Helping our Coworking Community to bounce back
Earlier this year as we wound our way rather wobbly through lockdown, we were pondering some pretty big questions.
How will this affect Rume2?
How will this affect our wonderful members?
What can we do to fix it or make it better?
We were locked down, Rume2 was to all purposes shut and the world felt a pretty lonely place. But then the movement of coming together in troubled times started.
Instead of thinking about what we could do to help ourselves we started thinking about the bigger picture. What could we do for our members? How could we come together and help our epic community bounce back as quickly as possible?
As local businesses with a similar offering we hadn’t had much direct contact with our neighbours Freedom Works in our first year of business but, in the interest of beating this together we picked up the dialogue of how we could help the local small businesses and freelancers. After all, the purpose of both of our businesses was to help the local economy thrive, through supporting entrepreneurs, freelancers and small companies in the area.
If we couldn’t do it by welcoming them into our spaces there must be another way we could help.
We began by trying to understand the impact our communities were seeing as the country ground to a halt. We did this by launching a survey on the impact of COVID on small business across the Sussex Region.
The results were stark. People were being impacted in a very large way across most sectors.
You can read the full results here
We worked closely with a number of local business groups on this survey which gave us strong results that West Sussex County Council were able to use to lobby the government.
This felt like we were lending a helping hand, but that wasn’t enough for us. How could we aid all these businesses in bouncing back from the COVID impact? How could we help the local ecosystem grow by helping businesses to win business within the Sussex area?
The idea of a Business 2 Business Portal where businesses could find and engage with other local businesses was spawned.
Rume2 and Freedom Works got together with local development agency Sensible Development to build a new platform to aid growth.
www.areainaction.co.uk was born!
A free online service to facilitate the introduction of local suppliers to other local businesses in need of a service.
Over a frantic period of a few weeks we managed to pull together out of our own resource (blood, sweat & tears) the platform and launch it into beta testing. Over the summer we have seen initial sign ups of local businesses rise to over 150 before an official launch and used the feedback to hone the experience.
Now we have reached official launch week. This is the week we are being officially launched by the district council, going to press and telling all you lovely lot about it. Now is the time to start using it!
Its very simple to use and completely free. Just register as a supplier by setting up a simple profile and gain access to all of the live projects or requirements listed by other businesses in your area.
Use the platform to show your interest in any that are relevant to you.
In return when you have anything you require a new supplier for then pop it on the portal and receive applications from those listed on the portal.
By getting involved you are helping to keep business spend in our local area, all working together to help the Sussex region bounce back.
We are an Area In Action!
Here is our full press release below. Or just go to the site and get involved now!
www.areainaction.co.uk
New Area in Action portal launched to help Sussex business bounce back
Area in Action (www.areainaction.co.uk) is a new business to business match making platform focused on helping our economic area bounce back as quickly as possible from COVID-19
During the COVID-19 crisis a high proportion of businesses in the Sussex area were substantially impacted and continue to be so.
As coworking spaces with direct access to small businesses in the area founding partners Freedom Works and Rume2 saw the immediate and future struggles of the local economy first hand and embarked on creating a platform for b2b connection to help the area bounce back as quickly as possible.
“It became very apparent from a survey we ran across the Sussex region early in the lockdown that small business in the area had been dramatically affected, and we wanted to do something to help the previously vibrant business ecosystem bounce back as quickly as possible.”
Rosie Freshwater Rume2 Founder
Local web development company Sensible Development soon joined the founding team to help bring this portal to fruition.
Along with the support of Coast2Capital, West Sussex County Council, fellow coworking spaces and the Gatwick Diamond Initiative, the purpose of Area In Action is to support the bounce back of the Sussex region by providing a place that local businesses can find and work with each other. A way for suppliers across all sectors to showcase themselves and for those businesses who have a requirement or challenge to find local suppliers they can work with.
Bob Lanzer, West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for the Economy, said:
"I welcome this collaboration between Freedom Works, Rume2 and Sensible Development to move efficiently to provide an on-line portal for small businesses to interact with and support each other. We see again how out of adversity comes creative thinking, teamwork and a technical solution that will serve West Sussex well in supporting its economic recovery."
It is simple for any business in the region to register and completely free.
Please head to www.areainaction.co.uk now if you would like to work with more businesses in your area.
Help us get this new initiative up and running.