Author: equalspace

Open SPACE: An =SPACE Experience

We have expanded our sharespace and want to celebrate with our fellow entrepreneurs. We now have over 19,000 square feet of workspace, art, culture, and vibes!

So, come and see our facility. Take a breather, grab a drink, and make some great connections with fellow entrepreneurs.

If you are looking to meet more like-minded people, this is the place for you. If you are thinking about starting your own business, this is the space for you. If you just want to surround yourself with successful people, this community is for you.

RSVP BELOW:

TAKE YOUR SPACE

=SPACE’s mission is to serve entrepreneurs, founders and small businesses largely led by people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community across industries and scale. Our start-ups tend to be tech and creative focused, however we welcome start-ups at all stages and all industries. From pre-seed start-ups to multi-billion corporations, our members represent the spectrum; what they all have in common is a commitment to working in space where they are not only welcomed, but believed in. We support our members’ growth and work to make sure they have all of the tools they need to succeed, in three ways:

Affordability:

We base our pricing on developing sustainable spaces, for budding solo entrepreneurs and startups — to HQs for social impact corporations with teams of 5 and more.

Versatile Space:

We offer various types of space for different entrepreneurs. From office suites and desk space for our members, to multimedia and podcast studios for our creatives.

Community Programming:

We curate 65% of the year with enriching events that cover business development, financial literacy, branding and marketing to art shows, mini concerts, market fairs, and more!

#TAKEYOURSPACE

THE BENEFITS OF BECOMING A SPACE(r)

We are NOT a COWORKING business. We are a SHARESPACE. The difference is clear: coworking is transactional, you receive a desk, you make a payment, your success is based on proximity and your work ethic. If the playing field were level this would be enough to jumpstart you to success. In an ideal world this would be the dream.

I think as we all work and put sweat, blood and tears into our dreams we can attest that the world is not fair. Inequality and Obstruction exist in the game of business, the game is rigged, so community is what offset the odds, communities of men, women and immigrating cultures banded together to offer support, comfort and guidance. That guidance, that community is how we define our sharespace, =SPACE is built by men and women and they, by people of color and immigrant voices. Once your business or startup enters our SPACE we sit in communion to learn about your vision, we build access and resources around you to even the odds. The benefits are in having an environment that says, yes in a world that sometimes seems to shout, no.

Don’t just take our word for it, the proof is in the sauce.

Programming to Create Impact

Last year we hosted over 25 events, with over 1.8K attendees, during a tough time for so many small businesses we were able to create free programming that empowered, educated and provided access to much needed support. Our proof is in our actions.

Amenities Offered at ES

Our space is 19,000 sq ft over three floors and we built every space to suit the needs of our members, many of the startups we have deal in media and data, and so our space has Newark Fiber, the fastest internet speeds on the east coast. With many of our entrepreneurs being content creators we created photography, video and podcast studios to meet their needs.

Access & Resources

Leading partners and community members help to create a more equitable landscape for our entrepreneurs and innovators to plant their seeds. In Newark, we have forged strong partnerships with anchor organizations, accelerators to incubators, and state institutions dedicated to creating impact. The team at ES is aware that we have to create a network of support to allow for our startups to gain the momentum they deserve.

We want to share in your dreams of success, #TAKEYOURSPACE with us.

Awesome Tech Tools For Determining Navigation Routes

Navigation is essential to human life, whether for choosing the best route from your house to your workplace or for deciding the most efficient shipping route for goods. Fortunately, our method of navigation has developed through time, giving rise to amazing tech tools that help determine the most ideal navigation routes by land, sea, or air.

This article will discuss the best general tools for navigation, as well as a few of the best navigation technologies for maritime transportation.

Best tech-based navigation tools

Navigation tools in the modern-day are primarily concerned with fuel consumption, safety, and speed. Other tools for navigating streets can even provide specific and detailed information such as the best route to avoid traffic or the quickest way to hit several stops.

Navigation technology for general purposes

Magnetic Compass

In the 13th century, the magnetic compass was a huge advance in navigation technology because it allowed travelers to find their way even when their usual astronomical cues (e.g., the North Star) were obscured. The compass uses the Earth’s magnetic field to point to the north pole. Though it isn’t as new as the other technologies on this list, it is still vital to fleet management.

Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a global navigation system that uses satellites to provide and synchronize data on location, velocity, and time. GPS receivers have been used for tracking vessels and monitoring their positions at sea. But it is also found in your car, your watch, and even your smartphone.

