By Liz Witbeck
The face of the employment scene is changing. More people now are self-employed, and choosing to work out of local coffee shops or the library rather than the office.
At cafés in Saratoga Springs it isn’t uncommon to see people typing on laptops, meeting with clients over a cup of coffee.
Dorothy Rogers-Bullis saw an opportunity and created SaratogaCoworks, a coworking space where business professionals can come to create and collaborate with each other.
“It’s a way to work” said Rogers-Bullis. “People who don’t have an office find it very lonely and hard to get something accomplished.”
The emphasis of SaratogaCoworks is the ability to collaborate with others.
“It builds a community. This offers professionalism, a way to meet like-minded people,” she said. “When you go into a coffee shop you aren’t meeting and collaborating with others, you aren’t sure who is a client or who is just there getting coffee.”
Rogers-Bullis is no stranger to business. She started drb Business Interiors five years ago, a business furniture store. After a year of deciding what to do with the unfinished basement in the furniture store, she came up with the idea to open SaratogaCoworks in the space.
SaratogaCoworks, located at 153 Regent St. in Saratoga Springs, occupies several large rooms, designed with the business professional in mind. There are large conference rooms with ergonomic chairs and television screens, for people to work together on projects or take long distance video calls.
There are plush, modern chairs for individuals to sit comfortably and work together. Large white boards make it easy to hash out ideas. There are desks for people who need lots of working space, and a place to store files. There are lockers for people to store personal belongings. There is even a refrigerator to store snacks and drinks, and a telephone room to take a cell phone calls so as not disturb others. And of course, lots of free WiFi.
There are several coworking spaces in cities like New York and Boston which Rogers-Bullis researched in order to create SaratogaCoworks. She said the idea is going to be very popular.
“Anybody with an entrepreneurial spirit is going to love this” said Rogers-Bullis. “It’s great for writers. It’s great for tech people. We want people to be really successful and have a way to build their business.”
“You might be a coder, and come in here to work on coding, but you might need to know how to market yourself. So you’ll meet a marketing person at SaratogaCoworks. And maybe that marketer doesn’t know about coding. So you two can help each other. There’s a lot of shared personal services. It’s all about collaboration.”
Several dozen people have expressed interest in using the space, from writers to web developers, she noted.
“It’s all about meeting other people” said Rogers-Bullis. “You can’t connect in the coffee shop.”
The daily rate for SaratogaCoworks is only $25. A monthly membership can be purchased for $250. A dedicated desk space can be purchased for $350 a month. SaratogaCoworks will hold a grand opening and open on June 11.
Those interested in becoming a member at SaratogaCoworks can contact Rogers-Bullis at dorothy@saratogacoworks.com to schedule a tour.