For all you freelancers, solopreneurs, start-up hustlers and women-identifying people looking to spice up your work life, there’s someone we’d like you to meet! Rachel Kelly, founder of Make Lemonade will be your new best friend in no time and the female-focused coworking space located at 326 Adelaide St. W will be your new home away from home. It’s time to make up for lost time spent struggling in cafes with limited seating or unreliable wifi or sitting uninspired in your homes! Rachel is about to give you lemons and it’s time to make lemonade. The bright, colourful, warm and inspiring (the list goes on!) office offers reliable wifi, phone booths, meeting rooms, lockers, printing and mail services, and yes, loads of lemonade! There are a few different membership options to accommodate different budgets empowering women-identifying people to make the most of their ‘lemonading’ (or working) experience.
With her own experience in the freelance industry, Rachel knew what it was like cafe hopping and never feeling satisfied with the amenities. So, after years of frustration, she did something about it. Rachel provides the resources – including space – for women-identifying people to thrive at what they do. To her, it’s more than just an office space; it’s also about female empowerment and fostering attitudinal change. “I want to be able to create a space and an environment and maybe a lifestyle or a mentality,” she says, “that if you can dream it, then you can make it happen.”
Because this coworking space is centrally located in the dynamism that is the Toronto Entertainment District, it allows for freelancers, solopreneurs and start-ups to be a part of the city action and nearby Rachel’s fave food options – *cough cough* General Assembly Pizza across the street and Ravi Soups next door. “I really love working here. It’s a lot of fun,” says Rachel. “And there’s something really exciting to be able to say that I not only work downtown Toronto, but I own an office space down here.”
“We’re looking for a cool and inspiring space to get sh*t done in Toronto.”
– Rachel Kelly, Make Lemonade
The environment thrives on positive vibes, motivation, and a sense of invested community. Although Make Lemonade does strive to create an effective working space for women, it is absolutely all-inclusive of all identities. Rachel highlights, “Make Lemonade was the idea to say ‘Hey, we thought about you [women] first, but anyone and all identities can come and enjoy the lemonade here too.” And by the way, no bad vibes allowed – meaning, there is no room for sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, classist or otherwise discriminatory language.
Make Lemonade is the perfect mix of hustle by day and bustle by night. With shared workstations, comfy lounge and private rooms, the space provides its members with accountability, productivity and community. Rachel shares that the office hosts a wide range of events too, like enjoyable master classes (e.g. How to Pitch Your Business, How to Achieve Your Sales Goals) and inviting monthly Lemon Mixers (casual network-ish sessions with other members) which we had the privilege of attending!
“You get to come here and know that this is kind of like your office, this is your home away from home.” – Rachel Kelly, Make Lemonade
Rachel works to build a supportive, active, and motivated community at Make Lemonade: “I want to be able to inspire people to go after their dreams and know that if you create a big, crazy list – if you start ticking things off before you know it, you’re going to achieve your goals.” Sound like Make Lemonade might be the place for you? Visit https://www.makelemonade.ca/ for more details. For daily, aesthetically pleasing inspo follow @makelemonadeco on Instagram and @MakeLemonadeca on Facebook. For other exciting destinations within the Entertainment District read our latest stories here.