GPS works by receiving signals from multiple satellites orbiting the Earth. Nowadays, this navigation tool can be equipped with features like autopilot or collision avoidance. More commonly, GPS is used to plot courses to specific destinations.

Radar

Radio Detection and Ranging (Radar) detects objects and their positions relative to your current location. Radar works by sending out a radio signal, which gets reflected back to the radar when it hits an object. Maritime radars are especially useful for detecting other ships and land obstacles and avoiding collisions as a result. Originally developed for military purposes, radar is still most widely used for military applications on land, in the air, and at sea. Military uses of radar include missile guidance and air navigation.

Navigation apps

Route optimization apps combine information from various sources as well as relevant technologies in order to determine the safest and fastest route for all kinds of vehicles. For land navigation, applications such as Waze and Google Maps are two of the most widely used. Waze is most loved for providing accurate, up-to-date traffic data and good rerouting to get you around severe traffic jams. Google Maps, on the other hand, provides cycling and walking routes as well as a top-notch search function and offline map option. Meanwhile, reliable maritime navigation apps include Wayfinder for plotting shipping routes and Navi-Planner for safe, rookie-friendly voyage planning.

Navigation technology for maritime travel

Maritime transportation may not be a daily activity for most of us, but it fuels the global economy through the shipping and receiving of goods and raw materials from different countries. Hence, finding safe and efficient routes at sea is a significant goal of modern navigation.

Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS)

An electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) is used for determining a vessel’s course and speed. It displays your coordinates, time, and date on a map screen. It is frequently used in navigation apps because it allows voyagers to plan and monitor routes and calculate ETAs automatically.

Automatic Identification Systems

Automatic identification systems (AIS) allow vessels to broadcast their location information to passing ships with radio waves. They automatically transmit information to nearby ships to avoid collisions. AIS can also be used to calculate the shortest route, making it an indispensable tool for shipping companies.

Voyage Data Recorder

A voyage data recorder (VDR) is a tiny electronic device that records data about a ship’s voyage, much like an airplane’s black box. It is usually used in commercial vessels and oil tankers. VDRs contain multiple sensors such as pressure transducers, gyroscopes, altimeters, and accelerometers. In case of accidents, investigators can use data recorded by VDRs to uncover the cause of the incident.

Drifting weather buoys

Maritime navigation apps often integrate weather data which are collected through traditional weather buoys or, more recently, smart buoys. These innovative drifting weather buoys are free-moving devices that collect weather and ocean data, specifically currents, water, air, and sea surface temperatures, salinity, air pressure, and wave direction, among others.

Final words

Because navigation plays an important role in our lives, whether individually or as a nation, it is natural for innovation in navigation to be prioritized and celebrated. For general purposes, we have compasses, GPS, radar, and navigation apps at our disposal. Meanwhile, maritime navigators have ECDIS, AIS, VDR, and smart buoys. As startups and researchers continue to thrive through technology events and grants, we will enjoy easier and safer navigation in the years to come.

THE 2021 End Of Year Report Is Here

We are so excited to share the second installment of our end of year report! We took 2021 by the reins and soared, it was such an amazing year! And we wanted to share our roses with you!!

Check it out below:

=SPACE 2021 End Of Year Report

4 Doable Ways To Avoid Brand Confusion

Businesses are everywhere and competition is tight in almost every industry. One of the most common questions entrepreneurs get is “what is your unique selling point?” as this essentially sets a business apart. However, there are brands that still get confused whenever they’re probed about their business.

Suffering from brand confusion means being unable to articulate what your business is all about. In this day and age, it is challenging for business leaders to train all their employees in knowing the brand at heart especially with the ongoing pandemic. Apart from your staff, you cannot also expect your customers to communicate your business in the most precise manner possible if you are confused about the brand yourself. Ready to lose your credibility if that’s always the case. We’ve prepared some steps below which you can take to clarify your brand, avoiding brand confusion. Let’s get started!

Define and understand your core. Your mission, vision, and values make up the foundation of your brand that you should be carrying in your head every time. From your company pamphlet to the customer experience and product quality you put out there should be reflecting your core. Pursuing something without having any backbone is just a waste of time. You cannot move in the right direction without understanding why you’re there in the first place. This is crucial in your brand strategy as you operationalize your big idea.

