Third Door has been lucky with the amount of press coverage we have had since we launched the business back in May 2010. We have been covered by BBC Radio London Breakfast show, BBC London News, The Guardian (twice!), FT, Nursery World (three times), won a few awards along the way (Best Start Up, Best Local Business by Lloyds TSB, Smarta 100 2011 winner, and a finalist for a few others). It's been great and really helped us stamp ourselves as the first in the UK to enter the area of merging a workspace for the self-employed/home workers with a flexible onsite nursery.

The concept of Third Door is such a brilliant simple idea that has left many people asking why it it hasn't been done before.  However, more importantly, I believe the story behind Third Door has helped us gain much of this press coverage. It is a lovely story and I would recommend that everyone starting their own brand or company also pulls together the story behind their business. People are always interested in stories and we have used our story countless times. It is one that I will never tire of telling as the story has led to me launching and working passionately on Third Door and also as a result I am lucky enough to take both my children with me to work everyday!

When my daughter was 5 months old and I was halfway through my maternity leave, I realised that I didn't want to go back to my corporate job (Global Brand Research Manager), which as wonderful as the company I was working for is, I just didn't want to do any global travelling or commute full-stop.
I had always harboured ambition to set up my own business so I decided to get together with a like minded friend and brainstorm as many ideas as we could. So with our daughters in tow we started our brainstorming session. However, what we didn't expect was how difficult it was to get into the flow of 'brainstorming' whilst tending to the needs of our girls with one of the girls constantly needing some kind of attention, be it nappy change, feeding, entertaining, holding etc.

So in a bid to get them to sleep we went to the local Starbuck's and then the local park, both of which made no difference. I remember clearly feeling very frustrated and saying to my friend how great it would be to leave the girls somewhere where they could be looked after whilst we worked nearby!

Being a researcher, I started looking into this idea and found a similar idea based in the States. Additionally a number of insights were revealed, some new, some old; many new mums are to reluctant to return back to work as they are nervous about placing their child in childcare. More dads want to spend more time with their child during the workday instead of just mornings, evenings and weekends. More and more people are able to work from home with the advent of mobile technology; all one needs is internet access, a laptop and mobile phone and they can work from anywhere in the world.

However, with this comes the added problem of loneliness, missing the office buzz and having the distraction of household chores. Third Door would solve many of these problems and through creating a membership space we would enable networking, collaboration and a sense of community.  One of the most important insights was lack of flexibility in the traditional nursery model and at Third Door, members would be able to pick the sessions they needed as long as they give enough notice.

My husband and co-founder, was studying for his MBA (self-funded) at the same time and was just finalising his dissertation project. I suggested he focus on this idea I had been researching. He thought it was a no-brainer as he was feeling all the pain points I had already identified of working from home around a small child. Yusuf worked hard on a feasibility plan of our concept. We were thrilled when he received a distinction for it. At around the same time, my employers had announced that they were making redundancies so I decided to take voluntary redundancy (despite just finding out we were expecting baby no.2).

The next big step was to get funding for our project. We worked hard to turn the feasibility study into a fully functional business plan with all the right numbers for the bank, only to be told a big 'NO' by the bank! We were informed that they could not compare our business against anything similar so they didn't want to take the risk (at around this moment of time, the recession had just been officially announced, hence the reluctance by the bank).

Obviously we were gutted but rather than give up so early in the process, we decided to pool together all our savings. We remortgaged our home and sold some equity to friends and family. We then went ahead with logo design, finding premises, strongly negotiating everything so we could save money. I worked right up to the night our son was born - I had a week's rest before I was back working towards the launch. We decided not to give up and to presevere as we totally believe in Third Door and we knew we would end up being grumpy old people if someone else ended up doing it instead of us! That's enough to get the fire going, new baby or not!

We launched the business when our son was 6 months old and it's been quite a journey to date. The business model has evolved with time, but we are still true to our vision of excellent customer service and helping make the lives of working parents that little bit easier! Our long-term plan is to have a Third Door in every urban town in the UK and we would love to meet any interested parties along the way who help us realise our vision and be part of the journey.

I'd love to hear you comments and if you also have a story to tell, we'd love to have you as a guest speaker at a Third Door event.

