Remote work offers hybrid employees a wide range of personal and practical benefits. Removing a rigid schedule and costly commute from the equation not only saves money but increases motivation, improves mental health, and provides professionals with the autonomy they need to perform effectively. However, you may have found that working from home has lost its novelty over time, that a home office setup stops you from performing at your highest standard, or that your business has simply outgrown the limitations of a fully remote arrangement. You may have come to miss the social aspect of an office environment, whether taking chances to connect and collaborate with your coworkers or just chatting at the coffee machine about current events or what’s happening in your community. Coworking spaces like The Yard provide a wide variety of membership packages and several on-demand offerings for employees looking to invite these elements back into their hybrid work structure. With flexibility at the core of the coworking model, there’s an option designed not only to meet your specific needs but also to catalyze even further growth.
Private office rentals at a shared workspace like The Yard are a particularly revealing example of this potential. As the coworking industry and flexible office configurations have each kept pace with the shifting paradigm of a contemporary workforce, it’s now possible to enjoy all of the perks of a private office space without sacrificing the essential ingredients or distinctive features of a coworking membership. In fact, the unique infrastructure of a coworking space has the potential to supplement, or even to directly enhance, your private office rental experience. At The Yard, a combination of stylish, comfortable furnishing and state-of-the-art amenities enable you and your colleagues to focus exclusively on the work you do best, and converging insights from coworking professionals across a wide spectrum of industries can illuminate unexpected pathways to success for your team. Indeed, it’s the palpable chemistry of our member communities, and their diverse professional skills, that make each The Yard location such a singular space to work. In that spirit, we’d like to highlight another member at The Yard who started off small and has moved into a bigger space as their business and team have grown.
This week, we have the honor of featuring Nicole Bestard, founder of Quarter Horse PR and a cherished member of The Yard: Gowanus who has expanded in the space more than once since starting her membership. In nearly four years at The Yard, Nicole has moved from a small two-desk space to our Gowanus location’s largest office and has welcomed some wonderful colleagues to both the Quarter Horse team and The Yard family. We had the privilege of speaking with Nicole about her coworking journey at The Yard and her experience renting a private office in a shared workspace. The generosity and care of her responses was truly remarkable, and we are thrilled to share them with you here.
Quarter Horse PR Private Office at The Yard Gowanus in Brooklyn.[/caption]
What initially drew you to a shared workspace in your search for an office, and what has been the greatest reward of that decision since your time at The Yard began?
Though I’ve had multiple jobs in the past that welcomed or even required remote work—long before that was the norm—I always preferred coming into the office. Even if I’m not working directly with people I see every day, I find the sense of community and collaboration that comes with working in an office does wonders for my mental health and also my productivity: It’s easier to get stuff done when you’re not three feet from where you sleep.
When I launched my company, Quarter Horse PR, in 2020, the world was still very much locked down. But from the start, I knew that as soon as it was safe to be around other people again, I’d need to have an office—and one that didn’t double as my kitchen. As soon as I moved into a two-desk unit in the Yard in Gowanus that fall, I immediately built a network of fellow founders and creatives, one that I’m still developing four years later. Seeing folks in the kitchen and the hallway and developing a regular rapport with them was incredibly healing after so much isolation. It had been a dark time in New York and while we all knew we’d missed seeing each other, I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed working alongside people. It felt like an investment in myself and my business to rent a dedicated space and put down roots. Getting a desk was a vote of confidence in what I was building.
In less than a year, as Quarter Horse grew, that two-desk office (for just me) became a five-desk office, then a seven-desk office, and now, three and a half years later, an 11-desk office where most of our team works most of the week.
How have the combined benefits of a private office and shared workspace positively impacted your growth and development as a business since joining The Yard?
Well, a private office is grand! It’s just so nice to have a solid home base for our team to come together and work and collaborate. For public relations, I think a hybrid model is ideal. Folks need to be able to put their blinders up and focus on projects at home, but they also need to come together to problem-solve in person. Working in a shared space has also helped us develop our culture: We’ve each put our own touch on the office through decorations and plants and now it feels like a reflection of our company spirit. Finally—and I think this is hugely underrated—it’s a huge gift not to have to worry about maintaining or cleaning the bathroom and kitchen.
Have you found any personal or professional opportunities for connection since joining a shared workspace?
Yes! The best part of being in a shared workspace is that we’ve made so many dear friends here. We found clients and formed valuable connections with people we’ve met here. The support and commiseration from other business owners and founders is also a huge boon to working in The Yard. There is a real community here, and that’s really special.
The Yard Gowanus Shared Space[/caption]
As you’ve grown in the space, how have you felt most supported by The Yard and by your member community?
The Yard team has always been very accommodating to our needs as we’ve grown. They’ve also celebrated our growth every time we need more space, which is very special. They’re also responsive to any issues that have come up in regards to maintenance or anything else.
Tell us more about Quarter Horse and anything exciting you’re working on these days!
Quarter Horse is a strategic communications agency. We work with early-stage startups and large, public corporations to home in on what sets them apart from the others. We work with founders and the c-suite to define a company’s story; amplify that story via media relations, owned content, and social media; and help their executives build an authentic thought leadership platform to drive business. Our public relations programs vary from accelerated six-week programs to launch a brand out of stealth or to announce a financing round to ongoing, “always on” proactive PR on a retainer basis. We love working with founders and have experience working with large software companies, consumer brands, healthcare and healthtech startups, financial institutions and fintechs, energy companies, climate technology startups, and many more. Our roots are in journalism, technology, research, and storytelling. Most of our partnerships last several years or more, because true to our namesake, we can sprint and pivot as needed but are also super grounded, solid, partners wherever your journey takes you.
If you’re looking to maximize the potential of remote or hybrid work and considering alternatives to your home office setup, a shared workspace is not only a great place to start but a great place to stay. Coworking spaces like The Yard cover what can be prohibitively high operational costs involved with a traditional office rental. The amount you save by allowing a coworking space to take on some of these financial burdens for you can open opportunities to restructure your company’s budget as you see fit or provide you with the necessary support to onboard new colleagues as your business grows. The flexibility of a membership agreement at a shared workspace compared to a traditional lease facilitates this growth on your terms and timeline: at The Yard, upgrades are quick and painless by design, and the range of private accommodations The Yard offers coworking professionals–from single-person spaces up to entire floors at select locations and customizable corporate spaces for enterprise clients–ensures that your team is comfortably accommodated regardless of any size or storage requirements you may have. Book a tour today to discuss how The Yard can best support you at each step of your coworking journey, and to experience firsthand what makes every The Yard location such a uniquely positive and productive working environment.
If you’d like to share your member story with us, send a quick message to hello@theyard.com—we’d love to hear from you!
Sam Kurzyldo
Community Manager @ The Yard: Greenpoint
