Top 5 Reasons to Embrace Coworking
With companies and organisations forced to rethink their approach to traditional work practices
over the last 16 months; embracing coworking has become the solution for freelancers, large organisations and many long distance commuters who longer have the space for a home office.
Picture the following scenario:
You’re headed into work in the morning, maybe you work in a busy city and have a modest 30 – 60
minute commute, you can get through a few audio books or listen to the new album you’ve just
bought. But on this occasion there are road works that have just started, they’ll be ongoing for the
next 3 months, suddenly your “modest” commute has turned into either a 2 hour commute in which
you’ll be consistently late for the morning meeting or you can start waking up at 4am and leaving
whilst it’s still dark just to beat the endless traffic.
Or you could embrace coworking…
1. Enjoy Convenience, Work Flexibly
Coworking spaces aren’t your average offices. Many of them are open 24 hours a day, giving you
freedom and control over your working hours. Even better, they are dotted around the country in
hundreds of convenient locations.
In the run-up to the impending (fingers crossed) post-pandemic work environment, employers are
re-evaluating the amount of time their employees need to be in the office. A third state that “to
keep a strong culture, employees should be in the office three days a week”. This is a monumental
shake-up to traditional workplace practices, those with home offices are rejoicing that their
commute has been cut down to a thirty second walk from their bed to their office. For those without
this luxury, finding a local coworking space can not only reduce your commute, it can improve your
mental health and work-life balance.
2. Explore your Learning Opportunities
Coworking spaces can support and be directly responsible for the upskilling of your workforce. In
Wales alone there are five Entrepreneurial Hubs which can not only offer space to work and grow your
organization, but also offer opportunities to develop your skill set and expand your technical
knowledge. Each hub runs their own workshops & tutorials covering skills from ‘Setting up your Own
Business’ to ‘Using Facebook Audiences to Target your Demographics’.
These opportunities are great for budding entrepreneurs looking to get their business off the ground. They are also just as effective for organisations who want to support their employees’ continuous learning.
3. Network & Collaborate with the Coworking Community
What happens when you put hundreds of businesses in close proximity? Inevitably they will
collaborate, they procure services and buy products from each other, together they feed into their
coworking ecosystem. This thriving ecosystem has been known to generate new jobs and even be
ground-zero for companies taking their first steps. From fledgling start-ups earning their stripes to
collaborative hackathons solving collective problems.
Coworking spaces often function as a micro-economy in which businesses within these spaces grow
and evolve by supporting other businesses in the same space. Outsourcing your needs has never
been easier, on any given day you could be sat within 10ft of a marketing professional, a web
designer and an accountant, they can provide all the essential services you need to make your
business a success.
4. Supercharge Productivity & Explore New Realms of Creativity
According to Equity Theory, we often work as hard as we perceive others around us are working.
When starting a new role we look to our colleagues to gauge how motivated they are and how much
work they get done. If you’re a freelancer or have been working from home due to the pandemic,
you’ve likely been isolated from others in the same entrepreneurial boat as yourself. Your yardstick
for self-evaluating your performance is either based on your managers opinion of your outputs or
often based on your best guess if you are freelancing.
Working amongst other freelancers or colleagues can indicate whether you are working too hard
and burning out or underperforming. You can also lean on those around you to lend a creative ear,
with the freelance and gig economy being rife with creatives, coworking can open you up to new
techniques and a whole new perspective on how you approach your role.
5. Affordability – Can you afford not to?
Working from home can be just as expensive as renting an office, depending on your occupation this
might vary but you will likely need a reliable & quick internet connection to ensure you are not
dropping out of every Zoom call. Think of the electricity bill associated with running a desktop,
monitors, printer, coffee machine and every other amenity your office must have, it all starts to
build up quickly and will eat into your profit margins. As much as home working can eat into your
savings, renting dedicated offices for your new organisation can come with astronomical prices.
At coworking hubs such as Welsh ICE, all these amenities fall under a single cost and it’s cheaper
than you think.
Embrace it!
Coworking can be the answer to you and your organisations logistical nightmares, your freelancing
isolation and if you resonate with any of the above reasons, signing up couldn’t be easier. Coworking
at Welsh ICE, you’ll have access to 200mbps super-fast Wi-Fi, printer access, unlimited free tea &
coffee, meeting room discounts, an online learning platform and much more, all for £3.80 per day.
These days, that’s cheaper than a Venti Starbucks with extra cream.
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