The Network Hub - A Community for Business
Where can you go in downtown Vancouver and find 4 high school kids as partners, a videographer, tech dudes, import-export tycoons, virtual assistants and accountants working in a network business hub of joint-ventures and community support?
Right downtown, on Richards street. Three creative partners, Minna Van, her brother John Van, and Jay Catalan, salvaged a run down sack of brick and mortar and after reno’s and pounding the streets, they evolved with their vision and launched: The Network Hub.
Housing over 30 businesses at one time, 422 Richards Street is a drop-in office, a shared- space office, or private office – as you need it, when you need it. Fully equipped with wireless routing and an espresso maker, the complex suits the needs of the savvy minded, networking type who enjoys the company of others, even when you are working 3 am deadlines.
Open to their residents 24 hours a day, the offices are usually in use, or at minimum, the boardroom is rented for some educational or networking event. I met with the three innovators in the boardroom in early January.
The mind of business
It didn’t take long to see why they had been successful. After only 4 years of business, Minna says, they have learned what it means to be “the boss”. No longer under the illusion that when you fire the boss life gets easier, John commented, “we learned our business would force us to be very adaptable to our environment and each circumstance as it comes our way.”
“Yeah, the buck stops here. There is no one else to hand it over to. No secretaries or assistants – it’s us, whether it’s 10 am or 11 pm,” Minna said with animated eyes while trying to keep up with her Twitter and Facebook networking as we spoke.
Social networking is responsible for a good deal of the success of The Network Hub. They host several offline events, including the Vancouver Entrepreneurs Meet Up Group, The League of Kick Ass Business People, and many industry related groups.
Minna, clearly the social queen uses her Smartphone as a tool – constantly promoting great information she thinks will benefit her subscribers.
“We have certainly signed up a lot of clients through social networking and if not them directly, they have referred people to us,” Minna explained.
The concept of housing many businesses together is certainly not new (take a look on Burrard street), but the way the Network Hub is going about business is a wave of the new networking lifestyle entering the business world. One of its kind in Vancouver, Eastern cities are slowly embracing the idea. The Network Hub offers reception services, mail services and virtual office assistance to many out of town major companies looking for a west coast presence. Prices for office space starts at $250/mo but you can rent an office for the day for $35 and even a desk for an hour or two at $5. Not a lot of similarity to Burrard street now.
With so many micro and small businesses feeding our dieting economy, overhead costs can be shared when they come together in one open space. According to Catalan, many of the businesses at the Hub have referred business to one another, partnered up for certain projects and gone so far as to incorporate new business identities.
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