Imagine a work environment that combines the comfortable casualness of working from home with the luxury of a spa-inspired workspace.  Now add a couple hundred of your closest, mostly female, friends & coworkers who come together to share ideas, to network and to build their businesses. Oh and there are no animosity, no backstabbing, and no fear of someone stealing your big idea…

What you envision would look exactly like Hera Hub. And no, you don’t have to go to an alternate universe to find it.

Hera Hub is the brainchild of Felena Hanson. Named for the Greek goddess of women, Hera, who blessed and protected women through all aspects of their lives, Hera Hub is 300 members strong and growing.

Hanson’s life experiences, both personal and professional, inspired her creation of Hera Hub. At 22 years old, Hanson was driving through San Diego on the way to meet friends when a fire truck hit her car. The accident left her with 27 broken bones, a wheelchair for three months, and a new outlook on life.

Of her accident, Hanson said, “it certainly gave me an amazing amount of perspective and focus. It’s made me appreciate every moment and helped me get over fear of failure.”

Hanson is quick to point out that life always has setbacks. She was downsized three times in her marketing career before she turned 30. She trudged on and earned her MBA, started a career as a solopreneur in marketing for small to mid-size companies in the services segment, and led chapters of national organizations Women’s Global Network and Leading to Launch…all while working from home.

When she started her marketing consulting business, Hanson said, “It was the Holy Grail… being able to work from home in my yoga pants.” After a while, however, she said the experience became, “sometimes isolating and sometimes also hard to focus.” Anyone who has ever lived with someone who has a home office can likely attest; they ended up the sounding board for all things business at least once. Hanson felt the walls closing in on her and stifling her creativity.

After 8 years working from home, Hanson desired a more collaborative workspace. Working from home has its own benefits, but it also has its own problems. (You can only have so many meetings at Starbucks.)

Hanson looked for shared office space because she said, “I thought it was a cool model. It was not a staunchy kind of old-school executive suite but rather a more collaborative, supportive setting.” Unfortunately, she found that most spaces were too tech focused and often austere. Those that weren’t utilitarian were often not the right fit for Hanson and her business because she was “past the age of beer pong and kegs in a corner.”

In early 2011, Hanson said she, “jumped off the cliff” and let her clients know she would be going on a new adventure. Hera Hub officially launched in August 2011 after a soft launch in a temporary workspace in April 2011.

Hera Hub workspaces are beautiful. Hanson’s philosophy is “Why does an office have to be ugly and square?” Therefore, she designed spa-inspired, flexible, shared workspaces replete with running water, candles, soft lighting and a comfortable setting. Make no mistake; this is a professional setting, so you won’t find a massage therapist here. (Unless she is a member utilizing Hera Hub office space or meeting with another member) What you will find at Hera Hub is space “to meet clients and find the support they need to build a business and be successful in business.”

Although they offer conference and meeting rooms, the majority of Hera Hub space is open, collaborative space where female entrepreneurs can come, make connections and have a sense of community. There are no plans for a Hera Hub online community. Hanson recognizes the benefits of social media, but believes “it’s really about connections and community and there’s just a million places you can connect…social media is very important, but they will never replace a face to face and a handshake and an in person connection.”

The majority of Hera Hub members are professional service providers such as attorneys, CPAs, management consultants, high tech and biotech developers, product developers and others who don’t need to have physical files at their fingertips at all times. Members select from a menu of monthly plans similar to the way they would choose a gym membership. There are five membership levels that range from dipping your toes in the water by occasionally using the workspace and attending a member event or two to the member who wants to work in the space full-time and take advantage of conference rooms and private meeting rooms.

An average day at Hera Hub might have between 8 and 16 members working at a time and as many as 50 attendees for a member luncheon. With about 4,000 square feet of office space at each location, there is plenty of room for all.

Using her collaborative concept to its fullest potential, Hanson is collaborating on a new venture with Silvia Mah, a Hera Hub member with significant experience and education in business development. They are creating Hera Lab, an arm of the business that is an educational, lab-based, business accelerator program. A small group of women will help another member to refine their business idea, look at market potential, study the competitive landscape and run the numbers, and ultimately create a succinct pitch in 16 hours. The 16 hours are broken into four-hour segments over the course of days or several weekends.

Mah has also been instrumental in helping Hanson create a franchise model and expand Hera Hub into three locations in the San Diego area. They have the green light to franchise in 32 states thus far and are in active negotiations with women eager to open a Hera Hub in their own cities. Franchise information is available on the Hera Hub website.

When asked what knowledge Hanson has garnered in her life and her business journey that she wants to share with other women, Hanson replied…

Find a community. Find a connection. You do not have to figure it all out on your own. Women tend to think should go off and read a book to find the answers. “Just because you work for yourself doesn’t mean you have to work by yourself.”

Dream and think BIG. “Women don’t dream or think big enough.” Many women start a business and are content to earn what they did before. Hanson is glad when she hears a woman say, “here’s my goal, here’s what I want to do, and here’s where I want to help and support.”

Set goals. “Be very specific and intentional with your goals.” Clear goals set the vision for the whole team. “I set the vision, but my team at Hera Hub has to feel part of that vision and understand their role in executing that vision.”

Hanson has a clear vision and goals for Hera Hub. She plans to support over 20,000 women all over the world in the launch and growth of their businesses through 200+ locations in the next five years. Hanson’s parting words about her plans for Hera Hub make an excellent mantra for all women in business.

“Life is too short to play small.”