What's the skinny on coworking?
When you run your own business, one of the classic benefits I hear about time and time again is freedom from the traditional office. We can go take calls in our bunny slippers and sip tea on the sofa while answering email. But if you’re anything like me, you can only look at the cat so long on any given day and you find ways to get out of the house to keep your sanity.
We asked for this – freedom from the office. But sometimes we get stir-crazy. What’s the solution? Coworking!
I recently heard about coworking via one of the many blogs I read. Here’s the jist: you pay a daily or a monthly use fee and prop-up at a desk whenever you’d like! Along with the desk in many locations are various amenities like wi-fi, quiet rooms, a conference room available for client meetings, a kitchen and more. But do you want to know what I think the best part of coworking is? The community. It’s community on-demand.
On days where the cat isn’t cutting it, coworking is the ideal solution for camaraderie, and exchange of ideas in a non-digital fashion and a great environment in which to get done what it is you need to do.
You can find local coworking spaces in your area (and granted, some areas might not be hip to it just yet, so be patient!) by doing a web search for “coworking (your town).”
Here are just a few that you can look at across the country as a primer on the entre cooworking concept:
Cohere Community (Ft. Collins, CO)
Blankspaces (Loas Angeles, CA)
Independents Hall (Philadelphia, PA)
If you have a local coworking fave, share it with our audience here. The more resources we share, the more we all can be as successful as possible as entrepreneurs.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for a great article. There are coworking facilities all around the world – including Camaraderie here in Toronto! You can also find a list at http://coworking.pbworks.com.
There’s tons of Coworking spaces in the US now and yes, Coworking is an amazing way to feel productive while working amongst other driven and productive people.
The Coworking wiki here is a huge resource: http://wiki.coworking.info/
Here’s a Google Map that lists a ton of Coworking spaces: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106781626613503194308.00043ae28812f6044bed3
And if you’re in NJ – Converge Coworking is too: http://www.convergenj.com (couldn’t not plug our space!)
I work at a great co-working site. I am a lawyer among sales reps, SEOs, social media businesses, IT workers, a real estate appraiser, and even a theater group! It definitely brings out the best in all of us and keeps me n the cutting edge of technogy and marketing. It is caled Qwirk, located in German Village in Columbus, OH. Check it out: http://www.qwirkcolumbus.com/