The way you are perceived by your target audience can be traced back to your branding after all. This significantly affects your profits and customer retention. Therefore, if you haven’t ironed out your core yet, better start now. You need to ask yourself why your company exists, how you plan to achieve your vision, and what are your moral compasses. All these should be aligned with one another.

Develop and stay with your guidelines. Once you’ve grasped your core, you should start expounding your strategy alongside the brand guidelines that everyone must stick with. Consistency is key to ensure that all your stakeholders can easily identify your brand. You will be able to set up the guidelines once you’ve had a brand positioning exercise where you outline your audience, market, and goals. Upon understanding the pattern of how your customers perceive and engage with your brand, it would be wise to create customer profiles and then come up with key messages that are tailored for them.

Next thing to consider is the visuals that highly impact the level of brand awareness. Though, again, you should have done your research first and know your brand core by heart before even exploring other technicalities. Your visual identity basically encapsulates the imagery, typography, logo, and color palette of your brand. Needless to say, your logo should well represent what your business stands for. Think about it thoroughly and hire a designer. The colors and typography you will be consistently using will also invoke emotions and certain perceptions from your audiences so make sure they’re aligned with what you want to project. It’s the same with imagery where you’ll want to show the positive effect of your brand to both existing and potential customers.

Establish your brand persona. In doing so, you should have a clear idea of the levels of humor, enthusiasm, formality, and respect your brand is willing to take on. You can then create the voice and tone of your messaging without going beyond what’s apt for your brand. Constantly changing how you speak to your audience will only confuse them what kind of brand they’re subscribing to and would lessen the chances of them relating to you.

Make sure that your persona is also consistent across all your platforms. You wouldn’t want to have your website full of technicalities while your e-newsletter is sounding friendly. Stick with one persona that you think your customers can identify with. An approach that you may want to apply is exploring brand archetypes which are easily searchable to evaluate how you can comprehensively establish your own voice. One thing to note is that your tone can change depending on the context of the subject unlike your voice which should stay the same. Add this to your brand guidelines once you’ve finalized your persona.

Audit and align with your team. Don’t be too complacent after you’ve covered your bases. Consistently audit everything you’ve put out there including your social media posts, ads, and flyers among many others. It could be easier to have a tracking software or document that will allow you to see all your assets in one place.

Touch base with your team from time to time as well. Make sure that you all agree on a singular message so that the answer to what your business is all about would be something that is top of mind. When coming up with a concise answer, consider the problem you’re trying to solve and the reward of subscribing to your proposed solution.

These are only four doable ways that can help you and your team avoid brand confusion. Remember to establish the backbone first of your brand before zeroing in on the execution. You can also involve your teammates in planning the best way to project your brand and evaluate the strategy every now and then. Now, don’t waste any time and start your branding journey!

Join Us For Small Business Week

Join us for Newark Small Business Week! =SPACE and Invest Newark have partnered to present Small Business Week; a series dedicated to bringing equitable resources to our booming city of Newark, leading them to success and continued growth.

This is a 5 day experience for new and seasoned entrepreneurs, full of workshops, courses, and other events to help you build your business. Small Business Week is the ultimate experience for entrepreneurs of all types and stages.

We will be hosting expos, panel discussions, networking nights, financial literacy classes and more!

CLICK HERE TO RSVP TODAY

How Leaders Can Avoid Getting Burned Out

The World Health Organization (2020) defines burnout as a syndrome that transpired from chronic workplace stress which has not been successfully managed. It is usually manifested by experiencing feelings of energy exhaustion or depletion, increased mental distance from the job or negative outlook towards one’s career, and reduced professional productivity.

Burnout is not a new terminology for employees since many of them, in different demographic backgrounds, experience stress, fatigue, and mental health challenges from time to time. However, it has gotten worse in these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout not only affected employees but also organizations in terms of employee retention. Worth noting, eighty-four percent of millennials mentioned that they have experienced some type of burnout at their current job and nearly half of them had to leave their jobs for good, (Deloitte, 2021).

