It's Not About The Desk - Who Is Coworking In Your Town?

Take a moment to learn about Paul and his business WizTech Computer Solutions and why your town needs more people like Paul.

Paul Angelini - Founder and "Chief Nerd" at WizTech Computer Solutions. Photo By Studio Eleven Eleven.

Paul and I first bonded in the craft beer section of the local neighborhood grocery store. Armed with knowledge well beyond my own, he guided my selection and we began to build a rapport based on our mutual fondness for Belgian beers and building businesses. 

At the time, I was less than a year into launching my own small home-based business and a walk to Rudy’s Market checked all the boxes for a mental health break. It was a chance to get up from my desk (also known as our dining room table), get some fresh air, and hopefully run into some friendly faces to chat a bit.

As the work-from-home grind wore on, the need to escape the house grew and less than two years after launching my business, I found myself opening the doors to our very first coworking space just 3 buildings down from the market. Not too long after, Paul and I reconnected at Honcho, a local coffee shop and we talked about the IT business he was in the beginning stages of launching. 

Whether he wanted to be or not, he was a perfect candidate for a coworking membership at the new space and after a little arm twisting (and maybe some brewed beverages) we were headed down to the coworking space for a tour. 

Paul truly was the perfect candidate for a coworking membership. Building his business in the time he could carve out around his full-time employment, he officially became a hot-seat coworking member in the early stages of his company while he was still working out names, logos, branding, and identifying core services. 

Over the past few years, Paul’s business, WizTech Computer Solutions has become the go-to “break-fix” computer service in the area and as his business has grown, his coworking membership levels have grown in tandem and he now maintains a private office on the upper level of the coworking space where he services customer's computers. 

At the end of the day, it's not about the desk. It's not about the Instagram backgrounds, the impressive dual monitor setups, or the well thought out modular design...It's about people.

While the business growth is impressive and in and of itself is a success story of the coworking space, it’s the intangibles that make Paul’s story worthy of sharing as an example of what coworking can bring to a community.

We often talk of the ripple effect of the coworking space throughout the community and what we really mean is the ripple effect of the coworkers.

For example, on the hottest day of May last year, Paul joined a small crew from the coworking space to volunteer his afternoon spreading mulch and landscaping the main intersection in town. The year before he helped install a wildflower meadow adjacent to the coworking space, and he has hosted several free events for the community at the coworking space including educational seminars on cyber security and technology, taken coworkers hiking on local trails and even held fun events like a fall cider pressing demonstration.

Inside the coworking space, he’s been part of collaborations with other business owners, helped launch a successful popup music venue, attracted new members to the space, and has provided critical on-demand computer services to his coworkers.

As is true of many of the people attracted to a small-town coworking space, he’s an active community member, engaged in local politics and discussions, and a supporter of other local businesses.

In fact, when it came time to move, Paul chose to relocate to the heart of downtown, embracing a lifestyle where he could walk to work, spend more time at his favorite local haunts, and of course, spend more time alongside his coworking colleagues.

Incremental change is one of the most powerful and underestimated forces in helping shape or re-shape a community. Over the course of a year or two, the daily small actions of a small number of people have a massive tranformative effect.

It’s hard to quantify the effects that someone like Paul has not only on a boutique coworking space but on the local community in general. To barely scratch the surface, his Wiztech computer repair services provide a sorely needed in-person, local solution for anyone in the area with a computer. Diving one layer deeper, he’s handled emergency calls from a number of local brick and mortar businesses in town that didn’t have time to wait for some other "squad" to find the time for them. Beyond that, as a local resident who lives, works, and plays in the downtown area, Paul is a supporter of numerous local businesses on a daily basis.

When we talk about entrepreneurial ecosystems having a ripple effect on the local economy and community, these are the things we are talking about. It’s not about how many members are in a space and how much they spend on their membership. It’s about how many hours they spend in town, how many people and businesses they interact with on a daily basis, it’s about how they are a familiar face at the local coffee shop or corner grocery store, and how they work to support the entire community. 

So many people refer to coworking as a new way to work. But it’s really a return to a way of life where people care about their work, care about their coworkers, and care about their community. It’s about providing more opportunities for chance connections and space for those meetings to evolve into something deeper and more profound. 

When you think about whether or not your town needs a coworking space, don’t ask yourself whether or not you need another office building on Main Street. Ask yourself if you want 20 or 30 people like Paul working, living, and playing in your downtown every single day, and imagine all the amazing things you could accomplish by giving them a reason to call your town home.

If you are interested in learning more about bringing a coworking space to your town, please don’t hesitate to reach out today - feel free to DM us on social media, email us at life@integratedlifeco.com, or leave us a voicemail at 248-985-9613 and we will get a free discovery call scheduled with you.

PS. Paul's slogan for WizTech is "We take the SH out of IT"... and we think that's just amazing :)