Reflecting on 10 Years of “Evolution” in Somerviille, NJ
As we close out 2024, we also reflect on the 10 years since the opening of Office Evolution in downtown Somerville, NJ. We first opened our doors in August 2014 as Somerville’s first coworking space with private offices, coworking membership, conference room rentals and mailbox rentals. During these ten years we have had the pleasure of helping hundreds of small businesses in the local Somerville and surrounding Somerset County communities.
We began with a dream of becoming entrepreneurs back in 2012 and we were excited by the idea of helping other entrepreneurs in the process. A brief informational phone call with the CEO of Office Evolution at the time “evolved” into opening of Office Evolution’s first location outside of Colorado, where the business concept originated. We had evaluated several locations in central New Jersey, but ultimately chose Somerville due to its vibrant downtown community as well as the township’s clear commitment to further develop the community. The city was undergoing a massive transformation, and Office Evolution became part of that transformation to attract a wide variety of businesses to Downtown Somerville’s first coworking space.
The first few years were challenging as we tried to attract local businesses and build our local brand. But with each challenge we learned and adapted our operations to improve and we built a loyal member base over time. There were some unexpected twists like a global pandemic that no one could have anticipated. But each obstacle taught us valuable lessons about perseverance, adaptability, and the importance of staying true to our values. Most importantly, we care about the businesses in our space and their success ultimately key to our own success. To that end we always treat our members the same way we want to be treated as entrepreneurs ourselves.
In the last decade, we’ve helped over 200 companies ranging from solo entrepreneurs to global pharmaceutical companies. We’re proud to have been recognized as Somerset County’s Best Coworking space in 2023 by Bridgewater City Lifestyle Readers Choice Award. Along the way we have made some incredible friends with our members and with other local business owners. We have seen some businesses thrive and grow so much in our space that they need to find bigger space! We have even held a wedding in our space for two members that first met in our office, and wanted to get married in the place they first met.
None of our achievements would have been possible without the loyalty and support of our members. Their feedback has been invaluable in helping us refine our services, and we take great pride in seeing how our support has helped their business. This has led to improvements in our coworking lounge – for example we now have 4 phone booths for member to take private phone calls. Our conference rooms also upgraded technology to go from using projectors to having large screen TVs mounted in all of our conference rooms.
As we celebrate this incredible milestone of ten years, we reflect but we also are looking to the future of how we can continue to grow. The future is bright, and we have ambitious plans to continue innovating, expanding, and finding new ways to serve our customers better. The next decade is going to be even more exciting, and we can’t wait to bring you along on the journey.
Thank you to Somerville and to every client who has been part of this journey. We couldn’t have done it without you, and we are so excited for what’s to come. Here’s to the next 10 years of evolution, growth and business!