Moreover, based on pre-pandemic data as cited by Threlkeld (2021), 52% of all workers feel burned out from work — a percentage that increased by 9% from a previous study with more than two-thirds (or 67%) believing that the pandemic aggravated or worsened their burnout. While one may think that burnout is only common to regular team members, managers or leaders are just as likely to suffer frequent or constant burnout, (Gallup, 2019). And just like any other employee, employee burnout may lead to lower levels of self-confidence, motivation, and productivity which can threaten their job satisfaction, retention, relationships, and overall contribution to business success. Many leaders have resolved such issues by acknowledging the situation first and then accept that they need to leverage their efforts for self-care and mental health. Never ever let the time pass and think it would go away like a bad flu, it is not a strategy that works and this may only lead to stress accumulation. The best way to do it start today with these tips:

Improve your communication channels.

You need a reliable tool or system for communicating with your colleagues as this is the simplest way to boost employee engagement which can both be beneficial to you and them. Allot 30 minutes of your daily work time for check-ins or vibe checking. This presents an ideal way to practice positive speech and make everyone, including yourself, heard and listened to. Find out what everyone else is feeling at the time they clock in for work and you can share your own thoughts too. It does not have to be all negative, perhaps everyone can share what also keeps them busy these days and learn from one another. In the context of work, you can try implementing asynchronous communication. This can help leaders strategize at their own pace and relieve the pressure of responding immediately.

Add flair to your normal work routine.

Doing regular engaging virtual events can aid the whole team to connect and lessen the daily work pressure. To boost employee engagement including your own, you can arrange and host events via a teleconferencing app. These events include:

A virtual hangout – online coffee, tea, or wine party where everyone can talk, gossip, and share experiences as they would in the physical office
A virtual awards night – recognizing small wins is one way to uplift everyone’s spirit especially during these times. This can be done by dishing out certificates or electronic badges.
A wellness program – directed at prevailing issues and their solutions in the workplace like healthy habits, risks to productivity, or maintaining work-and-life balance.
Try a different workspace.

Coworking spaces are effective. They are essentially shared spaces offered at affordable rates for those looking to escape the isolation of a home or physical office. Independent contractors and freelancers can use a coworking space to develop flexibility and diversity. To get a breath of fresh air and renew your energy and motivation levels, go somewhere different.

Create a flexible schedule for everyone.

Be the change you want to see in the world, they say. If you long for something that might work for you, it can also be the thing that might work for everyone. Knowing when you and other people work best can pay off in their productivity and efficiency. This can increase your chance of having satisfied employees. Schedule flexibility can provide for the work-life balance your company encourages.

Revisit your mental health and wellness benefits.

Take advantage of your PTOs and use them based on your needs. When you feel like you need to take your hands off from your laptop and disconnect for a while, you may feel free to do so on account that you make pre-leave arrangements to ensure everyone still works despite your being away. With this, you are modeling a behavior that responds to what your mental health needs so that you can encourage others to do the same and this can free everyone from the risks of burnout.

Sure that as a leader you are morally obligated to ensure that all your team members are happy, motivated, and satisfied with their jobs but do not forget yourself in this process. You are also an employee. You also get tired, exhausted, and demotivated, just like everyone else. Luckily, you have this list with you to make sure you will never have to deal with burnout in the same old way again.

Movie Night at the Riverfront Park: Moonlight – Hosted By Citi Medina

JOIN US FOR A MOVIE IN THE PARK – Thursday, July 29, 8pm

We are excited to present Moonlight, a powerful, coming-of-age story during Newark Pride Month, in collaboration with the Newark Museum of Art. Our founder, Citi Medina, will be opening the night with an introduction to the movie and welcoming attendees to this experience.

This event is FREE and no registration is required.

Event starts at 8pm, movie starts at 8:30pm.

RIVERSIDE FRONT PARK: 730 Raymond Boulevard, Newark, NJ (Riverside)

Moonlight (2016)

Directed by Barry Jenkins. (111 min). Rated R.

A young African American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.

The film will be screened in English with Spanish subtitles.

For Directions:

Juneteenth Celebration Guide

RECOGNITION • RESTORATION • JUSTICE

Juneteenth, celebrates African American freedom and achievement, while encouraging continuous self-development and respect for all cultures. As it takes on a more national, symbolic and even global perspective, the events of 1865 in Texas are not forgotten, for all of the roots tie back to this fertile soil from which a national day of pride is growing.

The future of this holiday looks bright as President Biden signed a bill officially recognizing it as a federal holiday. Respect and appreciation for all of our differences grow out of exposure and working together.

Click the links below and learn how you can get involved and support Juneteenth celebrations.

Creates new bonds of friendship and understanding amongst your community.

This indeed brightens our future – and that is the Spirit of Juneteenth.