Many years ago my husband Chris and I came to Murfreesboro to attend MTSU. We met each other while working at a local restaurant during his last semester. The plan was to move out west once we had both graduated but Murfreesboro pulled us in and we decided to stay. Since then we have watched our town blossom and become one of the fastest growing cities in the state.
One of our most favorite parts of Murfreesboro has always been the downtown area near the square. For several years we have been looking at office space for Chris around the square. Our incredible realtor, Bill, has spent many hours touring various buildings around town with us and found the space on Lytle which we jumped on right away. When you walk inside you can feel the positive energy of the space. The ceilings are tall, the bones are good. You can see so many possibilities within. Chris and I could not be happier to get started on this project and be downtown every day.
You may be wondering how we got from looking at office space for our businesses to opening a coworking space.
Ten years ago Chris started his own business out of our house. At the time we had an extra room that he could set up as a home office. We quickly realized how expensive setting up a work space can be. Expense aside, once we had children, the extra space was gone and we were all in agreement that he could not work from home with three babies in the house. Believe it or not he started off in a shed in our backyard which led to leasing a more spacious office when he began hiring more people.
Fast forward a couple of years and we find ourselves owners of a great, old building two blocks from the square. Before buying Chris realized the building was going to be too large for his office needs. He gave me the task of researching our options and finding the most suitable plan to utilize the remaining space. Initially I began looking into creating private, executive type offices that could be leased monthly. That led me to look closer at additional options we could offer our clients that perhaps they could not get elsewhere. One day I came across a website of a coworking place in California called Hera Hub. Before finding them I had never heard of coworking. This was a completely new concept to me and I loved it. At that moment I realized that this was a great idea for Murfreesboro.
A few weeks later, after reading everything I could get my hands on about coworking, I travelled to Kansas City to attend the Global Coworking Unconference Conference. The biggest take away was the amazing community of coworkers and space owners. Everyone was so helpful to each other and truly wanted to share positives, negatives, what works and what failed in their own spaces to help new spaces just opening. It was all about helping others grow their business and supporting the community in the process. This is what I hope to help create in Murfreesboro, a place where people can work on their own projects while helping others do the same and growing a community within a community with a goal of strengthening everyone around us.
