Co Habitat helping emerging tycoons
WORKING from home or in a noisy cafe can dramatically impact productivity so local entrepreneur Joshua Roberts decided to give Townsville’s small business operators a better alternative.
He founded Co Habitat, a shared office space in Palmer St in August.
Since then he’s had dozens of casual and permanent members sign up for a desk or office space.
“It’s been really good. So far we’ve got five of the seven office spaces occupied already,” he said.
“We’ve got two members in a couple of days a week in shared offices and plenty of desks for casual members.”
Mr Roberts said casual members could come to the office and get access to a desk and high speed internet for a day for $ 30.
“Instead of having to work out of their home or in a cafe, they can come in and work from a professional office space, which is incredibly productive so they can get a lot of work done when they’re here,” he said.
“Plus they get to interact with others in the space. There’s a kitchen, coffee machine and snacks available for a break if they want.”
Mr Roberts said he was surprised by the different industries Co Habitat’s membership covered.
“When we started we thought we would appeal most to creative types like videographers, photographers or graphic designers who work for themselves really,” he said.
“But we’ve had all sort of people from a start- up technology business dealing with emerging currencies . . . to a transport company and accounting firm.”
Mr Roberts said he was happy with how his business had progressed over the past four months and hoped in the future more spaces could be opened in North Queensland.
“We could expand to places like Mackay and Cairns and create a regional network of shared office spaces,” he said.
“A lot of people travel between those centres for work and we could ensure they had access to office space as needed.”
Mr Roberts said members and also the general public could hire his conference and meeting rooms.