Since March a lot of us have been getting used to the reality of working from home… or homing from work if you’d rather. It’s full on and for a lot of women it is outside of their comfort zones. Whether you have an office in the garden or are working from the comfort of your king size bed, there’s no denying it’s hard to get that separation between work and rest when you aren’t leaving the house or getting that social interaction. Surviving the pandemic as someone who is self employed hasn’t been easy.

I caught up with Jess Berry, founder of The Co-Working Club (Of which I am a proud member) to find out how the idea of co-working has evolved since the start of the pandemic.

Born out of the loneliness and isolation that comes hand-in-hand with working from home, The Co-Working Club is a supportive community for female creatives who are looking to gain more connection and collaboration within their working routine.

MEET JESS

After graduating uni with a degree in Photography in 2013, Jess realised that, despite being a highly creative person, the photography industry just wasn’t for her.

Over the next couple of years Jess worked within a variety of roles for national brands, developing my knowledge of content marketing, social media, SEO, event management and influencer marketing. “I’d been interested in blogs for years and finally decided to bite the bullet and set up my own which is when Jess Who was officially born. As well as getting the opportunity to flex my creative muscles again, the blog also acted as a portfolio when it came to applying for roles within the digital marketing industry which is the career path I decided I wanted to pursue”.

“During this time I also started to pick up some freelance social media work on the side via contacts I’m made within my day job. Thanks to many word of mouth recommendations my client base grew quite substantially within a short period of time and in December 2017 I was able to take the leap into full-time self-employment specialising in offering social media marketing services for creative business owners.”

taking the leap into freelance freedom

“I’m not usually an impulsive person but when a freelance client wanted my services for 3 days a week, I leapt at the opportunity”. Having some form of security in freelance life can be so important in the early days. Jess found that the 3 days a week as a contractor gave her the stability she needed to really take the plunge and commit to working for herself.

Jumping right in at the deep end into self employed life can be daunting and feel like you are in it alone. Many spend the first few months of ‘freedom’ checking job sites, thinking they’ve made a mistake working for themselves so soon. The best lesson I ever learnt was to do it before you’re ready, there’s never a right time. So long as you’ve got a plan and determination, oh and a strong support group of course, you can do it!

the birth of the co-working club

Like many freelancers, it seemed so exciting at first but Jess quickly found that it can be isolating and lonely without having that friend to bounce ideas around with or grab a quick coffee in the shared kitchen. “Quite often I’d feel guilty for feeling lonely and not enjoying self-employed life like I imagined I would as I knew that there were lots of other people who would have loved to be in my position.”

“I felt as though I had to work from home to be successful and somehow finding a shared office space would be seen as me craving full time employment again”.

Jess started reaching out to other freelancers and arranging to meet in coffee shops once a week, something I think we would all recommend to maintain our sanity and get the good coffee that you just can’t seem to make in your own kitchen!

“I casually created a *Monday Club Meet-up* and didn’t necessarily plan for it to turn into a community, it was just a chance for like minded freelancers to have some company and get out of their home offices for a change. I didn’t feel ready to hire out an office for all of our group to work from or take the leap into calling it a CoWorking club at that point, it was a nice vibe keeping it casual”.

Jess Berry, founder of The Co-Working Club

How online communities can be just as effective

The CoWorking Club was about to launch with a new physical space for women to work from…when Covid hit.

So many freelancers and small business owners want that sense of community but have various reasons they can’t commit to physically going into a Co-Working space, such as sensitive client calls, locality or cost. “I knew once lockdown began I wanted to keep the community going and had to pivot to create an online community membership where female business owners could still chat, solve business challenges together and learn from one another”.

The CoWorking club offers members an online community (on slack) which is always buzzing with Ladies sharing business challenges, chatting about the latest episode of Selling Sunset or recommending the best software for small businesses. There are weekly lunch and learn sessions to up skill on various topics, goal setting workshops and check ins for accountability if you fancy it.

I have previously been a member of several irl Co Working clubs and as much as it was nice to get out of my PJs for a day, I often found it more distracting to be around so many people, it can be noisy and disruptive, but I knew I needed that sense of community and support. I joined the CoWorking club in August and from day 1 I honestly felt like I knew everyone. The ladies are so friendly and supportive, people share their wins as well as their woes and there’s always someone around to listen.

what are you waiting for?

If you are missing that sense of support or have just taking the leap into freelance freedom and are feeling a bit lost, find a CoWorking club that suits you.

The Co-Working club is so popular there is a waitlist, but I promise you, it’s worth it. Join the waitlist here.

“I want to keep the family feel of the Co-Working club as much as I possibly can so only let new members in every couples of months to ensure people can settle in properly and get the support they are looking for”.