Why is coworking space more convenient for entrepreneurs?

With the evolving professional work culture, the methods of work are also changing. Professionals are becoming more flexible with their working skills, geographies, time and money. The concept of working from home and freelancing is not new now. A lot of people cannot adjust with fix time and money that a typical job offers and that’s why some of them choose to become freelancers or entrepreneurs. Now, as every coin has two sides, this method of work also had some drawbacks. Freelancers and entrepreneurs got bored of working in home environment and they needed a place where they can feel like office and work on their own terms. This necessity caused the invention of the idea of coworking space!

What is Coworking Space?

If we define coworking in professional language, it is work setup that offers a shared working environment, often an office, but an independent activity. People who are coworking, are generally not employed by a single organization like the mainstream office culture. These people can be freelance web developers, artists, contractors or entrepreneurs.

Coworking Stats

The trend of coworking spaces is still limited to some geographies only but it’s evolving faster and some people are really nailing at investing in it at this early stage and looking at multiplying their money when the concept is on boom! Currently, there are around 7000 coworking spaces across the globe which is expected to touch the 10000 mark by the end of 2016. But, why is it looked as a very attractive business idea? Why are professionals choosing to use a co-working space?

Reasons for choosing Coworking space

Professionals respect some common work values when they are looking to work for someone else or themselves which are Community, Openness, Collaboration, Accessibility, and Sustainability. They need a proper mix of these values in their work environment which has very less chances of existing while they are operating from home and even in a typical office environment, there is not guarantee of this mix. Coworking offers something far more than simply that of people working in the same place or operating from home, a fundamentally new way of thinking about how to work and share with others.

Some businesses are working dedicatedly towards the concept of coworking and offering coworking spaces to people who crave to work in an organizational setup without losing out much from their pockets. They offer creative infrastructure which includes dedicated working space with furniture, internet connection, print, scan and other basic facilities, food and some free events and trainings as well. Above all these, they offer a collaborative environment where people get the motivation to work.

The concept of coworking space is currently in the incubation stage itself as the trend is only prevailing in the major cities across the globe and it will take time to target professionals in smaller towns or villages. But, the future of the concept of coworking space looks brighter to many startup gurus!

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Is coworking right for you? Arguments both for and against coworking space

With the rise in real estate prices, it became very easy and convenient option for start-ups or freelancers to pay a small amount to operate in a readymade office kind of environment (actually better than that), rather than investing bundles of money in buying an office. Coworking spaces are often confused with collaborative office rental facilities and incubators. It is not exclusive to people looking to build tech startups and it is also not limited to a better way to rent space, it offers a lot more than that

Let’s look at what really are the advantages of working in a coworking space that professional are not able to resist themselves:

• First of all, it offers the office like infrastructure that has facilities like dedicated desks, conference rooms, cafeteria, wifi/internet connection, print & scan facilities, power backups, etc. at single cost and also saves time in maintaining records of such overheads.
• These spaces organize some events or conferences for its members, sometimes just as a part of motivational activities and sometimes specific to particular topics.
• It offers the most wanted feeling of an office environment to the freelancers or startups who cannot or don’t want to invest in their own office spaces.
• Contact building becomes very easy for the young entrepreneurs and that will help them grow their businesses in future.
• A very important advantage of a coworking setup is it has variety of business ideas and concepts operating from a single place which can really be helpful for its members as some of them can find the services helpful for their businesses right on the next desk which will provide prospective clients to that service provider who’s also a member.
• Idea-sharing becomes easy and insightful which makes the environment exciting.
• Because generally the members of coworking spaces are young or open minded freelancer or startups, the culture is highly energetic and rocking.

But, it is said that something that glitters is not always gold, same as that this highly aspiring concept of coworking space also has it’s own drawbacks which make it avoidable for some professionals:

• The biggest disadvantage one will have opting for a coworking space will be spending money just to have an office environment which is not always affordable for the freshers or people who do not earn much. Coworking spaces are not always cheaper as currently the concept is quite new and is only available in big cities.
• If a coworking space is not available nearby, one will have to incur the transportation cost and also time to reach at the location.
• Coworking spaces sometimes observe too many changes. Coworkers are never the same and same goes with the desk that one uses. Their staff and location are also bound to change if they have very low-profit margins.
• Coworking spaces are sometimes more noisy than what members who like peaceful working environment would have expected. Constant noise sometimes becomes annoying and distractive.
  Such places are not really meant for people who are working on some top secret projects. Privacy of ideas becomes very rare in coworking spaces, especially when members are of same work domain.
• Coworking spaces are not complete substitutes of typical offices. Sometimes, you might not get the same level of guidance or help from the coworkers that you get from your office colleagues.