Working patterns are changing. More and more people are striking out on their own or working from home. In fact it's probably time to say goodbye to the traditional office, goodbye to the kitchen table and even goodbye to Starbucks!

Welcome to Coworking. For small businesses, teleworkers as well as freelancers and the self-employed, coworking is becoming a viable option for basically getting things done. It's as simple as that.

Coworking is a new trend that is emerging around the world, which is where professionals come together in a shared workspace to help reduce costs by sharing equipment, to access a collaborative community of fellow entrepreneurs/professionals and to work in a professional workspace. Coworking offers an exciting alternative for people longing to escape the confines of their four walls, the distractions of working from home or the inconvenience of working from a public venue.

Here are the reasons why our members love coworking at Third Door:

Reason 1: Third Door has SUPERFAST and super efficient WIFI. Multitask like crazy on your laptop!

Reason 2:  The FLEXIBILITY we offer at Third Door, join as an ad-hoc or monthly member.

Reason 3:  First Coworking space in UK to offer an ONSITE NURSERY for those who need it.

Reason 4: Opportunities for NETWORKING and COLLABORATION with fellow co-workers (Members Intranet site to connect with fellow coworkers).

Reason 5: Comfortable chairs, bright airy room with excellent lighting, to help you work more productively throughout the day.

Raason 6: Access to shared resources: printing, books, member's brains!

Reason 7: Book your slots on our bespoke online booking system...about to launch!

Reason 8: Access to private spaces: Meeting Room, Offices, Phone Booths as well as lounge space

Reason 9: Access to guest speakers, events, workshops

Reason 10: FREE TEA & COFFEE all day

Our pricing structure is very flexible and cost-effective.

We'd love to hear from you, please call us on 0208 8770098 or email on hello@third-door.com to arrange a visit.

Demos, a thinktank, have recently published a report called ‘Reinventing the Workplace’.  The report, published last week emphasises how flexible working is "particularly important" in a sluggish economic climate.   

The report talks of strong evidence to show that more involved parenting improves the life chances of children, a better work–life balance increases individual happiness, a more flexible workforce is more able to bear the burden of an ageing population, and the Big Society will require people to have more time to be active citizens.

The report goes on to say it would be "short sighted to sacrifice flexible working rights on the altar of short-term economic recovery", particularly because they can be complementary, in that greater availability of flexible working allows for a more inclusive labour market, expanding the size of the labour force and expanding output.

This is certainly something that Kirsty agrees with, who became a mum for the first time ten months ago.  Realising that returning to full time work in the City would result in her missing out on precious time with her young daughter, she was keen to find an alternative solution.

Whilst on maternity leave, she attended an NCT meeting at Third Door and inadvertently realised that she’d found the answer to her dilemma.  She had found a flexible solution that would allow her to work full time and spend time with her daughter. 

Kirsty and her husband, Jonathan use Third Door three days a week.  She explained why the solution works for her: “It’s perfect.  I only live 10 minutes away which means I get to spend an extra two hours in the morning with her.  We get to enjoy lunch together and have an extra hour in the evening, as she’s right there when I finish work.  I also get to sneak a peek at her throughout the day and I am on hand should she need me.”

Kirsty has worked as a Finance Manager in Business Development for her employer for five years.  As her role is predominantly project based and doesn’t necessarily require her to work from a specific location, she approached her employer to suggest that she work from the office three days and Third Door twice a week to enable her to spend more time with her daughter.

Understanding that balancing work with family commitments had become a priority, her employer agreed to the change, knowing that Kirsty was still able to deliver a full day’s work and see her young daughter.  She generally spends Wednesday and Friday at Third Door, but is able to change her days if she needs to be in the office. 

Kirsty added; “The flexibility afforded us is terrific.  We are able to change our days if necessary and it doesn’t matter whether Jonathan or I use the workspace.  And as it’s a fully Ofsted registered nursery we can also leave the premises if we have or want to.”

Clearly there a number of initiatives that need to take place if the economy is to have any kind of kick start.  But, one of those has to be to encourage employers to get smarter about affording flexibility to a workforce that will deliver retention, commitment and performance. And that can only mean a healthier bottom line for everyone!

To download the full report by think tank Demos click here

Reinventing_the_Workplace_-_web.pdf (1.07 mb)