Here at ACE we are always amazed at how our members utilize our space and leverage our community to help them and their companies grow. Lately, we are hearing more and more of our members with staff tell us that ACE is one of the best employee-retention tools they have.

By now everyone has heard of the difficulty companies are having finding, hiring, and holding onto great employees. A good pay package, time off, and benefits isn’t enough to make a company stand out when they are looking to fill empty positions these days; there are just too many job vacancies and not enough workers. For small and medium-sized businesses, especially with limited resources, it can be difficult to offer those little extras to a potential hire.

Employee Perk

Our members report that being able to offer our great-looking space to their employees as a place to work from is a huge benefit to their businesses. “Not only have we successfully hired from within the ACE community, but I am 100% convinced that one of the reasons we’ve retained our people is thanks to the camaraderie and positive atmosphere around here,” says Karie Miller, Director of Client Success for Boutique Growth.  

Our offices are bright, modern, perfectly equipped with super-fast and reliable internet, offer free coffee, tea, and filtered water along with multiple places to sit at during the day: shared desks, lounges, standing desks, private phone booths, private meeting rooms and offices. We have that sought-after urban vibe, although we are conveniently located in the ‘burbs.

Coworking Culture

“ACE takes care of holiday parties, professional development sessions, and details like that. It saves me a lot of time and effort, and my employees get a richer work environment” explains Jiwan Thapar, CEO of JTE Claims Consultants. We hear this a lot. Since ACE offers a full menu of curated monthly events (happy hours, learning workshops, networking events, book groups, and more) managers and employers don’t need to worry about creating those types of experiences themselves. 

Savvy business owners know that a strong company culture helps them attract, and hold onto, great talent. We know how to nurture that culture in our coworking spaces and our member companies get leverage it into their own businesses.

That Coworking Vibe

Smaller companies get a lot of the benefits of a corporate environment thanks to flex use of a shared space. Rutendo Chidovi, Senior Client Manager at Nacora Insurance Brokers explains it this way: “Working at an office within ACE gives that exciting feeling that you would get in a larger company where there are a lot of diverse people around to talk with and learn from, but at the same time I still get to work for the small boutique firm that I love.”

Rina Carlini, CEO of Optimal Innovation Group, who chose to relocate her team as soon as our new ACE Trafalgar location opened up, cites the atmosphere as something she knew her employees would appreciate. “No one on my team was truly happy working from home, because it felt like ‘living at work.’ ACE’s warm and welcoming community feel helps my team feel great as they go about their work in a beautiful environment.”

Whether you’re in start-up, scaling, or somewhere in between, ACE has a membership plan to suit just about any company and budget. A coworking office rental or membership may be just that little extra benefit you need to help find, and keep, your next hire.

New office spaces are availailable at ACE Coworking Trafalgar. Offices at ACE Trafalgar are turn-key and have sunny exterior-facing windows. The new location will be a sister space to the original ACE Coworking Robinson, just two blocks away. Members from both locations will join together to create one fluid community – with a members’ event calendar and multiple conference rooms accessible to everyone.

Our second location is coming this spring!

January is here and it’s a great time to think about fresh starts and the steps you might take to reach your goals for 2022. Here at ACE, we are well on our way to achieving one of our big goals: the launch of a second location!

ACE Coworking Trafalgar will be a sister space to the original ACE Coworking Robinson, just two blocks away. Members from both locations will join together to create one fluid community – with a members’ event calendar and multiple conference rooms accessible to everyone. Offices at ACE Trafalgar are turn-key and have sunny exterior-facing windows.

Our new property (132 Trafalgar Rd., former home to BMO-Nesbitt Burns) is undergoing an extensive renovation and will be ready for occupancy in early spring 2022. It’s comprised of 25 state-of-the-art private offices, meeting rooms, and a comfortable and stylish members lounge. There’s onsite parking for several of the units too. Hot desks, dedicated desks, and virtual plans will still be available at our original location.

