POTSDAM -- Working from home can be hard for a lot of reasons, isolation being chief among them.

“I worked from home for five years before I could afford an office,” says Nicole Ouellette, who owns an internet marketing firm. “Sometimes I could go a whole day without talking to another person.”

To serve her business's needs and those of others in the community, Ouellette opened a coworking space in Maine almost three years ago. Since opening, Anchorspace has served about 150 customers, ranging from tourists needing to hold a video conference for a couple hours to members who have been a part of the space since the beginning.

“What surprised me was the variety of people needing space like this. We have a local restaurant who uses the office for her HR purposes like job interviews. We’ve had a photographer holding a nature workshop use the space to give his students a place to process their images. We had an area visitor who had a sudden job interview come up that could have cut her vacation short… We set up Skype for her virtual job interview and I even grabbed a few options for blazers so she’d look great from the waist up!”

The reality is it can be a big leap, economically and otherwise, to go from working at home to having an office. Coworking spaces not only help in cost sharing but creating a network for users to refer one another and work together. Coworking spaces have been shown to increase productivity, revenue, and happiness for members. A majority of these spaces may be in cities but they are becoming increasingly popular in communities as economic development hubs.

When Ouellette’s partner moved to Potsdam to take a job at Clarkson University, she realized she’d have to get creative and reached out to Laurean Pelkey, owner of Chilly Delight in downtown Potsdam about hosting a coworking meetup.

"We're excited to try it out," says Laurean Pelkey, co-owner of Chilly Delight.

“I figured there had to be other people like me, people with temporary positions, sales people, other trailing partners looking not only for the benefits of an office to go to in terms of amenities but also community," says Ouellette "Chilly Delight has hosted the local Rotary club and seems to have the space, internet, and interest for us to try this out.”

The meetup will take place Thursday March 1, from noon to 5 p.m., at Chilly Delight at 12 Main Street in Potsdam. People who work from home, freelancers, traveling sales people, temporary workers, and others who want to meet others like them while getting work done are invited to the event.

“Come for an hour, come for the whole thing. Just bring the work you’d typically do from home or wherever, some business cards, and some enthusiasm to meet other people,” says Ouellette. “If this is successful, we can make it a regular thing. And if this is a legitimate community need, I hope to open a second version of Anchorspace here."

Those wanting more information can visit the Meetup event at http://bit.ly/potsdamcoworkmeetup.