In this post our co-founder, Joe, discusses the values that are driving Soul Spaces forward.
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We really are passionate about enterprise, entrepreneurs and business in general.
As an owner-led business, we’re still hands-on with growing our brand and nurturing our team. I suppose it gives us a real empathy for those who are doing the same. Not just owners or founders but founding members, early adopters and employees who took a gamble joining an unknown brand they believed in — we get it! Our team did exactly the same.
I suppose because of this it means we understand how much your project really matters to you and your workplace on different levels.
An office move should be used as a bit of a behavioural shift. We are approaching the end of our third year and a feeling of greater professionalisation is creeping in. Our own office move would need to encourage and embrace that shift. Having better amenities and working options would show our team that we are no longer the “start up”, we are a delicate operation that needs everyone aligned and moving together.
A new workplace really gives you an impetus and a platform to consciously and unconsciously design these changes in. We are going through it ourselves so we really understand it.
Every penny we spend is a penny we have to earn. It’s a project we had to win or a cold call we had to close, so we really understand that money matters.
Being pragmatic doesn’t sound particularly sexy but in an office move it is vital. Understanding what success means and how to maximise value from the budget makes for a good office relocation project.
We really focus on value rather than cost. We like to talk through the options and put ourselves in our clients’ position. What is going to bring the most value to the project? How do we get the most bang for our buck? How do we scale the costs back without losing the impact? We really put ourselves in your shoes, we imagine they are our own and then advise as best we can!
Designing and building within a budget shouldn’t feel limiting, it should feel challenging and if anything in life feels challenging it probably means you are doing things the right way. We look at it in this way because I truly believe we genuinely care about our clients and their end product. That’s just vital to us as a business.
We find business genuinely interesting and exciting. Working with the latest ice cream craze or a 27 year old hedge fund. Meeting a start up who just received funding or a client who are trying to change the way fabric is created globally. Due to how these business models work and how their business differs from ours, we find it interesting, almost invigorating at times and, due to some of their models, incredibly perplexing!
My own family; my mum, dad, auntie, uncle and brother have all been entrepreneurs. Most still are and I suppose business is just in my blood and always in my brain!
The journeys a business goes through, the stories it tells and the legacy it leaves makes our work feel like a privilege! In some ways, it feels like we get to play a small part within that ecosystem and that feels quite special.