Business

Sharing the load in the workplace

Ashleigh Frankel and Christine LeLacheur came up with their business venture after growing tired of working from home and out of coffee shops.

“I came to the conclusion that I needed an office space that wasn’t the master bedroom, trying to work off of the bed,” LeLacheur said from the Whitespace Common boardroom on Yonge Street and Keewatin Avenue.

Before joining forces the entrepreneurs had left corporate jobs to start their own coaching and consulting companies: Click & Co and Cheurfire Consulting.

After meeting through their sons’ preschool, they decided to open a collaborative-shared workspace in North Toronto.

Members can work on a full- or part-time basis in the office, which has a common area with desks, a private meeting room and access to business needs like a printer, scanner, WIFI connection and coffee.

They also hold workshops and events, like a recent meeting in which attendees got new headshots.

“We see this as a place for connectedness and networking,” Frankel said.

Since co-working is a fairly new concept, the pair says a challenge has been explaining the difference between what they offer and executive centres, the latter being strictly about renting office space.

“Co-working really encourages collaboration — having someone to bounce ideas off of,” LeLacheur said.

“It’s more than a workspace,”  Frankel added. “There’s a mindset, an energy that goes along with it.”