Co-Working & Shared Offices

Will Co-Working be the new way for SMEs, freelancers, entrepreneurs and start-ups to work independently together?

This evening I was doing a bit of research and clicked on a link, which took me to another website where I found an article about 'co-working'.  I'd not heard that term before and I wanted to know all about it.  I don't like not knowing things.

I've discovered that, despite the hardships that most of us have endured during the economic downturn, it's a recognised fact that since the recession began the entrepreneurial spirit has grown in strength.  An explosion of creative ideas was also experienced after the Great Depression in the 1930s as people tried to find a way of making their lives better.

Last summer Andrew Cave of The Telegraph newspaper wrote about an interview he had with Julie Meyer, founder of "First Tuesday" and a leading entrepreneur herself.  During the interview Julie expressed her belief that university leavers in their 20s, together with older groups of people who have felt let down by large businesses and corporations during the recession (myself included), are going to be the ones driving the economy in the future as they take control of their own lives with the help of the Internet, networking, business events, etc. 

"Business Matters" magazine stated last year,

"The number of micro companies with five employees or less which are benefiting from networking via social media has doubled since the previous quarter."

As such, I'm very excited about the idea of bringing individuals together to work.  Regus Connect are trying to make it happen and are planning to roll out 10 new sites in January 2014 (so not long to wait).  If you log onto their website you can vote for the town/city where you'd like a new Regus Connect site to be.  At the moment it looks like London has the greatest share of the votes, followed by Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Reading.  Good news as far as I was concerned - I registered another vote for Reading.  I'm not sure about their rates at the current time and will contact them for further information.  

Whilst I was doing some research on the subject I noticed that Startacus wrote an article just last month about the Regus Connect project. 

TheCube in London has a very similar set up and again acknowledge the need, since the recession began in 2008, to create new ways of working together, "The space is open plan and designed to make one feel calm and happy". 

Their prices obviously reflect their location but they have a variety of packages, depending on how little or how often you want to utilise their services.

As a virtual assistant I don't have cause to travel with my work, unless a client asks me to attend a meeting with them, for example.  In fact one of the reasons why I became a virtual assistant was because I was so fed up with having to work in stuffy, noisy open-plan offices where there is not one iota of privacy.  That said, there are definitely times when I miss chatting with colleagues, sharing a joke and bouncing ideas off them.  I believe co-working really is a great way to connect with like-minded people and to offer one another support.

I'd be very interested to hear your comments about the idea.  I shall be sharing this post on my LinkedIn page if you'd like to comment there.  Perhaps we could start a group together so that we can keep each other updated with news and possible venues? 

I look forward to hearing from you all.

Nicky