Mood board created by Deb Richmond of Colourful Notions

If your 2022 goals include any of the following, then you’ll want to give us a call asap. Are you aiming to…

• gain increased productivity & focus?
• create better boundaries between work life & personal life?
• finally get your team back together in person?
• step up your networking game?
• gain a much-needed change of scenery after WFH?
• have more human-to-human connections?
• trade in a traditional long-term lease for a flexible modern solution?
• treat yourself to a well-deserved luxury?

An ACE Coworking office membership can offer you all of the above, plus much much more.

Three of our largest units have been snapped up already by the fabulous folks at Zirkova Vodka, Nacora Insurance Group, and MyCourier Inc. Don’t miss out on your chance to claim an office too!

Call 289-801-8731 for more info

by Mark Fornasiero

Did any of you catch SNL last week? It was amazing to see Foo Fighters, looking as fresh, energetic and relevant as ever, decades after their breakout in 1994. This post was inspired by that performance…

The Dave Grohl School of Leadership – Biz 101 with the Foo Fighters

Let’s consider for a moment the commercial success of the band’s leader, drummer / guitarist / singer-songwriter Dave Grohl. Did you know that Nirvana and Foo Fighters have combined to sell over 85 million albums worldwide? To reach that level of success in an industry that has gone through the degree of gut-wrenching changes that the music business has been through is nothing short of remarkable. The fact that he has done it while maintaining a high degree of integrity and creativity means there are probably more than a few lessons the business world can take from Mr. Grohl.

In fact, I recall an interview he gave a few years ago in Rolling Stone that struck me at the time as being awash in leadership and business advice (though he probably didn’t see it that way). So, let’s go to business school with rocker Dave Grohl and his band, Foo Fighters. Here are some quotes from that article and the implications for leadership and business strategy:

1. Dave: “I might be an earnest and nerdy guy, but it’s worked for the past 20 years.”

Lesson: Being genuine and truthful in life, or business, leads to lasting success. People want to associate, align themselves, and do business with, the real deal.

2. Dave: “Just remember, all it f**king (he swears a lot, let’s give him the poetic license) takes is for you to turn someone else on to something that’ll change their f**king life. Imagine all the s**t you can turn your friends on to…”

Lesson: Look for ways to impact people’s lives. The journey you will take them on will have huge rewards for both of you.

3. Pat Smear (Foo Fighters’ guitarist): “Dave has a vision. Our job is to meet that vision, or do something that exceeds it.”

Lesson: You know what Pat is describing there? An aligned culture. The leader sets the vision. His team fully buys into it and wants not only to achieve it, but EXCEED IT! How many business leaders reading this have their employees/team members talk like that about where they want to take their business?

4. Butch Vig (legendary record producer): “People follow him because they believe Dave is sincere. He wants to make records that have relevance.”

Lesson: Integrity. Honesty. Vulnerability. Do people in your company talk like that about their boss in this way?

5. Dave: “I would walk into interviews (for the HBO documentary) with real questions I didn’t know the answers to. I looked at them as lessons.”

Lesson: The guy behind two of the biggest bands of the last generation is looking for lessons anywhere he can get them. Life-time learner. Endlessly curious. Sounds like he should be heading up your innovation program.

6. Dave: “…there is so much opportunity in America. Why not find the thing you don’t know how to do and do it yourself? The opportunity is there.”

Lesson: He doesn’t want to keep repeating himself. He wants to get good at things he doesn’t know how to do. Tell me this guy couldn’t run a wildly innovative, creative, ground-breaking company in any industry he chose.

7. Pat Smear: “Dave told someone in another band not long ago, ‘You need to get a band that makes you sound really good. That’s what I did.’”

Lesson: Surround yourself with great people. Hire people who are better than you and let them do their thing.

8. Dave: “The great thing about being surrounded by people you love is you can come to them and say, ‘I have an idea, ‘trust me’, and they say, ‘OK’….

Class dismissed.