Month: June 2020

Written and originally published by Let’s Lake Mac

For Dean and Belinda Kidd, life during a pandemic is busy. Their disability support provider, My Goal Australia, has adapted to continue working with their clients. In addition, the couple has just welcomed a third child.

Speaking from their headquarters at shared workspace Dashworks in Charlestown, Dean and Belinda are proud of their balancing act.

“I wouldn’t say our life has slowed down,” Dean laughs.

Garnering 10 years of experience with different NDIS providers, Dean established My Goal Australia in 2016, shaping the business with the goal of offering specialised care.

That ideal has since expanded into a company with over 50 staff, working with clients who have severe and complex needs.

For Dean, it is essential that people with disabilities are given a choice in how they want live.

“Supported independent living is the core focus of our business. Our participants live in 24-hour care, provided onsite by our staff. We create environments that feel like home so that participants feel empowered.”

“We work with people with complex needs. It’s challenging, regulated and involved but it’s exactly where we want to be.”

Theirs is one of many businesses in Lake Mac that have evolved in order to function in a COVID-19 world.

“My Goal Australia has grown inside COVID-19. The pandemic has made us realise how essential our support is and how involved we are with our clients.”

 “We reviewed our rostering policy and instead of sending staff across multiple sites we had them working in just one location. We are managing infection control to a high standard,” Belinda says.

“At the beginning of every shift we check staff for symptoms and take temperatures before they come into contact with participants.”

The strong foundation of their business allowed for a swift response to government regulations.

Continuing to work from their shared office space, Dean and Belinda are inspired by the collaborative nature of Dashworks and appreciate being able to see how other local businesses in Lake Mac are working during COVID-19.

Basing their business in Lake Mac was an obvious choice.

“I grew up in Belmont North,” Belinda says.

“When Dean and I got married we bought a house in Speers Point, we are raising our children in Lake Mac because it has such a strong sense of community and we love living by the lake.”

The decision also suited their business strategy.

“Lake Macquarie was in need of NDIS services, so from a business point of view it made sense to make a space for ourselves,” Dean says.

As well as supported independent living, My Goal Australia works to help its participants access the community.

“Our community programs help our clients to visit local parks, markets and libraries in Lake Macquarie,” Belinda says.

“Our participants face many challenges but our goal is to help them enjoy their life.”

Growing their business (and their family) is an ongoing challenge, but both Dean and Belinda are confident they are on the right track.

“A lot of our participants came from hospital or have been moved around between different providers,” Dean says.

“We are so grateful to provide some stability and a strong team of support so that we can improve lives.”

Lockdown measures might have eased, but for many businesses and organisations, things aren’t quite ‘business as usual’ just yet. The process of recovering from COVID-19 shutdowns will look different for every business, but many will face similar struggles: economic uncertainty, reconfigured workspaces, growth setbacks… The list goes on.

But don’t worry – it’s not all doom and gloom! As we move into new ways of working and look towards the future of business, there are plenty of options available to ensure your company not only survives, but thrives. One such option is coworking.

Coworking spaces were growing steadily in popularity pre-pandemic, and all signs point towards that growth continuing as we get back to work. Let’s take a look at a few of the reasons why coworking is a powerful platform for business recovery post-COVID-19.

It’s great for office overflow

As offices reopen nationwide, social distancing measures are now the norm. And while they’re in place for good reason, they’ll inevitably result in significantly less floor space for the foreseeable future. This means you might be facing logistical problems when trying to bring your team back on board.

That’s where coworking can come in as an ideal option for office overflow. By utilising a coworking space in conjunction with your regular office space, you have a way to bring everybody ‘back to the office’ at once, as safely and easily as possible.

It’s a certain option for uncertain times

Though the worst of the coronavirus threat is hopefully behind us, there’s no doubt that we’re still in unpredictable, unprecedented times – particularly economically. And in such times, it’s no surprise that businesses are looking for lower-risk options as they get back to work.

One of these options is a short-term leasing arrangement such as a business membership with a coworking space. It’s more affordable and less financially risky than dishing out on expensive long-term office space, particularly if you would prefer a flexible arrangement as your business gets back on its feet.

It offers flexibility and scaling options

The flexibility of coworking is one of its greatest assets, and just one of the ways it can help you grow your business. If your aim is to come out of the pandemic with a bigger and better business than ever, you’ll want to get right back to work on your growth strategy.

A coworking space can help you do this by providing a way to rapidly scale up your workforce. As your business grows, your team will undoubtedly grow with it, and coworking offers you the flexibility to bring in new people as and when you need to.

It’s a great alternative to working from home

Working from home essentially became the norm for most people during the height of COVID-19 lockdown. But while it’s an increasingly popular work mode (and will likely continue as such throughout and beyond the pandemic), the reality is that it’s just not for everyone.

Work-from-home burnout/fatigue is a real issue for many employees, particularly with the added pressures of self-isolation in the mix. Add that to potential remote work issues with technology and the like, and it becomes clear that working from home forever isn’t a viable option for certain businesses. But instead of just returning to the traditional office environment, why not consider an alternative like coworking? It’s a great in-between option, combining the flexibility of the WFH approach with the structure and social benefits of a shared workspace.

