Co-working has become a popular way to find office space without having to pay for a full office, especially when you’re the only one using it. Any space with a couple of desks and wireless access can become a co-working space — all you need are a few other people who need room to work and are willing to pay for the privilege.
But co-working spaces aren’t universal: while many major cities now have them, it doesn’t mean that every city does. And, even in those cities where co-working spaces are already established, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that they’re too far away — one of the benefits of working for yourself is avoiding the commute and if commuting is necessary to get to a co-working location, it can be impractical.
Starting your own co-working space can be the easy solution, for several reasons:
Money
Depending on your finances, a co-working space can be a good financial decision. While many co-working spaces can be started as a collective effort, starting one on your own is typically a matter of a little startup capital. It’s a matter of renting a space, adding office furniture and utilities and getting insurance. The costs can vary depending on where you’re located, of course.
But the pay off can be useful. You can set the prices on using your co-working space to cover the costs of operating the space, allowing you to use it at no personal cost. Free office space can be enough to make your efforts worthwhile, but if your goal is to earn an income from your co-working space, it’s not out of the question. Depending on the space and tools you can place at your co-workers’ disposal, you can charge more than your costs. You may also have opportunities to host events or otherwise share your space that would bring in additional income. You may also be able to set things up so that you turn a profit with relatively little work, compared to many other projects — as long as you collect regular fees from your co-workers and pay your bills, there isn’t much else that needs to happen.
Access
Operating the local co-working space offers some definite benefits if you’re trying to get more involved in the community. Provided you do some marketing to the community, you can easily get involved in a lot of local events — even hosting them — which can provide the networking opportunities necessary to move along your main business. While having your own network in place certainly helps make the process of setting up a co-working space easier, once the ball is rolling, your co-working space can expand your network.
It doesn’t have to be a coldly calculated move meant to get access to the cool kids in your community. A co-working space provides a benefit to locals and, by extension, that means you’re doing something good for your co-workers.
Diversification
Lastly, a coworking center means that not all of your eggs are in one basket, as far as your business efforts go. It’s a relatively simple business to set up — you’ll need to do some marketing to make sure that people keep coming in, but that’s about it.
That means that, while you’re working on other projects, you’ve still got something humming along in the background. It may not be a source of a lot of money, but it can make the difference in many situations. On top of that, it can open up opportunities if you find that your original plans don’t wind up the way you expected. That sort of flexibility is invaluable.