Co-Working - The Space Is Out There...

In the last blog we posted we introduced you to a new word – Proptech – and in this one, it’s a new concept known as co-working.

It’s massively disrupting the traditionally traditional world of office space, but what exactly is co-working?

First, let’s tell you what it ISN’T, because it’s a common misconception. It most certainly isn’t serviced office space. Serviced offices are more or less traditional offices for one-man bands, small static companies like accountants and recruiters or for businesses that need small satellite offices. You have your own space but you share common parts, your rent meeting space filled with nasty flat-pack furniture and you are charged by the staple.

Co-working is much more than a place from where you can do your work. It’s a community and a way to grow organically in exactly the way you want to, free from the shackles of the photocopying card that doesn’t work.

Think of serviced offices like staying at a Premier Inn on an industrial estate in Swindon and think of co-working like staying in a funky, purple velvet-clad boutique hotel in Greenwich Village or Soho….

The Harvard Business Review defines co-working thus: ‘membership-based workspaces where diverse groups of freelancers, remote workers, and other independent professionals work together in a shared, communal setting’.

Companies are embracing co-working, creating stunning spaces around the world for freelancers, creatives, entrepreneurs and the next generation of disruptive tech superstars to flex their innovative muscles surrounded by their peers. You won’t find law firms or accountants in co-working spaces, you’ll find hipsters and three grand laptops and VR goggles and writers and designers and phrases like ‘creative ecosystem’.

If you Google ‘benefits of co-working’, you’ll find thousands of sites all eschewing the best things about co-working and they all say broadly the same thing –

• You are surrounded by like-minded people
• You can all feed off each other’s creativity
• You can network, create, collaborate, discuss and connect
• It’s cheaper and more flexible than traditional or serviced offices
• You are in the midst of a ready-made community
• The skinny decaf chai lattes are much, much better

For example, with Mindspace’s Open Space you get your own seat, meeting room hours, super-fast internet, prints and scans and 24/7 access and with their Private Office option, your business can grow in a cool personal space but with dozens of great minds all within arm’s reach!

While you’re in your office doing whatever it is you do, take a minute to look around you. Is it doing it for you? Co-working spaces are almost always in cool old buildings seamlessly blending a mixture of hi-tech and industrial chic. There’s no internal politics or inept middle managers with an agenda, there’s no 9-5 and there’s no ‘you don’t have to be mad to work here…but it helps’ signs or David Brent-esque motivational posters.

We are currently searching for new co-working sites on behalf of Mindspace who are seeking to acquire buildings providing 25,000 – 50,000 sq.ft of space across Central London to take advantage of the huge numbers who are leaving the traditional world of employment and chasing their entrepreneurial dreams in new, exciting co-working spaces.

Co-working is doing for the world of work what Shoreditch and Hoxton did for inner-city living. Transforming and disrupting it and making it cool.

Are you co-working? Are you being instructed to look for the cool space? What do you think about the concept? Let us know on Twitter @BDG_SP