Satellite Telework Centers in BoingBoing
June 21, 2010
BoingBoing guest blogger Chris Arkenberg interviewed Satellite Telework Centers co-founder Jim Graham and part of the discussion included the new ways people want to work.
You can read the entire interview here.
Satellite Telework Centers is a Finalist for the 2010 Red Herring 100 North America Award
June 15, 2010
FELTON, CALIFORNIA, – June 15, 2010 – Satellite Telework Centers announced today it has been selected as a Finalist for Red Herring’s North America 100 award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the North American business region.
SC Sentinel – Felton work center expands to downtown Santa Cruz
April 29, 2010
From today’s Santa Cruz Sentinel:
SANTA CRUZ – Out of the coffee shop and into the cubicle.
That’s the trend in downtown Santa Cruz, anyway, as Felton’s Satellite Telework Center opens its second work space for telecommuters, independent consultants and the self-employed in the New Sentinel building on Church Street, next to Internet provider Cruzio and nonprofit Ecology Action.
Satellite, whose current location offers rentable cubicles, cafe tables, conference rooms and office necessities like printers and phones will be the second such business to open off of Pacific Avenue. NextSpace Coworking + Innovation offers similar benefits on the corner of Pacific and Cooper Street.
But the heads of both shops say their businesses are so unique – and demand so great – that they should be able to thrive just a few blocks away from each other.
“You hear a lot about work-life balance, and this is a part of it, separating between work and home,” said CEO Barbara Sprenger.
The difference between each business is palpable. Satellite’s Felton location is understated, with a noise cancellation system keeping cubicles quiet and tasteful paintings by local artists on the wall. The business’ target demographic, said Sprenger and Marketing Director Jim Graham, is telecommuters, consultants and startups who need to rent office space by the hour, day, week or month. They feature a key card system similar to a hotel’s that tracks time spent inside Satellite, what printers or other office machinery was used and bills clients accordingly. About 50 people work there.NextSpace features red trim and Santa Cruz artist Steve Hosmer’s wall-covering, whimsical paintings. Customers purchase flat-rate “memberships,” which CEO Jeremy Neuner describes as buying into a community. NextSpace’s target demographic is independent, creative professionals seeking like-minded folks to work with. Nearly 200 people work there.
While some telecommuters base out of NextSpace, they don’t comprise one-third of its members like at Satellite, Neuner said.
“The nature of work is changing. People are going to continue to seek alternative work arrangements,” Neuner said. “We provide work arrangements that will work for some people. Satellite provides work arrangements that will work for some people.”
Even expansion plans are different. Along with downtown, Satellite is eyeing other locations in Westside Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, along with Pleasanton, Campbell and Morgan Hill. Sprenger and Graham said they research census data to learn commute patterns and income levels of communities where Satellite might be a good fit.
NextSpace, on the other hand, is seeking out “urban cores” where creative entrepreneurs now hole up in coffee shops with their laptop computers. Neuner declined to specify where NextSpace will open next, only to say that it will be in a major market outside Santa Cruz County.
With more commuters working from home and laid-off residents becoming self-employed, Sprenger and Neuner said demand for both types of space is only growing.
“We offer the same type of service, but it’s a slightly different clientele,” Graham said. “Both of us are taking advantage of this change in how people work.”
Working at home not always so family friendly
April 26, 2010
USA Today reporter Sharon Jayson recently published a piece on the challenges that come with working from home. One of the most interesting points she cited was that working at home doesn’t necessarily equate to increased quality time with family.
The technology that allows parents to spend more time at home – laptops and cellphones and e-mail – is blurring the lines between work and personal life and distracting them from the “family time” they crave, Jayson wrote.
While being in the vicinity of loved ones while working can give the impression of more quality time, multitasking teleworkers might still not be giving the quality time others expect.
“That mother shows up in these surveys as being with the child, but is she actually, if she’s on the BlackBerry in the car?” said Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. “A mother putting laundry in while the child sits on the couch is not the same as a mother concentrating on this screen and going into this virtual space. Kids are totally attuned. They know .. their parents are in la-la land.”
You can read the entire story here.
Local author Diane Pinkard speaking @ The Satellite tonight
April 22, 2010
SLV resident and author Diane Pinkard will give a free seminar “How to Increase Your Sales – Learn to Sell the Best Product You Have to Offer: Yourself!” The purpose of this seminar is to learn how to effectively market the best product you have to offer – yourself! Before selling successfully to the world, we must learn to sell successfully to ourselves.
This means learning to identify with your own character and makeup; it means getting in touch with your own personal truth. You’ll be given eye-opening exercises, skills and tools that will help you discover and enhance your professional excellence. You will feel excited about your professional choice and empowered with new self-confidence, commitment and motivation for achieving your sales goals and performance.
We’ll host a light wine and cheese reception at 6:30 p.m. and Diane will begin her presentation at 7.
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The Satellite Twitter
- 6 days ago--What's new with Satellite Telework Centers - September - link #coworking #telework
- Aug 6th--It's a free #coworking / #telework day here at the Satellite in downtown Felton. Come on in and set a spell.
- Aug 3rd--Just fired off our August email newsletter: link I <3 Constant Contact analytics.
- Jul 29th--We're hosting a free seminar on protecting small businesses from data theft tonight at 7 p.m. - link
- Jul 28th--Someone's doing a model photo shoot here at the Satellite
- Jul 26th--Our mid-month email newsletter, now brought to you by Constant Contact: link
- 6 days ago--What's new with Satellite Telework Centers - September - link #coworking #telework