Lockdowns and local restrictions have meant more people than ever working from home this year. With forecasters predicting this current trend could become a long-term shift, a Northern Ireland start-up is hoping its services may help the High Street, the hospitality sector and those who find working away from the office a struggle.
VennWorks is a new booking platform that aims to turn unused space in cafes, bars, restaurants and hotels into hot desk solutions for freelancers, start-ups and remote workers.
Founders, Susie Hall and Ross Harrison hope that as well as helping people discover new ways to work, the platform will also drive footfall to locally owned venues, with the potential to increase revenue during the quieter day time hours.
In the planning from last year, the idea for the business wasn’t inspired by the pandemic but has become even more topical as a result of it.
Susie explained: “Even before Covid-19, remote working was becoming more commonplace. Ross and I were living and working in London and I used the services of a company that does something very similar. It just seemed like such a great idea but to our knowledge they were the only ones doing it and only in the one area.
“When we were moving back to Northern Ireland we started talking about if, and how, such a concept could work here and couldn’t see any downsides to it. My background is in hospitality and my dad was a restauranteur so I could see how it was a mutually beneficial arrangement for all involved parties!”
The concept is simple, members can join on either a £20 monthly rolling contract or pay £200 for a yearly subscription, find a venue and book a ‘desk’ from one hour to a full day. Use is unlimited and VennWorks installs its own secure, high-speed wifi in the venues so members have a unique login across all sites.
Venues have complete control over the booking, there are no sign-up costs and the individual businesses set their own opening hours and how many spaces are available at any one time.
Ross said: “Most people are surprised at how affordable it is but we wanted to create a price point that was accessible to pretty much every-one as small businesses and start-ups don’t have a lot of capital to spend on office spaces.
“We believe a realistic and sustainable model of working is a hybrid of working from home, the office and in public venues and this is where we come in. We’re hoping to become the alternative work space solution for any number of people.”
With venues in Belfast, Lisburn, Holywood, Bangor and Newtownards already on board the pair are hoping the venture eventually becomes an all-Ireland initiative.
Susie added: “Pre-registration is now open on our website and we’ve had the first of our venues lined up since February. The government restrictions have delayed proceedings, but everything is in place and as soon as it’s safe to do so we will begin rolling it out.
“The thinking, pre-Covid, was that most hospitality places have off peak times so the idea was to get people in and create revenue during these lull periods but now we’re hoping it breathes a bit of life into the hospitality sector and helps get people back out there again safely.”
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