Nevada City is seeing a new form of office that is taking shaping in the down economy.

Robert Trent owns a Nevada City marketing and public relations firm that provides promotional materials for organizations committed to saving the world’s oceans.

His business, Velocity 7, also provides glossy brochures for Airstream trailers — those towable, livable aluminum recreational vehicles.

All he needs is a laptop, a chair, and a reliable Internet connection that, when it goes down, Trent can walk two steps away and ask fellow entrepreneur Rob Sheldon to fix.

Sheldon is a self-employed information technology specialist who works in the same office with Trent -- and Sheldon sits next to Paul Smith, who has an MBA in sustainable management and owns a consulting firm.

And when Smith wants to share an idea with Trent, he can either walk the four steps to Trent’s desk, send him a Twitter feed or instant message.

The entrepreneurs, each with his own business, work in the same room in a second-floor office on Broad Street. Trent holds the lease to the building, and Smith, Sheldon and one other solo entrepreneur work at different desks in the same room.

Together, they make up Sierra Commons, where business people can rent space on a month-to-month basis.

For $200 a month, Trent offers tenants a desk, an Internet connection, and the chance to break the work-from-home doldrums.

“You get a lot more value for your money,” Trent said. “We’re not making money by subletting. That’s not why we’re doing it. It’s all about getting some energy going to share some ideas and learn from each other. Being a part of this downtown is important to us.”

More productive

Trent, 42, has been in the building on Broad Street for five years. Sheldon, 30, who owns No Problem IT consulting, has been in the building two and a half months; and Smith, 39, who owns Green Smith Consulting, has been in the building one month.

“I didn’t need an office, technically, but it helps to have human beings around you,” Smith said.

Smith and Sheldon use sleek laptops; Trent and his associate use desktops.

The office has a kitchen and a bathroom around the corner, but no copy machine — that’s done down the street, in an effort to keep waste at a minimum.

The “solopreneurs” are working to save some green — both money and otherwise — by using one office.

“We all need to make a living,” Trent said. “We’re all businesses with local, national and international clients, and we all want a quality of life, and this adds to it.”

Sheldon, who does troubleshooting, network administration and installation, and Web design and development, used to work at home.

“I think it’s fair to say that my productivity has increased 250 percent. I get so distracted at home.

“It feels very good to say ‘I have an office,’” Sheldon added.

The setup is not unusual in larger cities — nor in Nevada City, which has several examples of similar work arrangements.

Smith joked that the office is so user-friendly that all one needed to work there is a roll of toilet paper and an Internet connection.

But they really need intangibles, too.

“There’s a culture that has to be a part of it,” Trent said. “If you have a party and you have crackers and Cheez Whiz, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be a big, good party. It has to be a symbiotic relationship.”

So far, so good.

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To contact Staff Writer David Mirhadi, e-mail dmirhadi@theunion.com or call 477-4239.