We recently connected with Kristin Hardwick and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristin, thanks for joining us today. Do you manage your own social media?

Since day one of Coworking House, I chose to manage our social media myself. My previous business was as a branding photographer, so I was already well experienced in creating visual content for a brand, and I was excited to curate this new one as well.

We used social media to build a following and a community before we ever opened our doors. We posted behind the scenes of our build out, used it to invite the community to Hard Hat Tours, and let people vote on some design choices.

Once open, we use it to advertise available openings at CoHo, to highlight our members, and to connect with the general public. Being able to keep this task in-house has meant that we can quickly share things being talked about in our space, celebrate our members’ wins (like new jobs or business launches!), and let our local community feel what it’s like to work at CoHo. It’s allowed us to be nimble, on target, and personal, in a way that an agency wouldn’t have been able to.

If I could share any insights, it would be to capture the people in your business and brand in your stories, and make your social media about them, vs just the products or services you offer. Time and time again, no matter the platform, people comment with people.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started my first business in 2009, quit Corporate America in 2016, and never looked back. Since then, I’ve learned how to find my place in saturated industries, market to my ideal clients, and create systems to run my businesses, instead of letting them run me. Now I show other women how to do the same.

I’m a NH-based Photographer, Digital Marketer, Coworking Space CEO, and Educator with big BFF energy. I’ve built successful 6 figure businesses and am present in getting my kids on and off the bus. I show women how to build the businesses of their dreams, around their families. I believe in letting it be easy, practicing positivity, and showing you how to do things, not just telling you what you should be doing.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

It doesn’t have to be hard.

Like so many of our generation, I was raised with an incredible work ethic, and the belief that if I wanted success, I would have to sacrifice and struggle for it. While I firmly believe in doing the work, after 10+ years of entrepreneurship that often times there’s an easier path, there’s others who can help me along the way, and it doesn’t have to be hard. I am constantly striving to see what the most direct path to my goals are, how to anticipate and avoid roadblocks, and reminding myself that I can enjoy success, without making myself suffer first.

It gets to be easy.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I needed about 50k to start Coworking House in 2019 – a number small to so many, but more significant than I had ever raised. It was also a time when coworking in NH wasn’t common, and many lenders didn’t feel comfortable with a new concept they didn’t believe in.

I talked with my Small Business Development Center Advisor about the best ways to raise capital. At the time, our local bank denied me a loan as I was self-employed as a photographer while also caring for my young kids, and didn’t show enormous cash flow.

I decided to do a Kickstarter Crowd Funding campaign, to a) prove market need and b) raise funds. I set a goal of $10,000, on the recommendation of my banker. This would show the bank that we had a viable business idea and were serious.

We raised $11,000 with that Kickstarter, beating our goal in the last day. It was really quite exciting to see our community rally around us with support – and their dollars. At this point, I had the opportunity to borrow from a private investor, at a much lower rate than the bank was offering. My business partner at the time and I both invested $15,000, (mine as a loan), and that coupled with the $11,000 got us to just over $40,000.

We were short of our initial goal, but made it work by scaling back furniture purchases, choosing different (more budget friendly) build out choices, and post poned upgrading our in house tech until we had cash flow. We bought used furniture, a used computer, and invested our money into the things we knew mattered most: high speed tech and building security. Oh, and good chairs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cohonh.com // www.kristinhardwick.com
• Instagram: @CoHo_NH // @thekristinhardwick
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinhardwick10/

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Kelly Anne Photography