This piece is presented by the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship.

Take all the amenities you could want in a small office, add services especially designed for entrepreneurs, and cap it off with a price you won’t find anywhere else.

If it sounds too good to be true, then you haven’t discovered the co-working space at the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship.

Chelsea Asmus has, though. She started Chelsea Asmus Consulting and became a co-working space member in November 2016.

“I have a home office and that can be very isolated at times,” said Asmus, who offers project management services. “I joined for the social interaction.”

As a one-woman shop, she enjoys the sense of place and community that she gets from Zeal.

The coffee shop atmosphere is one of her favorite parts because that’s typically the locale where non-office workers and business owners gather.

“But here, you don’t have to buy coffee and squat and worry about spending too much time. You can be here for as long as you want.”

That’s literally true. Zeal co-working members have 24-hour access to their space through key fobs.

Asmus works from that central area in the building, and when she needs to focus more, she uses the new E@Z co-working office space at Zeal. She takes advantage of the small meeting rooms when she needs to have private conversations and the big conference rooms when she needs to use the audio-visual equipment.

Her co-working membership gives her access to high-tech equipment that many small businesses can’t afford. When she needs to put together big packets of information for presentations, she uses Zeal’s printer, paying based on the amount. She’s also a big fan of the tech support that’s provided through Workplace IT Management.

She likes being able to connect with resource offices that are housed in the building such as the Small Business Administration, the Small Business Development Center and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

“A big draw for me was to have those resources there,” she said. “They can answer the questions that you have when you’re starting out on your own.”

Jim Maslowski was introduced to the services at Zeal when he worked for another startup that was based there, so when he decided to start his own business, he knew a co-working membership made sense.

Maslowski’s Customs Direct LLC creates software that businesses use to gather and report information on imports and exports to government agencies.

He started the business in February and used the co-working space three times a week for the first few months. He has scaled back to once a week as business has taken him off-site but still takes advantage of the center’s audio-visual equipment to put his best foot forward for presentations.

For a startup, “it presents a good, solid structure,” and Zeal’s staff is a valuable resource.

“They put you in touch with the right people or point you in the right direction,” he said.

Co-working memberships start at $199 a month and include access to the E@Z co-working space, furnished by Interstate Office Products.

The office-space design is backed by research that shows employees are most engaged when they can choose where they work based on their task, IOP president and CEO Gary Gaspar said, so his company provided a variety of settings within E@Z.

“There are individual touchdown spaces for focused individual work; collaborative spaces where people can easily express and share ideas that support group work, creativity and innovation; and private spaces that support rejuvenation and allow concentrated work free of disruptions. All of these spaces also support the diverse range of technology that people are using in the workplace,” he said.

“We want to support entrepreneurship in our community as it’s a key component of economic growth. It’s also important to have a vibrant entrepreneurial community to attract key talent to our city. Supporting Zeal’s co-working space will provide benefits to all of us in the Sioux Falls region.”

E@Z members also can access private work stations; meeting spaces; drop-in options for working, dining or meeting; plus Zeal’s expert resources and events. The space is powered by gigabit Internet service from Midco, which is an absolute must for some modern entrepreneurs.  The space even includes free coffee and popcorn, a fitness room, mail receiving services, plus a Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce membership.

“We’ve seen a great response from the entrepreneurs who have joined us with co-working memberships,” said Wendy Dooley, Zeal’s program manager. “This is such an effective way to focus on growing your business in a professional office environment while taking advantage of resources and networks designed to support you.”

To learn more, visit realzeal.com or email [email protected].

Co-working members can use conference space at Zeal.