Written by Irina Belsky
While no man is an island, entrepreneurs often find themselves working alone. Separated by a deviant way of thinking, non-standard working hours and a stubborn refusal to integrate into the mainstream, they need an alternative to the corporate workspace.
This is where co-working spaces come in. They provide entrepreneurs, freelancers, sole traders and other free agents with a collaborative work environment where they can dictate their own rules and benefit from the knowledge of other people.
Investon is the new addition to Sydney’s co-working scene. Founded by Paul Page and Steve Grant from 724.com.au, the self serviced office will open its doors this Friday.
IPitch spoke to Paul Page about Investon and the role it intends to play in facilitating business development.
Reasons for creating Investon
According to Page, a major goal of the office is to build a thriving hub where people can exchange skills and ideas, instead of passively sharing a physical working space. “We want to help entrepreneurial people to collaborate, work together and to share ideas” he explains.
In addition to creating Investon the founders also run 724.com.au - a cloud computing services company. They plan to use the same technology to allow entrepreneurs working at Investon to harness the power of cloud computing for their businesses. “We want to insure that the office has seamless cloud computing so that they can operate whether it’s in the office or at home or overseas.”
Facilities and Packages
Investon is located smack in the center of the CBD (70 Pitt Street, level 9) where it takes up the entire floor. While location is one of the selling points of Investon, the founders emphasize that the space contains all the necessary business services including “conference rooms, boardrooms, photocopy, fax and VOIP telephone service facilities” amongst others.
“There are three options when getting a space,” explains Page, “you can have a hot desk where you simply come in on the day, you can have a dedicated work station in an open environment or you can have your own office with however many employees you want.”
As far as costs go:
- A hot desk will cost you $150/week, a dedicated workstation will cost $210/week while a dedicated office will set you back $450/week.
- An additional $70/week will provide you with a business services kit, which includes VOIP telephone services, unlimited internet, telephone calls and photocopying.
- Services such as board room rental, telephone reception services as well as printing and photocopying outside of the business kit package will incur extra costs.
- An example of an Investon package: a dedicated work station plus business services kit plus light reception services will cost a total of $290/week.
Ideal Investon tenants
What does Page envision the tenants of Investon to be? In his words the chosen people will come “from diverse areas - IT, social media, human resources, people who are involved in public speaking. One overriding objective is to have people who work well together collaboratively.”
Page mentions that while there will be a focus on technology, Investon will want to attract a range of people from other disciplines who can contribute their various skill sets to build a collaborative atmosphere in the office.
Applying for tenancy with Investon
Applying to be a tenant is “principally a meet and greet” affair. Interested individuals can make an appointment to come in and see the premises as early as this week. Page says that it’s important for tenants to be comfortable with the location, the environment and the pricing, so viewing the space is vital. “If it’s a good fit we go ahead. If for whatever reason it is not, then we refer them to other places that are maybe more suitable.”
Signing off
Investon will be a good choice for growth stage businesses that find centrality an important factor or businesses which have already secured an initial round of funding, allowing them to cover the associated costs.
Concept and seed stage startups may find the costs slightly more difficult to bear, especially if they have little need for extra business or reception services.
If you would like to set up a meeting with the founders or visit Investon please call (02) 9043 5984 or email sales@investon.com.au
