MinorOak: Q&A

It’s been a while since we last did a showcase on you! You were just starting to fit out MinorOak, What’s different this time? What’s been happening since?

MinorOak has been open for well over a year, and it finally feels done! It is a calm, happy and productive place to work, with over 20 wonderful members (and YES, there’s room for more). On evenings and weekends, we've hosted dozens of successful launches, workshops, pop-up restaurants and other events.

The space looks and functions beautifully now, thanks to a great set of contractors and the generous, talented members who have helped me finish the work and given me the feedback I've needed to keep improving it.

Most recently, the Artist in Residence Program has been lighting up the collaborative workspace in the front room. First, Maggie Smith’s work added elegance, calm and sophistication to MinorOak and now Ni Claydon’s work is brightening it up with fun, vibrant flora and fauna.

What was the process like in setting up MinorOak and seeing the finished product?

It’s always rewarding when you design something and are able to see the project through to completion. It’s much rarer to have an opportunity to watch how the space interacts with the people who use it, and continue to tinker with it after it’s been built.

Coworking is still a young, experimental industry. It’s great cooperating with members and clients to find out what works, what doesn’t, and how to keep improving MinorOak's physical space, social opportunities and events, and business structure.

For those who may not have read the last feature we did with you, tell us about MinorOak, what do you do?

I was an architecture student who graduated into a recession and ended up taking a job as a drafter, then (with an additional degree) a structural engineer. Later on, I moved to the public sector and focused on green building standards and regulations. I taught adult education courses part-time while working on my master’s degree and earned a teaching qualification.

MinorOak is my favourite place to be, and I love being a coworker myself. I’ve also learned to be a bookkeeper, events organiser, cleaner, hostess, online marketer and most challenging for me, a salesperson and publicly visible business owner. In the past, I was the super-analytical person in the back room doing calculations, writing a briefing note or building a 3-D model. I’m still working on those sales and customer service skills!

How has it been having your business in Sneinton Market?

Sneinton Market is full of creative micro-businesses with visionary founders. I’m proud to be part of this diverse, exuberant and supportive group of people. We’re taking risks and investing all our abilities and resources into our unique businesses, and it’s been gratifying to watch as word has spread about the exciting things happening here. The Post is saying Sneinton Market is the coolest place to be seen in Nottingham! I’m looking forward to watching things grow and develop even more in the coming years.

Are you working on any projects at the moment?

YES! We've started a series of workshops called New Business Intelligence. They teach practical skills that small businesses and self employed people need to make the best of their on- and off-line presence. We’ve done three already and we’ve been getting very positive feedback.

New Business Intelligence workshops are small, with a maximum of six participants, and they have a unique format. First, there’s a 2-hour workshop in the meeting room. The, there’s an optional four hours in the collaborative work area. That gives people an opportunity to get a project done using their new skills, with the instructor and the other people from the workshop there to answer questions and give feedback. It’s working well; in a single day, you can learn or refine a skill and then put your new knowledge into practice.

Right now, this is our workshop line-up:

• Create Banners, Posts and Ads in Canva
• Develop/Practice Your Tagline & Elevator Pitch
• Plan (and Flog) your Blog with Isi Dixon
• Do your Mailing Lists Right with Mailchimp
• Three Ways to Automate Your Tweets
• Design your own Logo with Free Online Tools

Those workshops all have at least one date up on Facebook and Eventbrite right now, and they’re £15 for the new ones and £24 for the ones we’ve run before and fine-tuned. I’m teaching some of the workshops; I’ve got a Canadian adult education qualification and have picked up many practical skills in the six years I’ve been working for myself. I’ve also invited other people to add their expertise to the mix. I’d love to hear from people who have additional suggestions for topics or who would like to teach a workshop that would be of interest to self-employed people.

You host many great events at MinorOak, what have you got coming up?

We’ve got a LARP (Live Action Role Play) bring-and-buy coming up on Saturday 22 September and a pop-up restaurant with Chef Jugz coming up on Saturday 10 November. Just stop in for the LARP event, and keep an eye on our social media for the menu and tickets to the pop-up restaurant. They’ll be available near the beginning of October.

We’ve got a gallery wall in the front room, and we have a new artist in residence every 2-3 months. Right now, our artist in residence is Ni Claydon. She’s got a Paint for Fun Workshop happening on Saturday 29 September, with registration on Eventbrite and Facebook. And YES, the art is for sale.

Our Artist-in-Residence for October-November will be Nila Shaw. Her art opening is Friday 5 October from 6:30pm to 9:00pm. We’ll have snacks and drinks on the go; stop by to see her work. She’ll be hosting gong baths, art journalling workshops and art markets on Saturdays at MinorOak during the months of October and November. Keep an eye on our Facebook Events List for dates and times.

What can your coworking space offer to those that may be looking for somewhere to work away from home?

MinorOak, at its heart, is a supportive community of coworkers. We can offer a helping hand or a sympathetic ear. Our members give each other tips and advice on taxes, software, GDPR, and many other topics. We hire each other, provide referrals, and like/share each other’s social media posts and events. We help each other increase visibility online and in the real world. MinorOak itself is part of that; I share members’ blog posts and events and do everything I can to help them meet their goals.

Getting out of the house and into the city centre is valuable in many ways, too. A MinorOak membership can re-connect you with the larger community, including Sneinton Market and its creative businesses and the Nottingham city centre with all it has to offer. Working here makes it easy to go out for lunch, coffee or drinks with friends and enjoy live music, restaurants, shopping, markets, festivals, networking events, etc. It’s easy to be part of it all when you’re working from Sneinton Market.

Another advantage: working from home makes it hard to stay physically active, but coming to MinorOak makes it easy to incorporate movement into your life. Sneinton Market and the surrounding neighbourhood offer plenty of opportunities: the pool at the Victoria Leisure Centre, several gyms and dance studios, and of course Circus Hub with its aerial classes. Even taking the bus or tram and then walking to Sneinton Market is a bit of exercise.

Finally, working from MinorOak can help with focus, motivation and organisation. When you’re surrounded by people who are getting things done, you get things done. When you reserve some or all your work for the coworking space, you focus on it when you’re here and are able to focus on other things when you’re at home. MinorOak can be a way to take control of your time and productivity. For example, we have an artist who comes here to do her business planning and social media marketing and a trainer who comes here to correct papers.

Maybe it could be a useful place for you, too!