We love what we do at Work.Life because we have the pleasure of getting to know each and every one of the wonderful businesses that choose to call us home. From the local freelancers, to the bigger businesses and everyone in between, we really do have the best members!
Because we love them so much, we want to give these awesome businesses the spotlight they deserve! To kick start the new series of Member Spotlights in 2018, we interviewed Pete and Danny of Design Work Studios in Reading to learn more about what they do and how coworking with us has benefited their business.
Can you tell us a bit about Design Work Studios, what you do and how you came to be?
Design Work Studios is an architectural design studio that started with two friends, a drink and a dream – plus plenty of drive and passion. Danny and I share the vision of creating stunning interiors as well as great relationships.
You have a wide portfolio of projects on your website, both residential and commercial. What would you say has been your favourite project to work on and why?
We love the residential side of our business, and while it’s difficult to single out one particular project, a recent property we worked on really stole our hearts. It’s always a pleasure to work with clients who “get us” just as much as we “get them”, and we both felt there was a big opportunity to do something really interesting with their vision. People think our jobs are to change the look of people’s homes but, more importantly, we change the feel – this project helped us showcase that perfectly and, as a business, helped us to sculpt our ideal client to target. We thrive when working with clients who want to do something special with their homes.
What did you find the most challenging when setting up your business and do you have any advice for start-ups?
When moving from employed to self-employed, you go from focusing on one aspect of the business to having to do a bit of everything – that was definitely the most challenging part of starting our company. We’d advise breaking down the individual elements of what needs to be done to A) bring in revenue and B) make your business more efficient. Once broken down, do one item at a time, focus on getting it good enough and then move on to the next. Don’t aim for perfection.
We always aim for perfection, but in the early days of DWS, this ended up being very time consuming, especially when dealing with multiple changes. We quickly changed from 100% perfection to getting 60-80% perfection, releasing, then making tweaks on our systems along the way.
We love having you guys in our Reading space. What made you decide to work from a coworking space and how have you found working here?
Originally we worked from our living rooms but we want our homes to remain homes, so we wanted to find a workspace that would represent our business but that would also offer flexibility. Work.Life Reading ticked all our boxes and with the design mirroring how we want DWS to be portrayed, we love bringing clients here.
What does the future hold for Design Work Studios?
We’re working hard to become recognised as the ‘go-to company’ for bespoke and innovative design solutions so we can bring more of our commercial designs to residential settings.
How has being a member of Work.Life helped your business?
Being Local Members of Work.Life Reading has helped our business in so many ways; the business appears professional to clients, it’s helped us generate new leads, it gives us the space to present our ideas to clients and we have access to a pool of amazing freelancers who have helped our business grow. It’s also great to feel part of something bigger – it is, without a doubt, one of the best decisions we made in 2017. We’re very excited to see what 2018 brings us!
Thanks again to Pete and Danny for taking the time to speak with us – our Reading space just wouldn’t be the same without them! You can see more of their stunning work at Design Work Studios and stay tuned for more Work.Life Member Spotlights throughout 2018.
Thinking about becoming a Work.Life member? Just pop a date in the diary to come and visit.
