What is the best thing you’ve done this year?
BAD COMPANY EST.2017
Since forever, I have wanted to have my own business and finally opening one has made my heart sing but for me, it’s not the highlight. The highlight was our Giveaway.
I opened Bad Company Hawkes Bay in April 2023, 6 weeks after Cyclone Gabriel came and changed the landscape of Hawke’s Bay as we knew it. Our recently named wine capital of the world, the fruit bowl of New Zealand, got chewed up and spat out by Mother Nature.
Through this disaster, there was so much coming-together in the wider community. We asked ourselves, what is a co-working space, if it isn’t a place to build a community? Bad Company’s ethos for years has been about people, fostering and evolving the people and the place. In a workspace people come together and do their thing, in their own way, on their terms. Through this ethos of supporting people, the part we don’t talk about as much, is the physical space, the safe space that is created where people are held and the community thrive.
With a new co-working space and the community grieving, we launched a Giveaway. It was in a way, how Bad Company Hawkes Bay could give back to the community. The Giveaway was a $20,000 prize, consisting of a free private office space for 6 months and free access to The Curve’s, The Money Reset Course, to a person or business who needed it.
And wow, did we find them. A small start-up of two, who had been working from their respective homes, longing for the chance to work together. As a working duo, all was fine, catching up when and where they could until one of the two was the victim of Gabrielle, which sent her and her husband to live with her father. I’m yet to meet an adult who would say, “Ya know what, I would be keen to move back in with my parents.” However, in some circumstances, it is quite literally the only option. Having a working space, where they could work from and get back on their feet after a cyclone was a game changing opportunity for them.
“With all that’s gone on this year, this place has saved my life.”
It’s been so lovely to have this team in the space, they’re warm, kind, and keen to get involved. Bad Company for them, has been a space they can come and work from, work together, a place they can make their own. But more than work, they’ve been able to tap into the knowledge of an IT consultant, a tax agent and someone with the golden knowledge of how to work ACC. That's the beauty of the community, the knowledge that it holds.
I have wondered if Bad Company co-working has had a positive impact on their life. Over a cup of tea last week, we were talking about testimonials for business. One of these Giveaway-winners turned to me and said, “Bad Company has been a lifesaver. With all that’s gone on this year, this place has saved my life.” And that, that right there was the highlight of my year. I started a business, created a community and crafted a space where people feel held, no matter what they are going through.
2023, you’ve been one hell of a ride, and while I wouldn’t recommend opening a business in a cost-of-living crisis, it’s enabled me to do what has been the highlight of the year—now, that I do recommend.
Written by: Belinda Williams
Bad Company’s 1st Franchisee
Hastings, Hawkes Bay. 2023
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