Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tent: shedworkers

Branding, design and marketing agency Tent is has recently become a shed-based branding, design and marketing agency as its business development director Sarah Raad explains below - it's quite a long post but full of interesting detail whether you're already a shedworker or considering becoming one:
We had been based in an excellent business centre in town for five years but when we decided to make the move to a slightly more rural setting for our home, we thought it made sense to cut down the commute and improve our work/life balance by building an office garden. The houses in our village all have long, allotment style gardens, designed for feeding the families of pit workers who lived there years ago and now perfect for putting an office at the bottom. And so The Shed as we have named it was born!

We needed planning permission from the local council as technically it’s in the front garden of the house and also because the village is a conversation area, the council’s conservation department had the opportunity to look and comment on the style etc. Luckily this all went through without too many issues.

We bought a kit from Dunster House and employed a local builder, electrician and IT company to construct it and wire us up to the 21st century complete with phone lines, broadband and wifi.

Inside we have worked with our current brand in terms of colours and overall look – we even have fake turf instead of carpet – bringing the outdoors inside! It is such a creative environment to be in, very quiet, just the sound of birds and the occasional car crunching down the lane.

Clients love it, it’s so inviting and cosy and a nice break from the hustle and bustle of town and city. It’s also proving to be an excellent space for us to run one to one marketing planning and training sessions as it’s so peaceful and a bit of an escape from people’s everyday business environments. And even though we’re tucked away we are only 20 mins or so from the centre of town and not that far from the A1.

We decided to heat it by using a wood burner, although we burn smokeless fuel. The Shed is so well insulated though that even on a fairly cold winter’s day we only needed the burner going for 4 hours and then it was warm for the rest of the day and into the evening. With summer approaching we are looking forward to flinging open the double doors and really getting the feeling or working in the garden.

Working where we live has really improved our work/life balance and means we can be responsive to our client’s needs when needs be without compromising on family life. Working in our shed means that we can lock the door on work at the end of the day too rather than bringing it into the house which is important to us.
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Tuesday posts are sponsored by The Home Office Company, manufacturers of unique garden rooms since 1998. Now in 10 exciting new colours. Click here for more details.

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