On Natasha Krahenbring’s 32nd birthday in May this year she gathered her friends at co-working and events space Strobe Studios for what they thought was a birthday party.
In fact, it was a surprise announcement that Natasha and her husband had actually bought the business.
“It was exciting to share what we had been working towards for the last eight weekends,” Natasha says.
The first change Natasha made was the name – making the space her own with a rebrand to Ko Kollective. Then, she gave the office a refresh, adding a new meeting room, a new boardroom and two new offices.
Natasha took over the space with most of the offices tenanted. You’ll find a wide variety of businesses at Ko Kollective, including a foundation, event company, accountant, a lawyer, even the Yellow Pages.
There are lots more different events we’re putting together, and if anyone wants to host their event at Ko Kollective they can.
With an already full roster taking up the offices, Natasha’s focus has been finding ways to maximise the large training room space in a way that everyone in the community can enjoy. This means lots of fun new events!
“We want different events that Toowoomba isn’t used to,” Natasha says. “I’ve booked a sexologist, an interior designer, and a wine tasting event for Christmas. There’s a massive company from Melbourne coming up called Motov8. It’s all about talking to mums with boys aged 11 to 17 and how to deal with them, and he chose our spot, which is exciting. There are lots more different events we’re putting together, and if anyone wants to host their event at Ko Kollective they can.”
Although Ko Kollective is a new venture, Natasha is not a new business owner. She’s been running Smart Social Online, a social media agency in Toowoomba for the past two years.
The previous Ko Kollective owner was actually a client.
“I had Emma as a client and she showed me around,” she says. “Within 10 minutes I was in love with the place and I said ‘you know what, one day I’m going to buy this place’ and we both laughed. And then a few months later she was like ‘yep I want to sell and I want you to buy it’.
“I loved what it represents, and how you can bring all the businesses together.”
As a relative newcomer to Toowoomba, Natasha says establishing not just one, but now two, successful businesses has been tough, but worth it.
“We’ve been living in Toowoomba for four years now, my husband is originally from here and I’m from Adelaide,” she says. “Coming to Toowoomba it was so hard to get a job. I was a mum for a year but my background is in business management. I started Smart Social Online and it took off. In February this year I cut back as I love social media but I’d lost the passion for it. A month later we had this place.
“It took a lot of work to buy this place. It wasn’t just saving, we had to do several different business plans for the bank, but we eventually settled. You can start a business even if you have nothing, if you want something you’ll get it.”
At the moment there is only one spare office available at Ko Kollective. Every tenant has free access to the meeting rooms and boardrooms, and you can hire those rooms by the hour, starting from $20 an hour. Have your own event in the huge training room or come along to one of the many that Natasha is filling the rest of this year’s calendar with!
Find out more about Ko Kollective at kokollective.com.au or follow on Facebook or Instagram @kokollective_
