30. What is it like to be an Entrepreneur?

Sheree Rubenstein started and founded One Roof, which is a women’s coworking and networking space in Melbourne that brings female leaders and entrepreneurs together under one roof.

I chatted with her about her experience as an entrepreneur, and how One Roof has pivoted to survive the global pandemic.  

Sheree’s biggest piece of advice for those considering starting their own business is to find economical and quick ways to test your idea without spending too much money.

To test her idea for One Roof, Sheree rented an Airbnb in Saint Kilda for a week as a ‘pop-up coworking space’. Here, she ran events and workshops to build up the hype around the concept. This saved Sheree from signing a lease before finding out if her business idea would work. And the results spoke volumes: nearly 500 people walked through the doors in less than a week!

“I’ve often seen people have an idea and spend a lot of time and a lot of money building a website, designing a brand, getting business cards done and I think sometimes those things are necessary, but often what’s most important is speaking to your potential users and customers.”

She also emphasised that as an entrepreneur, you need to be comfortable and confident with constant change.

“I think the pandemic is creating a whole new set of challenges for women that didn’t exist before, just to add to the challenges we already faced within the barriers that we already have.”

With the onset of the pandemic, One Roof saw this challenge as an opportunity to pivot quickly and relaunch as a digital membership to continue supporting women in business.

You can listen to my entire chat with Sheree here.

Visit One Roof's website here to learn more about this amazing business.