Our plan is to create a collective space for entrepreneurs, creatives, emerging businesses and lovers of unique furniture and great coffee and food.
It will be an evolving space where intrepid entrepreneurs can work, inspire and eat together. A place where local office workers can grab a great lunch and a fresh juice without breaking the bank. A venue where people can host a corporate sundowner. A place where Subiaco locals can enjoy that perfect coffee, or browse through the homewares and furniture for sale. We envisage every nook and cranny of this joint to be heaving with energy, new ideas and emerging business ventures.
So what exactly do we plan for the collective?
A furniture store – well this is already up and running. Solo & Co furniture store opened its doors late last year and has been creating ripples in interior design circles since. Furniture has been sourced from Central Java and further afar and the store houses some beautifully unique pieces.
A café – we want to open a café unlike anything that has been seen before. No more premade rolls, limp wraps and plastic pastries. This café will specialise in freshly prepared, vibrant salads, homemade dressings, delicious roast meats, wholesome juices and home baking at its best. But we’re saving the best for last – the coffee will be spectacular. Bold statement? Yep, but we’re 100% confident on this one. How do we know this? Well that’s the next stage in our plans….
In house coffee roaster – yes Subiaco will finally have its very own fresh roasted coffee! Woo hoo! We’ve been chatting to two very exciting entrepreneurs who are about to embark on their first foray into roasting coffee (although these guys have been working in the industry for many years, there’s nothing they don’t know about coffee). We are so excited to welcome them into the Solo & Co collective. (We can’t tell you all about them just yet, we’ll let them reveal their own awesome plan in a few weeks
Gluten Free Bakery – yeah that’s right! Freshly baked gluten free bread, pizza bases and pastries cooked right here onsite. We have combined forces with an expert baker and we’re planning to build a new bakery at the back of the building dedicated to baking entirely gluten free products (we told you it was exciting!!)
Office hub – So you’re a budding entrepreneur, you’ve got that next brilliant idea. You now need to take the next step in growing that project. That can be lonely and unproductive at home. Why not come to Solo & Co and hire one of our shared workspaces. Surround yourself with like-minded people, share ideas, collaborate, inspire and drink coffee! Not only do we have meeting rooms available to hire, but we’ve also got shared workspaces with free Wi-Fi and printing for the next generation of Richard Branson’s to get started!
Event Space – we can provide a unique event space for hire, complete with full catering options. So whether it’s a corporate sundowner, with cocktails and canapés, a high tea with finger sandwiches and fine china or a footy match with burgers and beer – Solo and Co can offer the space, the staff and the food.
Florist – we have retail space available for a new creative florist to showcase their talent. Bring blooms to Hay Street!
Art Gallery – we created a space for local budding artists to exhibit and sell their collections.
Pop up on Hay Street – like we’ve said before, we want to showcase emerging businesses to the Perth market. What better way for a new retailer to launch to market than having their own retail space on Hay Street. With over 12,000 passers-by every day, this is prime location and no pesky long term leases to worry about!
Commercial Kitchen Hire – starting your own food business is tricky enough. Councils require a food business to work from an approved commercial kitchen and trust us, these are very expensive to build! So what are the alternatives? Wouldn’t it be fabulous to rent a fully equipped kitchen for a few hours a week? Thus allowing you time to test your business’ viability without investing or borrowing large sums of money. We would like to offer this service to budding foodies with a dream. Hire our kitchen for a few hours and create the next product to take over our supermarket shelves.
Look, we could add to this list forever and a day but that’s what is so exciting about Solo & Co! It’s an ever evolving space and will hopefully transform continuously. The more businesses we have involved under the one roof, the busier each of us will be. And that’s where you come in! We need your help to make this vision come to fruition.
We need to raise $10,000 to build a working commercial kitchen and café space. We’ve managed to get a lot of the equipment second hand but there is still a long way to go before we are up and running.
We need to do some works to the building to ensure we meet with Council requirements. This will include installing public and staff toilets, building a raised floor for the café and complete plumbing and electrical works. So $10,000 is really the bare minimum we need but it’s a start. Once these are done, we are in business! So how do you get involved? Easy.
We’ve put together a list of awesome rewards and really it’s a win/win for everyone right? You not only get a fantastic reward but you’ll also see the opening of a really exciting café. If we exceed our target, we’ll put the extra funds towards setting the bakery up. But one step at a time right?
Jeremy is the finance and furniture man. His background is in banking and finance having spent many years working in Singapore. Then he decided to return to Perth to start Solo & Co. The furniture store is his baby. He is responsible for sourcing all of our beautiful furniture from Central Java. When he’s not on buying trips, he spends a lot of time cycling ludicrous distances but all for a good cause. He is a regular on the team Fighting Chance Australia, a charitable organisation that exists to enrich the lives of young people with significant disabilities in Sydney.
We don’t know if he can dance.
And last of all, there’s me. I’m the food link in the chain. I’ve run my own catering business for a number of years now. From large corporate events to classic high teas and everything in between.
Prior to starting my own business, I worked in advertising in Dublin and subsequently when I came to live in Perth. I’ve worked on both the media and agency side of the business. So I’ll be the running the café kitchen and I have great plans for it! This is a really exciting adventure we are about to embark on, With your help, I can’t wait to see it come to fruition. x
(Yes, of course I can dance!!!….)