Exploring Life & Business with Dorethia Kelly of Work • Space • Spark

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dorethia Kelly.  

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Work • Space • Spark is a career growth and office décor/tools subscription box that delivers monthly desk/work items in addition to the training that helps working professionals successfully navigate their careers, be more productive, earn what they are worth and be an excellent corporate citizen at work. 

It all started out as a fun way for me to represent my personal brand at work and make my space my own. When others began to ooh and ahh about my workspace, I began to gift office decor and tools to team members and colleagues. 

A light bulb went off that this would be a great business as I noticed many people did consider the decor in their workspace. As a corporate trainer, I also realized many were lacking the soft skills necessary to excel in their careers. Research regarding the subscription box industry revealed that you needed more than just the box contents to retain customers. So, I decided to marry the two! 

We provide career advice, office hours, and monthly training. A community safe space for people to vent, get help and earn the money they deserve. We are empowering professionals to navigate the corporate waters easily vs. crashing and burning because they don’t understand their environment. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Although the idea was to appeal to those in corporate who worked remote or in the office, we imagined 80% would be in office and have them shipped to their offices, thus creating more buzz. Well, the pandemic caused us to need to need to flip that to those who would be remote. We had to quickly shift our marketing to appeal to corporate leaders and those who were now creating new home-office ‘spaces’ that they wanted be productive but also represent their personality. 

The halt of in-person events also affected our conference side of the business so we weren’t able to realize those revenues. We decided to lean into the corporate requests for deliveries to their employee’s homes to boost morale. This truly helped us get through the first year and a half. 

As you know, we’re big fans of Work • Space • Spark. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Work • Space • Spark is a career growth and office décor/tools subscription box that delivers monthly desk/work items in addition to training that helps working professionals successfully navigate their careers, be more productive, and earn what they are worth and be an excellent corporate citizen at work. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
When I started this subscription box, I had no idea what to expect. I was a pro at being a financial/business coach, speaker… the #MoneyChat Lady – I had to learn an entirely new industry! On top of that, I learned a powerful lesson on running two businesses. It has been an amazing and fulfilling learning experience. 

Pricing:

• Month-to-Month: $52.99
• 6 Months: $47.99 (paid monthly)
• 12 Months: $44.95 (paid monthly)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.workspacespark.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workspacespark
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/workspacespark
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/workspacespark
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Work-Space-SparkTV

Image Credits
Dorethia
Robin Gamble photography
Career Rehab
Dorethia Kelly