John Hefferon
We speak to John Hefferon, the Founder and CEO of Officepods™ about why Dún Laoghaire and the wider area is great for business and the services they offer, which can suit a variety of businesses, which you’ll read all about below.
“We provide workspaces based on one, two, three and four person offices. We are currently operating out of four South County Dublin locations, which are Dún Laoghaire, Dalkey, Blackrock and Montrose, which is near UCD,” says John.
“We provide clean, bright and self-contained offices. We have a meeting room in each of our locations.”
Established in 2005 in Dalkey, with Dun Laoghaire opening in 2011, followed by Blackrock in 2014 and Montrose in 2017.
‘Standing’ out from the crowd!
Officepods™ offer a range of services that are both flexible and practical for a wide range of businesses, such as having an all-inclusive package. This means expenses such as rent, light and heat, security services, cleaning and broadband is all covered under one bill, making it even easier for a business to have a physical presence without the stress of keeping up with monthly bills.
In addition, their ‘Ergonomic Stand Up Desk”, a unique feature which was developed by John himself, this stand-up desk is perfectly adjustable to provide a full range of postures no matter your height. It is available to clients to purchase or rent, with a free trial available.
Describing the creation, officepods™ say on their website: “Besides the known benefits that working from a standing position have on your general posture and circulation, the Stand Up Desk allows the keyboard to be below elbow height, relieving great strain from the shoulders.”
John Hefferon explains their ‘easy in, easy out’ leases give businesses added flexibility and stresses they don’t take deposits in lieu of all payments being processed by Direct Debit.
“If you’re a start-up or just starting out on your own, you don’t want to be locked into a long-term lease and we get and understand that,” he explains.
Officepods™ offers their clients 24/7 access to their locations, making their business model attractive to organisations, “So If you are working with the West Coast USA or Shanghai you are never restricted from your office, doesn’t matter what time zone!” John says.
Committed to our town, Dún Laoghaire
With all four of their locations based in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county boundary, Officepods™ continue to demonstrate their investment and dedication to our town, with founder John’s roots stemming from the area.
With John living in the area for more than 40 years, he first established Officepods™ in Dalkey.
“Naturally, it’s amazing to see it on a map how we’ve grown. It is obviously good for local people who don’t want to be trekking all the way into town, and if they do need to go in, we’re located close to the DART line and close to all major bus routes.”
Speaking about our town, John said: “It’s hard to fault, Dún Laoghaire especially, with great amenities in the area, superb restaurants, lunch time walks along the seafront and a great buzz about the town and we feel like our clients are saying that.”
The sustainable way forward
With the pandemic giving us a chance to reflect on our lives, what has become most apparent for some is the sheer amount of time they spend on their commute to and from work – with many deciding that it is no longer sustainable both personally and professionally going forward in the ‘new normal’.
Also the added expense of commuting, John says “some people are paying more for parking in the city, then they would for an office with us.”
Officepods™ believe their business model offers organisations the ability to adopt permanently to the new hybrid working model, which is essentially a system that enables employees to carry out their work in a number of various locations – for example working at home part-time and the rest of the time in the office.
“We have so many people who will be working from home, but also don’t want to, the new buzz word is “working near home not from home,” Hefferon said. “Because we are based in a suburban area, often people are living in the area and for eg in Dun Laoghaire, they can just walk to work with the ability to meet regularly to plan for the week ahead in any of our four meeting rooms across South Co Dublin.
“It has to change [the working model pre-pandemic]. People have been asking themselves now ‘why have I been spending several hours of my day travelling’,” he added.
Keeping business local, empowering community & encouraging new enterprises
Officepods™ boast about their virtual address offering, an attractive product available that allows businesses, who may not have a physical presence with them, the ability to have a corporate identity. By subscribing to the service, companies can have a professional address while Officepods™ handle all their incoming mail.
“This service allows us to forward incoming mail to a location of the client’s choice, they can also avail of the meeting room facility in any
of our four locations. It gives them an office address which we believe is important to have.”
It also gives start-ups the chance to keep their operations professional, even if they are not yet ready financially to have a bricks and mortar presence.
“People who are starting out, who are nervous about going straight into it, this is the first step, they have an address and they have the use of meeting rooms if they need it. And if things go well, they may decide to rent an office.”
On the Officepods™ website, you’ll find their community page with many of the businesses listed that are currently based out of their four locations, “this allows companies to ‘cross pollinate’ across our client network,” says Gill O’Hehir, Montrose Branch Manager and Head of Sales. Smartly, it could be considered a form of networking, but also a further commitment to the local economy and community by encouraging businesses to keep their operations local.
When it comes to the future, Officepods™ are creatively coming up with new ways to work and reinvent the traditional office environment, with their soon-to-launch Aero Studio office space an example of this.
Located in their Blackrock branch, Aero Studio is a new hot desking service, which can facilitate up to eight desks. We can’t think of a better incentive to work with Officepods™ and locate to our town, Dún Laoghaire!
