Coworking spaces are ubiquitous in the modern business landscape. With so many employees and teams operating remotely or semi-remotely, the need for professional meeting rooms and individual office spaces is at a premium. Here are five great benefits of coworking spaces for startups and other small businesses.
What are Coworking Spaces?
Some businesses rent out space in their buildings to entrepreneurs and other workers for their day-to-day operational needs. These communal workspaces are commonly known as "coworking spaces." Like a traditional office, a coworking space is designed for folks to do work, hold meetings, host events, and pursue networking opportunities. They differ from standard office buildings in in that rooms are typically reserved by the hour or on a first-come, first-served basis by a variety of different businesses, teams, and individuals. Because of this, the rental cost can be shared across all members or users, resulting in a significantly lower monthly cost for everyone.
5 Big Benefits of Coworking Spaces for Startups in 2024
Not all coworking spaces provide the same experience or features — we'll take a look at the most popular one in Columbus below — but here are five perks that you can expect from adopting the coworking office model.
Financial Savings
Renting or purchasing one's own office space is an expense that cuts deep into the budget of many small businesses. For that reason, the financial savings that come from spending so much less on a communal workspace is the primary benefit of a coworking space for most small business owners and startups.
Team Morale
Not all remote workers do their best work at home. For some, having a physical location that allows them to more tangibly separate work and life is important. Giving employees access to this kind of environment can have an impact on job satisfaction as well as overall performance.
Networking Opportunities
A wonderful, if sometimes incidental, advantage of coworking spaces are the folks you may bump into. Making new business connections (or friends for that matter) can be difficult when you work 9-5 in a cubicle. That Midwestern giants, COhatch, strategize to generate what they call "positive collision" in their coworking spaces (more on that below).
Professional Appearance
Securing a physical business address and access to conference rooms for client and colleague meetings is of high importance in many industries. A well-designed coworking space will meet all of the professional standards, without all the fluff of traditional office buildings. In fact, you're likely to get more bang for your buck when it comes to the furniture, equipment, refreshments, and cleanliness. That's because, in many ways, a coworking space's entire business model is to impress professionals.
Contemporary Tone
There's something about a scrappy startup adopting modern workplace trends that just fits. By their very nature, many entrepreneurs already live on the cutting edge. If responding to the times goes hand-in-hand with dreaming up a business, then coworking spaces may be the hub of inspiration that clicks for many small teams.
COhatch: A Case Study in the Benefits of Coworking Spaces
COhatch, a Columbus-based network of workspaces, has been approaching the world of coworking a bit differently. To Co-Founder, Matt Davis, it's all about asking one question: "What binds us together?"
I met Matt at one of COhatch's locations in Polaris. His answer to the question of what binds us together as people? Well, it wasn't what one might expect of a businessman.
Matt's opinion is that what binds us together as people is not what we do for work. COhatch has been proving this point too, finding success by encouraging human connection and paying homage to the communities in which the business breaks ground. SO far, COhatch is in nine different cities. including Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis. "They all have a different soul," says Matt. "It's layers of details that you don't usually see other places."
When you walk into a COhatch location, you do get a sense of the local culture. "We like to accentuate the community that we're in, but we don't want to be cheesy about it.... It's hard to explain how you do that, but that's kind of what we're good at." This ability to tap into the essence of each locale has made COhatch that much more effective at something Matt refers to as, "engineering collision."
In fact, my own meeting with Matt was an "engineered collision" of sorts. I shot him an email with a few questions for the blog. He responded by saying he'd love to give me his thoughts, but would I be willing to meet up in person?
The culture of COhatch is one where connecting with people on a human level is the first step. If it leads to business from there, great! We truly care about people," says Matt. "It's just not me selling you something on LinkedIn."
"All of COhatch is based off of living kind of your ideal life; your balanced life... supporting you, your family... spending time with your friends, taking care of your health, and getting the most out of work." By facilitating authentic, human interaction, Matt avoids creating the stuffy, sterile environments he remembers from his time as a high-level executive. "I don't want two coffee pots. I want one. I want people to have to go move."
With innovative coworking spaces pushing the mold all over the country, it will be exciting to witness what's next in this space over the next year and the next decade.
Ready to Give Communal Workspaces a Shot?
The benefits of coworking spaces are certainly worth consideration for startups, entrepreneurs, and other small businesses. From networking opportunities and new business connections to boosting team morale and promoting a more enjoyable work-life balance, coworking spaces have proven they are more than just a way to save money. In many cases, these communal workspaces continue to open doors to success within individuals, teams and communities alike.