It’s popular with employees

It’s easy to see why coworking spaces are popular with employees (particularly those for whom working from home isn’t ideal, as discussed above). Coworking offers a range of benefits, from greater autonomy and more flexibility to the practical benefits of a workspace that’s more conveniently located.

It’s a simple calculation, really: the more benefits a workplace offers, the happier employees will be – and the happier they are, the better the business functions. Moving to a coworking space could be a positive change for your employees, and therefore a positive change for your business as a whole!

It helps you test new markets

It’s well known that diversifying markets can give businesses better growth opportunities and decrease risk. If part of your post-COVID growth strategy is to target and test out new markets, there’s no better option than a coworking space.

A coworking space is a great place to set up a satellite office with remote employees. It allows you to branch out into new areas at a lower cost and with lower risk than leasing an expensive traditional office space.

It allows for employee retention and competitive salaries

Something as simple as changing up the everyday workspace or offering more employee benefits can lead directly to greater employee retention – something that’s extra important as your business stabilises and moves forward. Offering a competitive salary is also imperative, particularly in regional areas.

Coworking allows you to do both of these things, giving you a better chance of attracting (and keeping) the best employees and creating a stronger team than ever to face whatever the future brings.

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Thinking about utilising a coworking space to help your business get back to achieving its goals? Take a look at Dashworks’ membership options or get in touch with us for more info!

 

Originally posted on Hunter Headline 

Dashworks member businesses have proven that COVID is no barrier to innovation, creating world-leading products and technology to support the community and businesses during lockdown.

Operating in Charlestown and Warners Bay, Dashworks is home to more than 130 inventors, innovators, professionals, contractors, and business owners across more than 70 businesses.

Among these innovative companies are Ampcontrol, Creative Pipeline and Atmosphere Global.

As a partner in The Melt at Dashworks Makespace, Ampcontrol have been heavily involved with the industrial prototyping lab and innovation accelerator for product developers offered at The Melt.

In an incredible show of ingenuity and innovation, Ampcontrol engineers created an emergency ventilator prototype to support the Australian COIVID-19 response in just 18 days.

Ampcontrol is one of only two groups to be selected by the NSW Government to proceed to pre-production for further testing.

Key components of the ventilator prototype were designed and produced at the Melt site.

Ampcontrol CEO, Rod Henderson, said infrastructure and hubs that enable innovation are vital for the region to survive and bounce back.

“Via The Melt we have been able to rapidly swing our world-leading expertise and production facilities into manufacturing critical emergency medical equipment right here in the Hunter,” Rod said.

“If we go to full production of the ventilators, we could see a whole new industry here in Lake Macquarie and the Hunter supporting the local economy and jobs.”

The next phase of the project will see the production of 10 pilot ventilators with the objective of rapidly manufacturing 600 ventilators for use across NSW.

Dashworks also plays host to Creative Pipeline, another forward-thinking company, developing virtual reality experiences for national and multinational industrial and science-based organisations.

Tim Black, Creative Pipeline’s Founder and Managing Director, says the company has been busier than ever during lockdown.

“VR technology allows employees to train in a safe, virtual world to build skills for risk management and hazard detection,” Tim said.

“There has been a huge growth in the demand for this type of immersive training, particularly within industries like underground mining to better manage risks in dangerous environments.

Tim said that COVID has created an even greater need for the technology.

“Before the health crisis employees were required to attend group, face-to-face VR training sessions.”

“As COVID-19 emerged, we pumped resources into research and development and created a whole new product offering allowing the training to be delivered remotely and across multiple locations. Importantly, this allows organisations to adhere to social distancing measures and reduce health risks for their employees.”

Tim added that having access to Dashworks, where his team could meet safely, was critical to project delivery.

“We did work-from-home for some weeks when COVID-19 initially hit. But when restrictions started to ease, we moved back to Dash as soon as we could,” he said.

“The intense, collaborative nature of what we do is much easier when we’re working in a central place. We work on highly complex technology and concepts, so collaboration and rapid development is so important to delivering quality programs.

“Accessing a flexible workspace has allowed us to keep costs down whilst providing the flexibility we need to rapidly scale up our team to meet market demand.”

Atmosphere Global has been a member of Dashworks since 2017. The company produces and distributes plant-based cleaning products to Australian and international customers.

Atmosphere’s Founder and Director, Shane Ormsby, said the company had developed a coronavirus safe product prior to the epidemic, but demand has surged since the outbreak.

“We could see there was a need for an environmentally formulated but heavy-duty cleaning products that are effective against viruses and bacteria,” Shane said.

“Given the environmentally friendly components, we’ve expanded our distribution during the outbreak to support schools, hospitals, waste management and agricultural operations.”

Shane said that working in a shared office with a strong community has powerful benefits.

“We’ve had access to a much wider network of professionals and industry experts. These relationships across digital marketing, accounting and manufacturing have been so critical especially over the past few months.”

“Working together and co-creating has allowed us to support our coworking colleagues who’ve experienced a downturn whilst successfully expand our production and reach into new markets.”

To support businesses to recover and thrive Dashworks is offering one free month of rent for organisations or individuals that sign up for six months and two months free for twelve-month memberships.