Partner Article

A refreshing change of attitude towards home-based business?

Having held over 60 successful Colleagues on Tap co-working days all around the North East, it’s clear to founder Jayne Graham that home-based and freelance businesses see co-working as the way forward.

Jayne explains “Co-working days provide the opportunity for homeworkers to combat the isolation often experienced when working from a home base; by attending ‘working events’ once or twice a month participants have reported that they’ve made new connections, and in some cases acquired new customers, in a very informal and natural way that they haven’t been able to experience through traditional networking events”.

“Both men and women that have attended the events have said that they’ve been stimulated to come up with new ideas, and they’ve gained new knowledge to feed into their business as a result of coming along, and although most people are a little hesitant about whether it might be of value before they arrive for the first time, almost everyone comes back, with many participants making it a fortnightly or monthly event in their calendar throughout the year.”

Having spoken to hundreds of people who run their businesses from home over the years, and talking from experience of working from home almost 10 years herself, Jayne explains that people often say that although they love the flexibility and freedom of working from home, there’s a missing link; they miss the camerarderie of colleagues once they start working for themselves, and Colleagues on Tap days recreate that for them in a different way to traditional networking events.As a result of the success of the scheme, organisations around the North East are now being given the opportunity to become Colleagues on Tap Associates, through a licence that enables them to run their own Colleagues on Tap events using the tried and tested format that has been hailed a success by over 200 home-based businesses that have already attended the days around the region. The first Associates, Newcastle Business Village and The Beacon hold monthly events in Newcastle and North Tyneside which are now regular sell-outs. Jayne has now shifted focus to other areas in the region, with the objective of making co-working days available to everyone in the North East over the next 6 months before she expands the scheme nationally. North East BIC in Sunderland and new venue One Trinity Green in South Shields are the latest to join the Associate Scheme, with next events planned for 19th and 29th November respectively.

For Jayne Graham, founder of spaceontap.com and Colleagues on Tap co-working days, the success of Colleagues on Tap represents an important shift in mind-set for the business space and services community. “Home-based businesses have been under the radar for too long; I’ve been working hard over the past couple of years to encourage the support infrastructure to recognise that home-based businesses need access to resources that complement their choice to work at home rather than over-riding or replacing it.”

“While so many businesses consider themselves not to be taken seriously because of where they’ve chosen to work, how can they have the confidence to reach out for the help they need to grow? I’m excited that I’m now witnessing a change in attitude, and Colleagues on Tap Co-working days will help that to gather pace. The more resources that are available to help people to grow their businesses at home if that’s the route they’ve chosen, all the better; after all, home-based businesses are the biggest source of new enterprises in the UK so it’s time they had the recognition and support they deserve!”

For details of Colleagues on Tap co-working days go to http://www.spaceontap.com/co-working/#colleagues_on_tap or get in touch by email colleaguesontap@spaceontap.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Colleagues on Tap .