Athens small business owners have opened a new cooperative to offer working space and helpful resources to their fellow entrepreneurs.
Athens Works, 29 E. Carpenter, is based on a new business trend called co-working, in which people who run their own businesses from their homes come together in one office to work and share resources, said Ben Lachman, who helped start the cooperative.
“There are a lot of people who work in the creative field or in the Web development and design field who are isolated because they have to work from home,” Lachman said. “With Athens Works, people who work independently can now conduct their businesses in a collaborative workspace.”
The cooperative will tentatively open on Monday and will cost members about $50 per month during the introductory period, Lachman said, adding that other cooperatives can charge $250 per month.
If people need space to work for just a day, Athens Works will accommodate them as well. The fee to work for a day is $8.
Athens Works does not only provide office space for independent business owners, but offers the resources of the other people in the collaborative. In a co-working space, people with different skillsets can help one another on projects, Lachman said.
“We’re people who like working alongside other people,” said Michael Blohm, a member and technical director of Lightborne Lore, a mobile games company. “Renting space for yourself is usually cost-prohibitive, so co-working gives small teams and solo shops an affordable, shared-space alternative to working from home.”
The Athens area is filled with people who run independent small businesses, so there is a need for a space like Athens Works, said Shawn Mallett, director of the Small Business Development Center at Ohio University. The center works with more than 200 small businesses per year in Meigs, Athens, Hocking and Perry counties.
From an economic standpoint, the amount of loans given to small businesses has decreased, and local entrepreneurship has increased by between 10 and 20 new businesses per year, Mallett said.
“It’s pretty hard to stay in Athens…if you work in the tech or creative field,” Lachman said. “Most people move away to a larger metropolitan area, because it’s easier to get and maintain clients. If Athens want to keep these people and develop in the technology and creative realm, a cooperative space like this is good.”
Aside from affordable office space and resources, Athens Works provides networking and a community of like-minded people who can support entrepreneurs who are just starting their businesses, which Blohm said can be difficult.
“There are plenty of people in Athens who work for themselves and have solved many of the challenges any startup will face,” Blohm said. “I’d like to help make sure no one else feels isolated in their struggle to make something from nothing.”
cw105510@ohiou.edu
