My Office & More, located at 122 E. Main St., has been owned and operated by Kate Lake since 2015. She loves meeting and working with many different business owners and hosting large group meetings in her space. If you know somebody who needs an affordable place to work outside of their home, check out My Office & More!
How long has your business been open? Did you own/manage other businesses before this one?
Five years ago – April 2015 – we bought the building at the corner of Main Street & Tennessee Avenue! Before then, our owner – Kate Lake – had always been an employee.
If your business is relatively new (5 years or less), what inspired you to open your business? Is there something about your personal background or history that made you uniquely suited to open your business?
Kate was looking for a way to create a space where businesses could establish a commercial “brick & mortar” presence without having to spend a lot of money. Once upon a time, Kate was in sales, working out of an “executive suite”. She was almost envious of the administrative team being able to help a wide variety of businesses instead of working for just one company. Now Kate’s passion is fulfilled as she gets to work with a wide variety of businesses every day!
Why did you decide to open your business in Downtown Lakeland? Do you have a special connection to the area? To Lakeland in general?
Kate moved to Lakeland in 2000 to combine households with her Mom. Her Mom passed in 2009 but Kate developed a great love of the area so she stayed.
After looking for a building to purchase in the area, the best solution was to be in the Downtown area because of the high concentration of other businesses within walking distance. Lakeland is the perfect place for a business because we’re large enough to have loads of conveniences and personal connections and small enough to avoid many of the headaches of a large city.
What’s your favorite item, product, or service that you offer, and why?
We LOVE being a meeting place for anyone’s group up to 49 people. It means we get to meet an even larger number of people and provide a great experience for them.
When you think about your business, what makes you feel the most proud?
One of our great joys is watching people establish connections with other people and businesses while they are in our space. When we started, we made most of the introductions. But now, the community welcomes newcomers on their own, interested to see who has joined us!
What is the most important thing for the community to know about your business right now? What’s the best way they can support you?
We expect that there are going to be a lot of people who would like to find a different place to work than their home soon! If you want to give a gift to someone who won’t be heading to a workplace out of their home, buy a $25 gift card for them! That gift can give them a day’s use of our coworking area with high speed internet and Patriot Coffee. They’ll also receive a $10 gift certificate to use for a meal at Divicious Deli, located at the corner of Main and Tennessee!
Website: www.MyOfficeandMore.com