What is Coworking and Will it Work for You?

In 2018, almost 2200 brand-new coworking spaces opened around the world, 1,000 of which were in the United States. By 2022, there will be over 25,000 coworking spaces worldwide.

Coworking spaces are office environments that often include the features of conventional offices like desks, collaborative areas, meeting rooms, and even extra amenities like break rooms, mailboxes with desirable business address, phone answering services, a receptionist and more.

So just what, exactly, is driving the high demand for coworking spaces?

Coworking spaces started to really flourish around the time that the gig economy began to rapidly grow. Cell phones, wi-fi, laptops, apps and other mobility tools made it easier for people to start their own businesses or connect to their clients from more settings than ever before. Currently, almost 4 million Americans now work from home at least half the time with many others working from non-traditional workplaces.

With so many people working outside of traditional office settings, many options exist:

• Home
• Coffee shops
• Cafés
• Libraries
• Commercial business centers (like coworking sites).

But it stands to reason that workers might start to miss some of the advantages that actually existed in the traditional workplace like:

• Coworkers and conversation
• Access to support and collaborative input
• Privacy, when desired
• Ready access to print, fax, copy and other supportive technologies.

Coworking may offer the best “middle way” for many professionals.

While traditional office space access may require lengthy and expensive leases, coworking allows workers to walk into new office space with nothing more than a laptop or cell phone and begin working on day one.

Most coworking spaces offer service agreements with different levels of commitment. Options include:

• Day office access
• Open space access
• Meeting or conference room use
• Month-to-month private office agreements
• Six-month or twelve-month private office agreements.

There are ways to explore coworking as an option with no upfront commitment from you. This link explains more about coworking.

Learn more about local coworking options with a prestigious address and available amenities to decide if this option is the right option for you.