Supporting a female entrepreneur breaking into a male-dominated industry
Fed up with feeling uncomfortable when tradesmen came round to her house when the boiler broke or the walls needed repainting, Yasmin Reeves, decided to fix this problem by setting up her own company: Allpoints Painters and Decorators. Having grown the company since 2011, Yasmin began to identify the need for a business address and occasional access to workspace and so she shared with us why she decided to have a virtual office in our Churchill Square Business Centre.
Painters and decorators with a difference
Set up to serve couples or women who might feel intimidated by tradesmen coming into their homes, Yasmin retrained, and now has grown a small team of painters and decorators. She shared that for her, it’s all about nurturing her employees and being a good employer: “I’ve heard horror stories of employees from local companies being treated badly, so I really want to be a good employer.”
She shared how she achieves this: “Taking pride in my work and everything I do and being professional and just to provide job security for people, especially after COVID. You know, I think a lot of people, a lot of subcontractors don’t want to be subbies. They want PAYE, they want annual leave, they want job stability. And for me, that’s fine. If they’re hard-working, I put them on my books, it’s not an issue.”
The advantages of a virtual office for a growing company
After it didn’t work out with a previous office space company, Yasmin now has a virtual office at Capital Space’s Kings Hill centre which she uses on an ad hoc basis for interviews or when her customers need to come in to meet her face-to-face.
Yasmin shared that the friendly team and good location are what drew her to our workspace offering: “The virtual address in Kings Hill is convenient as it’s a lovely area and compared to my previous office, I’ve found Capital Space were a bit more personable, a lot more affordable, and just generally a lot nicer organisation to deal with.”
Even our virtual office customers are part of our community
Yasmin shared how she values the community feel of Capital Space and how she has felt supported by our team:
“From set up, everything was really smooth and it was really nice to be kept in the loop about local events that are nearby, which I didn’t have with my other provider. They really engage with their customers and make them feel valued instead of like, here’s an office, you just pay this every month. When you’re a small company and when you want to expand, you need other people around to help you grow, and if you feel that another company’s invested in you, even if it’s just sending you an email of local events happening, it just makes you feel a little bit like, oh, these guys care.”
The flexibility to expand when needed
The ability to scale up when the time comes is a great benefit to Yasmin, who is hoping to continue growing her business and would soon like to have more permanent office space: “It will be really good to have the ability to say to my customers that they can come to the office and check me out and see what my business is about, which is quite exciting. So, yes, I’m looking forward to growing and then having more office spaces.”
