Shazia Mustafa
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers by nature. The problem that Shazia Mustafa and Yusuf Chadun were experiencing was common to most working families: how to juggle work and childcare. Their solution was a whole new proposition: a co-working space and nursery on one site. Parents who worked for themselves, flexibly or remotely would then able literally to take their children to the office, and could book flexible hours of high quality childcare to suit their working patterns.
This brainwave occurred six years ago, and since then, London’s Third Door Workhub and Nursery has found a loyal membership in south west London and is looking at ambitious expansion plans.
The early days
As anyone who has ever attempted it can testify, working at home while caring for a small child is hard. Very hard. That was certainly Shazia’s experience when her first daughter was five months old. Lamenting the absence of a space where she could work while her daughter was cared for nearby, Shazia started to realise the opportunity in creating exactly that. She started researching trends such as mobile technology, remote working, and people’s willingness to work near their children, in order to work out what potential customers would want in a professional workspace. Meanwhile, her husband Yusuf was studying towards an MBE. Having heard his wife’s concept, he decided to base his dissertation on a feasibility study of the idea. The Distinction he received for it was yet another prompt to turn Shazia’s dream into reality.
The timing was certainly right – as Shazia found while researching her idea, home- and flexible working were on the rise thanks to the leaps in technology, and she also found an increase in the number of people deciding to work as freelancers after becoming parents.
And so in 2010 Shazia decided to take voluntary redundancy from her work in order to focus on starting Third Door, despite being pregnant with the couple’s second child. After finding the right premises in south west London, the business began its impressive upward trajectory as working parents heard of the idea and were drawn to its flexible offering. Shazia counts the points where the business broke even and then started turning a profit as particular highlights, alongside the Deputy Prime Minister’s team choosing Third Door in 2012 as the venue for Nick Clegg to announce new legislation in shared parental leave and extending flexible working for all. “Yusuf being able to join the business full time, and both of us being able to draw a salary we can live on were also definitely high points,” she adds.
Challenges
There have of course been big challenges on the way, in particular “getting the staffing right”. “By that I mean people who share a vision and want to put in the extra effort to help the business succeed,” says Shazia. “I’ve had coaching to help me and also put in place stronger strategies to help recruit people who fit into the Third Door culture. It’s taken time and experience to get this right and I’m very proud of the current team I have around me, both employee and freelancer/consultants around us.”
While growing the business, the couple also had their third child: the challenges they were trying to address, i.e. helping working parents strike a work/life balance, were very much ones they were living.
“Our flexible childcare really helps,” says Shazia, explaining how they’ve managed, “but it’s taken myself and my husband to alter our working patterns to accommodate the school runs.”
And, just like any other growing business, managing the cashflow has been a herculean task, particularly in the earliest days: “Cashflow has always been difficult. Advice from fellow business colleagues has been worth its weight in gold and helped us at a stage where we were really struggling with managing cashflow.”
Third door workhub & nursery. Picture: third-door.com
Lessons
Any entrepreneur will know, the journey from startup to successful, growing business is riddled with hurdles and obstacles. Experience allows many of them to be navigated with ease, but for the first-timer the learning curve is steep indeed. As Shazia puts it: We have learnt so much along the way, and [are] constantly looking for ways to improve our services and offerings. I can think of several parts of the business that we would have implemented slightly differently, but starting a new concept means we’ve sometimes had to learn as we go.” Alongside the lessons they have learnt regarding hiring the right staff, Shazia also singles out the timing of their marketing as something they would change: “Whilst we always planned to start our marketing six months before opening, in reality we really started marketing a month before. That is something we’d do differently!”
What advice would she give to others looking to emulate her achievements? “It’s not for the faint-hearted, and be prepared to constantly make changes to your product or service to make it stronger and better.”
Third door workhub & nursery. Picture: third-door.com
Where next?
Shazia and Yusuf have been incredibly busy ever since starting Third Door, particularly in recent months. With the business profitable and progressing smoothly, they are not resting on their laurels but rather driving forward. To this end, they have been scouting out further potential sites. Starting again with fitting out the premises, hiring staff and all the other logistical tasks, is – of course – a daunting prospect, but they do so at least with the security of a thriving business behind them.
"Our original vision of scaling up seems to be coming into fruition,"-- says Shazia,
“and I’m excited to see how the business will grow and adapt to current technology, trends and challenges that are cropping up in the future.”