New coworking spot opens in Sonoma

Good Co. Sonoma had planned its grand opening for the end of the month but they opened their doors a week earlier than planned as a result of the widespread power outages in the Valley.|

Initial Good Co. members

Claire Myers runs Claire Myers Consulting, a staffing and recruiting firm that specializes in financial services, technology, manufacturing, sales, energy and wine industry.

Lauren Warddrip runs Singular Accounting, which provides outsourced accounting and financial services for small businesses. She is also co-owner of Sonoma Pet Center.

Eric Warddrip runs Sonoma Pet Center and co-owns Singular Accounting.

Sean Roy is co-founder and chief product officer of Dialog Health, a provider of patient communications and texting solutions for the healthcare industry.

Rosanne Palmisano runs Little Giants Collaborative, which provides business, marketing and digital strategies for growing businesses, and she is co-author of “Rock Your Rental,” a design and marketing book for vacation rental owners.

Allyson Wiley of Bohemian Highway custom wine tour company has also signed on as a permanent member.

Tired of working from home, a group of Sonoma Valley friends and small business owners have opened a shared workspace for local entrepreneurs.

“We’ve been talking about it for a long time,” said co-founder Rosanne Palmisano. “Most of us were working out of home offices at our houses and we were always talking about how badly we needed real space – (space) that wasn’t Peet’s.”

The name of their new shared workspace concept, Good Co. Sonoma, comes from the idea of being good companies and being in good company.

“We started looking at office space for the five of us and decided that we wanted to open it up to more people,” said co-founder Lauren Warddrip, who runs her accounting business from the new space at 550 Broadway. “We found this building and fell in love with it.”

Working off of a limited budget, the office’s stylish décor was sourced largely through yard sales and the Sonoma Hitch and Barter Facebook group. The friends gathered for a barbecue last month and built all the work benches themselves.

“We’ve had to be really creative,” said co-founder Claire Myers. “Lauren has us on a tight budget!”

Palmisano came up with the design to maximize the space for both permanent and temporary offices as well as communal areas and a private phone booth. Myers acquired the company’s URL and developed its collateral materials and the website and social media. Wardripp punched the numbers and set the budget for what the group could spend outfitting the office and set up the LLC and license.

The space, between the Broadway and Patten St., is bright and airy. At the top of the stairs, framed logos indicate the companies that have already signed on for full-time memberships.

Memberships range from full-time permanent office space to 12 days a month contracts where members just drop-in and grab a desk. Five of their eight full-time memberships have been snapped up already at $350-$500 and they have just five or six part-time $199 memberships left.

“We’re going to start simple and add complexity and then see if we can maybe support some more,” said co-founder Sean Roy. “We’re still trying to sort out what is the right number of memberships.”

Amenities include conference room access, a private phone booth, free coffee/tea, snacks, a small outside space, Wifi, printing and well, camaraderie. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays.

“We’re trying to support our fellow entrepreneurs with a creative way to share the cost of having really nice office space,” said co-founder Eric Wardrrip. “We’re most excited about the side benefit of a shared workspace – getting to learn from each other, collaborating and being able to share the struggles of being entrepreneurs.”

Palmisano does marketing consulting, Myers is a recruiter, the Warddrips own an accountant practice and Sonoma Pet Center and Roy owns a software company. “We have six or seven businesses between us,” said Warddrip.

Down the road, the Good Co. Sonoma may expand with more space and hourly drop-in memberships but right now, with three days under their belt, they are focused on building a good creative space where they can work alongside people who have a shared interest in some of the issues that entrepreneurs face.

They also expect to offer events like workshops and training sessions. Sonoma Connects, a Sonoma women’s entrepreneur group, launched earlier this year by Myers and Palmisano, will also meet there. The group is designed to provide support for female entrepreneurs and start-ups.

“We share information and resources on topics like writing a business plan, recruiting or taxes and accounting,” said Palmisano.

Good Co. Sonoma had planned its grand opening for the end of the month but they opened their doors a week earlier than planned as a result of the widespread power outages in the Valley.

“We heard of so many people who work from home and couldn’t, so we spread the word through the Chamber of Commerce that anyone who needed a place to work was welcome to stop by and grab a spot, power, up, use out Wifi and get back to work,” said Warddrip. “It has been a great way to get people inside the space.”

www.goodcosonoma.com

Contact Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.

Initial Good Co. members

Claire Myers runs Claire Myers Consulting, a staffing and recruiting firm that specializes in financial services, technology, manufacturing, sales, energy and wine industry.

Lauren Warddrip runs Singular Accounting, which provides outsourced accounting and financial services for small businesses. She is also co-owner of Sonoma Pet Center.

Eric Warddrip runs Sonoma Pet Center and co-owns Singular Accounting.

Sean Roy is co-founder and chief product officer of Dialog Health, a provider of patient communications and texting solutions for the healthcare industry.

Rosanne Palmisano runs Little Giants Collaborative, which provides business, marketing and digital strategies for growing businesses, and she is co-author of “Rock Your Rental,” a design and marketing book for vacation rental owners.

Allyson Wiley of Bohemian Highway custom wine tour company has also signed on as a permanent member.

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