworking Space, entrepreneur, office design, office space marketing, propety marketing, share office space, startup, sublease office space

03/18/2010

When my office space was in Manhattan...using a long commute to your advantage.

This post is about making lemonade from lemons and inspired by today's beautiful weather and how much I miss commuting into Manhattan.