The Innovation Loft

Working from Home: Hard work or hardly working? Come join us at The Minga on June 18th at 7pm to discuss an incubator in Dunnville with a group of home-based entrepreneurs. Starting a business from home is no easy task. Working from home provides entrepreneurs with an abundance of flexibility, but it can also hinder business growth and operations. Here’s why: 1. You have no one to learn from. In an incubator setting you are surrounded with others; others with new ideas and different experiences. Not only do you have the potential to learn more about your specialist area, you have the opportunity to learn about all business areas. 2. It can be a lonely job to get your business off the ground. When you solely are Management, Marketing, Sales, and Production, you need all of the support that you can get. Working individually to complete absolutely every task can become overwhelming and inefficient, not to mention lonely. 3. You start to miss the little things. An incubator environment offers all of the little things: Independent and shared working spaces, reception services, access to a boardroom, secure & reliable Wi-Fi access, photocopier machines, a water cooler, recreation space, and the list goes on. For the last few months a group of community members have been talking about establishing an incubator above The Minga in Dunnville so that start-up business and growing small businesses have an affordable opportunity to support each other in a common working space as they expand their businesses. While growing your business, you can enjoy benefits that a professional office provides and more. The Innovation Loft (which we are thinking of calling this incubator) can accelerate the growth and success of your business through an array of business support resources and services. These resources and services include: professional office space, access to capital, coaching and mentorship, business education programming, office amenities, and a social network of like-minded entrepreneurs. Come explore this concept with our committee at The Minga on June 18th at 7pm. Share your thoughts on ways to enhance this space to suit you and contribute to the economic growth of Dunnville and the surrounding area. For more information, please contact Isabelle of the Grand Erie Business Centre at isabelle@granderie.com.