Animator Joanna Susskind opened Glasgow-based design studio Toad’s Caravan in 2010. While running a weekly drawing club on the side, she met dozens of creative freelance workers who were looking for somewhere to work other than their kitchen table. Seeing both a business and social opportunity, Susskind opened up Toad’s Caravan’s office space as a not-for-profit co-working place.
Within a few months it was full, with Susskind attributing the project’s success to its collaborative ethos, in which members often share projects, building mini, one-off collectives to tackle larger projects they might not be able to handle alone. “The studio is a great place for connecting with like-minded professionals within our community. It provides a solid base for me to work from, but it runs almost like a cooperative,” she says. “We keep the membership fees low and flexible, so it appeals to everyone.”
No matter the sector, businesses that engage with their community are able to build strong relationships with the people in their local area and a reputation for being a business that cares. For example, successful postmasters – the people who run Post Offices – offer a vibrant retail business that builds relationships with and provides a range of services to sole traders and small firms.
“Research has shown that a Post Office has a positive impact in the local area, and the postmaster is central to that,” says Amanda Jones, retail director at Post Office. “The most successful ones partner their commercial expertise with a strong sense of social purpose, by fully integrating into their local community and actively engaging with the people. This empowers our postmasters to really understand the communities they serve and ensure their retail offering meets their customers’ everyday and changing needs. I know one postmaster who runs bingo evenings in his local community, and another who, every year, invites someone who he knows would otherwise be alone, to share Christmas dinner with his family.”
In 2017, Sean Hudson became postmaster at West Boldon Post Office, a village midway between Sunderland and Newcastle. He and his wife, Katie Hudson, had lived in the village for 20 years and recognised that the Post Office shop could become a hub for the community.
Sean, originally a lawyer by profession, says: “The small village communities in that part of Yorkshire were exactly how we remembered them from years ago. We thought it would be great if our own Post Office could go back to being the heart of this village, as it was when we first came here.”
In truth, Sean had been growing tired of the law, so he reduced his partnership when the Post Office came on the market and, with Katie, set out to make it the centre of the community once again.
The village population is small but diverse – a mix of young and old, and people from different career and social backgrounds. This shaped the Hudsons’ strategy to build a business that would appeal to them all. Through social media and Facebook, they have raised their business profile and engaged with the local community in an online space that complements their physical retail presence.
Sean says: “We knew that a social media presence was important and also that there were people who don’t use social media, but had family members and carers who do. That has been a very strong link for us. We are already seeing good growth in the retail side, and customers have started to return to the Post Office counter.”
One of their community-focused services is “ring and bring”. “If we stock it and you ring us, we’ll bring it to you at no extra cost,” says Sean. “It’s a bit like ‘click and collect’ but more personal. For tech-savvy people, click and collect is an easy concept, but for a lot of people it isn’t. Ring and bring has become very popular with many of our older, less mobile retail customers.”
And unlike typical supermarket home delivery services, there’s more to it than simply running into the customer’s home with the groceries and running out. “We always spend a few minutes chatting with them to find out how they are,” he says.
The couple are active in many aspects of community life, including helping to set up a volunteer library service following the closure of the local library, and they are members of the residents’ association.
Sean describes his role as a challenge and a complete change that is both daunting and exhilarating. He says: “If someone had told me I’d be happier working seven days a week in my current role, than working five days a week in my old job, I wouldn’t have believed them, but it is actually true.”
As well as that innate ability to show empathy and engage with people of all ages and all social backgrounds, anyone looking to start a company with a strong community culture also needs a flair for business.
Jones says: “They need to develop a retail offering that is relevant to their audience. They must be able to think creatively and, above all, be adaptable.” This goes for postmasters, too. “Like all retail businesses, Post Office has to innovate to maintain its relevance to changing customer needs, so our postmasters must keep pace with evolving digital services and put forward their own ideas on new propositions and ways of working to further improve customer service and experience. That comes with really engaging with, knowing and understanding your local community.”
If you’re a community minded entrepreneur, please visit runapostoffice.co.uk for more information.
