members

Negotiating Like a Pro at Locus

Community Manager entrepreneurship, events, Locus Workspace, management, members, productivity , , ,

On Wednesday February 22 Locus Workspace had the opportunity to host one of our own members, Martin Bednář, to speak on the topic of negotiation. The event Negotiate Like a Pro gave us all insights into the best practices for negotiating, with a focus on business situations. 
Martin is an experienced businessman and today a trainer and coach on topics such as sales, marketing, and negotiating. We learned and discussed what it truly means to be in a negotiating type situation followed by the behavior and language necessary to be a skilled negotiator. Martin was a very engaging and knowledgeable speaker on the topic.

Thank you Martin and thank you to all who participated for making the event a great learning opportunity! 

Please stay up to date with our facebook page and meetup groups to attend similar seminars in the future.

Locus Member: Gerardo Robledillo

Community Manager entrepreneurship, Locus Workspace, members, profile, sharing economy , ,

Name: Gerardo Robledillo
Hometown: Madrid, Spain
Occupation: Web Developer, Website Owner of International Schools Database and Expatistan.com

Gerardo is the owner and founder of International Schools Database, a website that helps relocating families find the right English-language schools for  their children, and Expatistan.com, a crowdsourced price comparison website that provides current information about the cost of living to both companies and the employees that they relocate.

“Expatistan is a cost of living calculator that allows you to compare the cost of living between cities around the world. The comparisons allow you to get a better understanding of the cost of living of any city before you move there” (Expatistan.com). 

This database is compiled from information received from it’s users. The more data is entered, the more accurate and reliable the information is. Gerardo’s website is a unique and useful tool that arguably outperforms the best cost-of-living indexes otherwise available.

Gerardo Robledillo

Why did you choose to make your own website?

“At one point, I was moving a lot in a very short period of time, and I was working for other companies. They would offer me a salary, but I wouldn’t know if that was enough to sustain me in that city. There was nothing that was reliable for me to find online, so I built it myself.”

What is your favorite part about working for yourself?

“Freedom. I have much more freedom. Freedom of working when and where you want.”

What brought you to Prague?

“I started working in Madrid right after university, but I was looking to go abroad. I have always traveled, but I have never lived abroad for a long time. I wanted something different and interesting, but not too different. Central and Eastern Europe was distant enough, yet close enough to home. The first offer I accepted was in Prague, and I loved the city so I remained here. I was briefly in Frankfurt, then I moved to Barcelona, and then I came back.”

How did you get into coworking?

“After two months of working at home it didn’t work as well [as I wanted]. I tried the library and cafes but it didn’t work that well either. I started sharing an office with a friend for a while, but it didn’t work. Then I found the concept of coworking, and it was the perfect balance: really nice office, interesting people, social benefits of an office without working at a big company, and freedom.”

How did you find Locus Workspace?

“I was looking for different coworking spaces and I tried locus because it was very close to my place. Will gave me the tour and I tried it, and it was perfect, so I stopped looking.”

What is your favorite part of the city?

“Vinohrady.”

What is one interesting fact about you?

“I love planes and flying.”

Interested in finding out how much it would cost to live somewhere else? Check out Gerardo’s website here.

If you would like to be featured on a Locus Workspace Member Monday in the future, contact Dani Crepeau at dcrepeau@bryant.edu.

Meet Locus Member Bryn Perkins

Community Manager entrepreneurship, Locus Workspace, members, profile ,
Locus Workspace is pleased to welcome long-time expat Bryn Perkins as a coworker. Bryn has been living in the Czech Republic for 15 ½ years, where he has had a variety of interesting jobs. He has experience running an Internet business, managing a Prague-based hostel group, working as a management consultant, and leading an energy-saving consulting firm; he presently works in Business Intelligence for the mobile payments company Boku. Two of the most impressive contributions to the Prague cultural scene, however, were the co-founding and management of the bookstore and café Shakespeare a synové (Shakespeare and Sons) and The Prague Daily Monitor.
Shakespeare a synové started off on Krymská street in Vršovice in 2002, but now has two locations, one in Mala strana and one in Berlin. After opening, the Krymská bookstore nurtured the English writing community by hosting readings and other events in its eclectic and bohemian space, which continues to be appreciated as Café v Lese. Bryn sold his share to his partners at the end of 2003.
Bryn was also a co-founder of The Prague Daily Monitor, which he managed with editor Theo Schwinke until 2009, when it was acquired by Prague TV. It continues to be an important information source for English speakers in the Czech Republic. See: www.praguemonitor.com.

Bryn believes that truly great businesses are those that are both financially successful and positively affect all their stakeholders (including owners, employees, suppliers, customers, and the community at large). He is excited by “open-book management,” in which employees are taught how “the numbers” drive their company’s business, are updated on these numbers regularly, and share in the success they help create. Though a relatively small number of businesses are run this way, there are some impressive examples of successful businesses that have taken this approach.

Two of Bryn’s “business heroes” are Ari Weinzweig and Jack Stack. Ari Weinzweig co-founded Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1982 and now is CEO and co-founder of the highly successful Zingerman’s gourmet food company, with revenues over $50 million. Jack Stack, a highly creative businessman, is the founder and CEO of SRC Holdings. He is known as “The Father of Open-Book Management,” an approach he has used to great success. His company has helped to start scores of successful businesses founded by employees who learned about business while working at his open-book companies.