Hi all,
Ceri from Indycube has asked me to promote their offer to CoTech so please details below. I hope it’s of use / interest to some folks here.
Thanks,
Aaron
Hello there!
Please excuse the unsolicited email for just 60 seconds. I’m trying to get in touch with every coworking site we can find, their users, freelancers and micro businesses across the UK and tell them and their users a little about ourselves and offer a trial of our free membership scheme.
Indycube is an eight-year-old coworking provider run as a Community Benefit Society, and we are slowly trying to change the way we all do business. You may have heard of us this summer as we launched our UK wide membership offer on June 1st. I do have real pleasure in attaching a few links and stories about us:
http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/getting-the-gig.pdf
http://www.farnearer.org/2017/09/indycube-mark-hooper/
It’s quite clear that we are together leading something very positive.
The summer was not all good news, however, as we - and I suspect you - were disappointed with the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. An opportunity missed, we felt. It is evident that the support that indy workers need isn’t going to come from the government. Because of this, we and our partner, the union Community, have decided that we need to do more, much more.
We are making a further investment so that we can offer our Indycube Community membership free for up to 6 months (for up to 10,000 people) from September 11th.
I’m not going to try and tell you everything we do here, as you can read it all on our websitee; https://www.indycube.community/
I did want to mention two key benefits that we believe will make a difference to indy workers and micro businesses, you and your users. In fact, we know they do from our current members. Here’s a little info on them:
Invoice Management & Cash-flow control
If you have heard of this and know what it is, you will know that the freelancer and the micro business cannot access a service which the big boys take for granted. Fair? We don’t think so. In a first for freelancers and small businesses, Indycube.community have secured factoring services at an outstanding rate of just 1.4%. What does that mean for members? It’s simple: for a small fee our service providers can guarantee your invoices are paid - on time. The fee? Lower than you think. You can expect to pay around £108 on a £5,000 invoice (this includes insuring your invoice against customer default). No late payments, easy cashflow management, minimal fuss. For a little further fee you can get the invoice paid or partially paid in advance. It also means your invoice can be chased elsewhere, easing customer client relations and freeing up valuable time to do other things.
Legal Support
You’ll also have access to an experienced legal support team who you can call or email at any time for guidance and support free of charge up to the small claims limit of £26,000. The legal team can advise on a broad range of legal issues including best practice, contracts and IP, and you’ll also be able to access personal legal services at a reduced cost. We have already had members use the legal support to successfully chase outstanding invoices.
There is a theme emerging here regarding invoices, and it’s no surprise to us that according to BACS the average late payment debt now stands at £32,185; this equates to a substantial £26.3 billion total across the 47 per cent of SMEs that say customers and clients stray beyond agreed payment terms. We want to change this and we are walking with cross party MPs to launch a campaign against late payment – more of that another time, but we think you’ll agree it needs addressing.
We’re offering the free membership because we think the world needs it, because indy workers all over the UK (and further afield) need a hand, a bit of support, and we want to make our benefits available to everyone. So, the first 10,000 people to sign up will get free Indycube Community membership until the end of March 2018.
What’s the catch? There isn’t one – honestly. We need members to try what we are doing, to see if it’s helpful, to see if they benefit from the free legal support, access to cash flow management through invoice factoring and a range of leisure and insurance benefits we think help level the playing field a little bit. We want to know what else freelancers need; we are working on other aspects but we want feedback. We want ideas.
That’s why it’s free. We have members, but we need more. We need our systems shaken, our benefits tested by the masses.
We aren’t competition, we want to work with everyone - we really are looking to level a playing field we think is stacked against those on their own, or who are micro business size. If we can make the indy worker sector more resilient, more secure, then that’s good for the coworking sector. It means more people in and using sites across the UK, which is something we see as the future.
So what do we want from you? We would love it if you could share this email with anyone you think may be interested, members, friends or family; or if we could contribute to a newsletter or blog you may have we would love to tell our story. We would even love to come and speak to your users, host something on site with a few drinks and a bite to eat to talk through what we are doing, how it helps and why it matters.
We have made our joining procedure as easy as possible, with just three little details to get people signed up and gaining access to the benefits – name, email and phone number. That’s it. You and your users are part of a game changing movement working to improve the way we do business. Have a look and let us know what you think. https://www.indycube.community/
This has likely come a bit out of the blue and I am sure you will have questions. Please just let us know. We’re always on hand for any queries, concerns or for a cuppa and a general chat.
All the best,
Ceri and the Indycube team