Aug 18th
Are you familiar with Sandbox or Qwirk? These are co-working concepts based here in Columbus, Ohio. The general idea is that small businesses and solo entrepreneurs come together to share space, equipment, and the bills, making it easier to make a living. Co-working is a good idea.
An interesting byproduct of the co-working environment is that people working together in close proximity will naturally form relationships. Once the relationships start to develop, organic collaboration of complimentary offerings is the next logical step. In a sense, each co-working location has potential to become it’s own collective business.
Collective Business
I’ve noticed the same question coming up as I’m out ‘socializing’ with other business folk: “So who makes up Huber + Co.? How many people do you have working with you over there?”
I like answering these questions. First, because it’s seems to be an answer that people aren’t always anticipating. And second, it goes back to our commitment to you to be transparent, open, and honest about who we are, and how we do business.
We’re working to build a collective of sorts. But rather than forming our collective by pure luck of the draw (and by luck, I mean whoever gets their first with a rent check in hand), we’re building it strategically. We’ve started to invite people we know who have complementary skill sets to join forces with us, share space, and share projects. No one is married or locked in. No one owns the group. But for now, working together seems to be working well for us. We’ve focused on relationships first, and let the business opportunities unfold as they will.
Huber + Co. Interactive
Including myself and Bryan, there are 9 employees at huber+co (yep, we’re playing XBox in the photo, but not everyone is there). We’re made up of coders, designers, strategists, a project manager and a utility player (Chris Simmons tends to be the guy who does a ton of different stuff, as needed.) We all wear multiple hats. If you know anything about how small agencies operate, having diverse responsibilities is pretty common.
BestLight Video
Then there’s the “Vid Kids” as we lovingly call them. Paul and Andy are two young entrepreneurs running a small production company called BestLight Video. They co-locate with us, but maintain there own company. We work together on projects when it makes sense to do so. In actuality, it makes sense every time we have clients who need to use video on the web. You can see some of the end result by checking out the stuff we did for North Market.
treetree authentic brand communications
Becca Thompson and Tiffany Wise have been spending a lot of time at huber+co. They own and operate treetree authentic brand communications. (No that’s not a typo. Branding gurus sometimes like to keep things in all lowercase letters, so I’m simply staying on brand.) We’re working on some projects together. We already know the relationship stuff works. Becca and Tiff aren’t officially co-locating yet, but who knows? Maybe they will be soon.
LightBulb Interactive
Dave Culbertson owns Lightbulb Interactive. He’s on his own doing SEO strategy and development work for clients. Dave lives with us a few days a week and focuses on being a dad the rest of the time. If the interactive business is battle, Dave is one the deadliest snipers in the field today. He’s touts a background with AOL, CompuServe and MapQuest, and has one hell of a sense of humor. You should read Dave’s blog too. It’s chock-full of high-level stuff.
(photo credit for this shot of Dave goes to our friends at Columbus Business First)
The Future?
A painful economy has resulted in thousands – no, maybe even millions of layoffs from the corporate powerhouses of America. That’s rough. But, at the end of the day, we all still need to eat. In the face of high unemployment rates, the entrepreneurial spirit is on the rise and talented professionals are starting up their own small businesses.
People are working together, sharing resources and space, developing relationships and embracing collaborative business communities. In order to survive, we MUST work together.
Interesting idea. Don’t you think?
Join The Discussion!