Generally, any small business could work out of any of the hundreds of Co-Working Open Space facilities popping up around most metropolitan cities. However, there comes a time when every business’ workers…including the executives…will need their own private space to get their work done.
SyncLab Media has been working since 2013 to help Co-Working centers synchronize their business objectives to their digital marketing strategies. We have seen and dealt with all of the challenges Open Space type office environment are inherent to having. Everything from the intrusiveness of an impromptu pep rally in the open workspace by a business not related to any of the other business in the facility…to the businesses holding their staff meeting in the hallway outside another business.
Today, many small businesses could online or operate in a digital capacity only, but that’s not the direction most companies are headed.
We saw the office space needs swing toward remote work of the first half of the decade to now boomerang back toward businesses see the need for in-person collaboration. Business leaders are realizing the irreplicable value of face-to-face collaboration and the resulting boost to their business’s success.
Co-working facilities are, indeed a business. They are not the silver bullet many businesses are looking for to achieving intense innovation, fostering networking, or supporting progressive thinking. That is where a strong office culture and a well-designed workplace lead supreme.
The most difficult issue Co-Working Office Space facilities have to deal with is accommodating businesses who like to use their open space environments but have no place to go when it comes time to get quiet and get the work done….or to have Private conversations. The solutions these facilities have to offer is to lease them an addition Private Suite..if not two. This makes officing in a Co-Working facility very expensive.
Other solutions are to use the facility’s conference rooms as a temporary executive suite. However, booking a conference room to use for a day office is not a permanent solution.
The Co-Working Space movement gained popularity in part due to buzz around startups like WeWork, Industrious, and Convene to name a few.
Though seen as the hip, new trends in corporate real estate, fundamentally these spaces miss the needs every business has for personal design and their corporate identity. They instead offer generic environments that sell the brands of shared workplace startups instead of a company’s unique character and personality.
By choosing these cookie cutter co-working space environments, companies lose out on their opportunities to reinforce their own brand, mission, and culture.
In the short-term, co-working spaces may be a stopgap to meet temporary real estate pain points, but they come to most companies at a great cost.
Fundamentally, Co-working and Open Office space facilities are ultimately not set up to accommodate a business’ need for quiet space. As a result, many businesses are having to move out of these Co-Working Centers or avoid them altogether.
As the need for private office space occurs to more and more business the structure of hundreds of Co-Working facilities will become worthless. This will force Co-Working centers to focus on marketing to only solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and very, very small businesses. Unfortunately, the number of solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and small businesses are dwindling due to these one-person businesses finding they need to partner with someone else to make their business profitable. This places these types of growing business in need of private offices more than Co-Working space.
All of this leaves the Co-Working space ownership with a need to make a change and offer businesses private office space that has both Open and private suites and within the Co-Working Facility. The first Co-Working Space that offers to knock down a wall or two to create private space in their Co-Working space will be the first to gain all of these growing businesses need. Who will this be??
Let Me know how I can help.
