Why Litsa’s coworking club is DIFFERENT

Around six months ago, I was sitting in my living room feeling a bit bleurgh. As a solopreneur working alone day after day can get pretty boring, lonely and stale.

I realised I was missing one thing that I LOVED about working in the corporate world – people! Not the annoying colleagues of course, but the ones you could have a chat with, maybe bounce ideas off (about work or not work), and generally have a bit of a laugh with.

I missed REAL LIFE PEOPLE.

I chatted about this with some of the women in my small business owner network and it turned out I was not alone.

So, I decided that I would do something about it. I found a space that would work for us to meet every Wednesday in Altrincham (mid-week seemed as good a day as any!), and I started telling people about it. Slowly but surely word spread, and it became a consistent and regular part of my week – and many of the other women who came along.

They started telling me that they were organising their week around the Wednesday morning coworking club – they didn’t want to miss it!

But why?

 Well, the thing that is different about my coworking club is that its informal, there’s no “speaker”, or “theme”, and it combines an informal natter, a coffee/cuppa and some quiet productive time to get some work done.

There is of course absolutely nothing wrong with more “event” type coworking clubs and events– I attend many myself – but the point is that I know there is a need for something different – which is why my club isn’t that.

You might meet people there who you connect with outside of the club and work with (or become more friendly with) – but again, “networking” is not the primary purpose.

There are no “elevator pitches” here. I might go round and ask people to say what they do – but its not a sales pitch. So what I’m saying is that building a network is a lovely side effect of the club for you if you want it to be, but it is not the primary purpose. What is? A change of scene, a good old chat with support (and laughter usually!), and some quiet time to actually crack on with some work.

You see, when I first started the club we would turn up, have a great chat and a laugh, and head home 3 hours later… lovely! EXCEPT after a couple of weeks we realised it was a bit unsustainable to spend a morning a week doing that – so I added in the now-loved “45 minute working sprint”. I ask everyone to share (if they want to), what they plan to work on in the next 45 minutes and set everyone off working quietly.

It means that everyone is super productive! They usually say that they achieve in that 45 minutes more than they would have achieved at home (when it would likely be punctuated with scrolling, washing, email checks etc!).

So that’s it! My Co-working club is now well established and growing. So if you are a female founder and you live close enough to Altrincham (South Manchester) to join us – you would be SO welcome!

Everyone is friendly and welcoming and it’s absolutely ok to come by yourself – I will look after you and make sure you feel comfortable I promise.

More details about the practical stuff are on this page on my website here. Or you can email me on Litsa@unscrambleme.co.uk to ask any questions you have.