The Flywheel Coworking Model Will Take Flight at the Cabarrus Center

>> Featured in the Independent Tribune on 12/6/2020.

Small businesses, startups, entrepreneurs, and more will soon have access to a variety of exciting benefits with Concord’s new coworking space, The Cabarrus Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Powered by Flywheel. However, coworking is just the beginning of what the Cabarrus Center offers. Offices and meeting rooms will be available to rent and communal spaces will foster new relationships both personally and professionally, just as a functional coworking facility should, but Flywheel’s coworking model doesn’t stop there. It also includes professional services that you won’t find anywhere else.

All over the globe, there are a number of successful coworking spaces, but the ones that go above and beyond the rest are the ones that prioritize establishing community. Just look at Winston-Salem, where Flywheel has curated a specific community of people who are committed to growing their businesses through their hands-on services, all of which inspire growth, creativity, and collaboration. Now, this same model is headed to Cabarrus County, where a new community is ready to thrive.

The Cabarrus Center is scheduled to open at the end of January in downtown Concord, NC and is currently accepting coworking inquiries as well as offering Behind the Scenes Hard Hat Tours on December 10, which you can register for at www.cabarruscenter.com. This creative new initiative combines the coworking powerhouse of Flywheel with the local success in growing and sustaining businesses of the Cabarrus EDC, the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College’s Small Business Center, and other partners, resulting in one of the greatest entrepreneurial resources North Carolina has to offer.

The primary focus at the Cabarrus Center is to support the creation of new businesses and the growth of existing small businesses. In collaboration with a dynamic group of partners, which can be found at cabarruscenter.com under Partners, the Center will be a hub for free and low-cost educational programs, networking opportunities, mentor networks, capital access, and events for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses. The Center will also have office, coworking, and meeting room space that can be utilized through one of their affordable and short-term membership plans, which range from day passes in the open workspace to private offices for you and your team.

This innovative center will fulfill a need for many organizations in Cabarrus County that we have long acknowledged but have previously been unable to address in its entirety. “We have known for a while that there is a lack of resources for startups in our community,” says Cabarrus EDC Interim Executive Director Page Castrodale. “There is support for small Main Street businesses or service-based business, but if you’re an entrepreneur with a scalable startup, there really hasn’t been anywhere for you to go.” The Cabarrus Center changes that.

As Flywheel founder Peter Marsh puts it, “the Cabarrus Center supports the entrepreneurial journey no matter where you are.” He adds that it’s “a place where you can join as a member to use the space and services in addition to being surrounded by resources that will help you accelerate your business.” In other words, if you have a startup business or just a really great idea for one, you can find everything you need to thrive at the Center. Plus, you can get started right now by joining their Accelerate Cabarrus Meetup Group, which will meet on the first Thursday of the month at 12PM EST starting January 7, 2021. Marsh also encourages everyone interested to save the date for their first Indeavor Luncheon on January 26, 2021 at 12PM EST.

Ultimately, the Center’s aim is to bring the community together, and they plan to do so by inviting you to explore the many ways that you can get involved with them. You can sign up for a membership or office space, become a sponsor, or provide programs and events in your area of expertise. Your engagement with the Center is an important part of its success and the growth of the County’s economy, which has evidence in history, according to Castrodale: “History shows us that entrepreneurship supports economic recovery. Over half of the Fortune 500 companies were founded during a recession. We truly believe that innovation and entrepreneurship help create vibrant, equitable and sustainable communities and to be able to partner with Flywheel to enable that sort of culture here is incredibly gratifying.”

The programs offered at the Cabarrus Center alone will be hugely beneficial to members of our community, particularly as we pull ourselves out of the economic hole that COVID-19 has put so many of us in. It provides us the opportunity to grow, create, reset, and start anew in the place we call home.

The opening of the Cabarrus Center in downtown Concord is an exciting endeavor and anyone who is interested should register for one of the time slots for the Cabarrus Center Behind the Scenes Hard Hat Tours on December 10, where you’ll have a chance to learn more about the Center and its membership opportunities. In order to adhere to social distancing safety guidelines, participants must sign up for a time slot. You can find more information on the Cabarrus Center’s website at www.cabarruscenter.com or Facebook page (@cabarruscenter).