When Is It Time to Move Your Business Into a Co-Working Space?
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Say you’ve just started up your own business. You are working out of your living room or a local coffee shop. You’re steadily growing and expanding, so you can stay home all day. How good is that?!
While it may sound ideal at first—less commuting, a comfortable environment, more sleep—it doesn’t always yield positive results. Lines become blurred between work-life boundaries, social interaction decreases, and communication gaps slow progress.
This is where coworking spaces can be a game-changer. They offer a professional working environment that creates collaboration and focus while allowing flexibility.
They accommodate many ways of working. For example, a hybrid working lifestyle gives you the convenience of slow mornings and extra home days and the structure and energy of a coworking space for those in-person work days to stay productive. For others working full-time, a coworking space always gives employees a designated place to report.
Ultimately, it’s about finding what works best for you, your company, and your lifestyle.
When is it best to move into a co-working space?
Sometimes, you just have a moment when you realise it’s time, and for others, it takes a couple of experiences to show them that something needs to change. Let’s discuss why a business founder needs to switch things up and expand into a new space.
Desire to collaborate for growth
With too much time alone, an anti-social lifestyle can evolve. You may be emailing, slacking, or video-calling colleagues, but you aren’t genuinely connecting with them 1-on-1 in real life. Those who work from home often don’t talk out loud because they’re siloed in their own world. By isolating yourself, you’re missing out on human connections and networking opportunities that could lead to potential growth.
When you join a coworking space, 100s of new faces surround you—professionals with rich experiences ready to connect and share their knowledge with you. Talking to new people and being around multiple businesses in various industries can teach you how to grow your business. These startups, firms and SMEs working around you could be connectors to new customers, clients, or employees you wouldn’t have had access to without them.
More space = more hirers
Once your business is up and running, you may find that bringing in key staff members can streamline tasks and improve efficiency—why? A team working together is always more substantial than one working alone. However, they won’t fit in your living room, so you need a solution.
Coworking spaces, in particular, have private offices where businesses can have an enclosed space just for them. It’s paid based on the number of desks, making it very cost-effective compared to a traditional office leasing option. They also have flexible and dedicated desks, giving smaller teams space to work in open areas. Plus, coworking spaces come fully stocked with amenities and services for your business team to enjoy, all at one cost.
What’s the size of your team now? As a rule of thumb, if you have more than just a founding team, it’s best to have a formal office space to accommodate everyone comfortably and professionally. This gives everyone space to work, collaborate and share ideas in meetings or community breakout spaces.
It’s best to analyse your team’s current state, consider how you plan to grow, and decide if a co-working space makes sense for your business.
The need for more productivity
Too much time at home can often cause some people to lose productivity. Being surrounded by familiar comforts and personal distractions makes it harder to stay focused. From turning on the TV for background noise to doing laundry or cooking when you feel like it to crafting with your kids, there are many ways to get distracted that can divert your attention away from making moves on your business.
If family members are home with you, excess chatting and side tangents add an additional layer of distraction. It’s important to distinguish when it’s time to work and when it’s time to relax. This is difficult when you are working in a comfortable place.
Co-working spaces can clear this blurred line and offer the perfect solution for keeping your home life separate from your personal life. When you come to sit at your desk, head into an office meeting, or use a shared space, you know it’s time to be productive. There’s no laundry around you or kids to distract you; instead, you have the chance to be fully in the zone and make progress moving forward.
A professional environment
A huge reason why business owners consider a co-working space is because they want to house their business in a professional environment. While cafes may work for meetings at the start, once you’ve grown, having an official office to host client meetings and conduct candidate interviews is much more professional.
If you begin to hire more staff, it also gives them a location to report to and work out of. The address of the coworking space can be shared on your website, social media, and business card, giving your business more credibility.
What’s excellent about coworking spaces is that they offer flexible leases. Pick your ideal membership, submit an interest form, and chat with the coworking representative about your preferred duration. They tend to be on a month-to-month or 6-month basis, so it’s much easier to hop around, giving your business breathing room rather than locking down a restrictive 3 or 5-year traditional office lease.
When should I make the move?
Now, that answer is up to you. If you read through the reasons above and realise you’ve outgrown your current home office, it may be the perfect time to create a separate space for your business endeavours.
Increase productivity and grow your community
Based within the vibrant community of Box Hill, Work East features a diverse range of flexible workspaces designed to help your business thrive. With flex desks, dedicated desks, and private offices, we have a variety of memberships that suit every kind of business—no matter the size. Connect with us to enjoy community, service, and support. We’re here to help you achieve your goals.