There were periods in my former freelancing life were I worked from home. While many of you might extol the awesomeness of the “Bathrobe Commute” it quite frankly drove me crazy. I need humans. Humans to talk with and collaborate. Humans to bounce ideas off of for inspiration. Humans to discuss the latest movie or last weekend’s football game. I found that at home I had the refrigerator, my DVR and my Xbox staring at me desperately wanting my love and attention. Something had to be done so I started looking for an office and during my initial search early in this decade I was faced with two options – expensive shared “Executive Suites” or sub-lease an entire floor for just me. Neither really fit the bill so I was relegated to working in my home or at client sites for many years. I briefly did make the transition to coffee shops but for those of us who have tried this, the aroma of cappuccino and warm baked goods are great but the constant grind of the espresso machine and loud “cafe music” makes it hard to have a private meeting or a professional conversation with a client on your cell phone.
However, over the last few years my wishes have been answered with coworking. This innovative approach is where functional open shared spaces bring together fellow freelancers, entrepreneurs and home-based workers of all types looking for a better place to work and thrive
A Strong Movement to Build Coworking Spaces
Over the last few years Wikis and Google Groups have been setup to gather like-minded individuals and those opening coworking spaces in their respective city. It is important to note that this is not just here in the United States, it is in fact a global movement with coworking spaces and initiatives popping up in cities all over the world. Coworking spaces are built around the idea of community-building and sustainability. Coworking spaces center around three core tenets – Community, Collaboration and Commerce.
Coworking is Community
For the last two decades there have been many shared office spaces that were executive suites in very plain office towers. These suites gave you a central phone system with a live person to answer your phone. They are small one to two person offices you could close and lock up. Many startups or small branch offices used these as an alternative to working in the home or leasing long term space too early. This was before the era of coffee shops, wifi and collaborative work spaces. These spaces, while serving a certain clientel, are not really optimal for the freelancer or office nomad that looks for interaction and the potential for collaboration with fellow independent workers.
When I started looking for coworking spaces I was already familiar with those who started them in other cities. As a model of what I wanted in a coworking space I looked to IndyHall out of Philadelphia. Alex Hillman is the co-founder of IndyHall and is a pioneer in the space starting the first coworking space on the east coast. I met him for the first time at Podcamp Philly in 2006. He saw the coworking movement not only as a new way to work but a new way to work together. Heck, the IndyHall web site has the motto “Coworking is more than just space.” Couldn’t have said it any more clearer and that was the motivator for the title of this post.
What has also started to occur is that coworking spaces are not only for the community of those who are there during the day but have become cultural hubs for events in their area. From local art events, to hack-a-thons to an Ignite! event, coworking spaces are truly living and breathing what community is all about.
Coworking is Collaboration
When I first started searching a few years for a coworking space in the metro DC area, there was only one in Washington, DC which at the time was too far away to be a practical choice. But about two years ago an old friend, Dave Troy, who was an experienced entrepreneur and had recently sold his business was passionate about building a stronger entrepreneurial community in the Baltimore area. He decided to launch Beehive Baltimore at the Entrepreneur Technology Center (ETC) in the Canton area of Baltimore City. It was an area known for having many tech companies during the dotcom boom and there was a strong and youthful community of entrepreneurs in need of a space to work.
One of the things you will notice in almost all coworking spaces like the Beehive and IndyHall is the openness of the physical space. While there are places that do have some private offices for higher end renters that need locked spaces, the rest is open for collaboration between people. From small breakout rooms with white boards to long tables with 10 people and their laptops it is a place were you can find someone to bounce an idea off of (if they have the time to spare of course) or answer a technical question that you might be stuck on.
Coworking is Commerce
Many of the older office suite models kept people in their own “closet condos” as I call them and created a very isolated environment. In that kind of space no one ever talked to each other let alone engage each other to work on their respective client projects. This again is where coworking is a movement that not only brings people together it gets them to refer business to one another or include them on a project. It is one extremely powerful trend I have noticed in the last few years of the co-working movement and is a catalyst for freelancers and entrepreneurs to go after larger projects, or hire people whose work quality is known and trusted, all the while working in the same space.
“Coworking Around the World” Reviews and Interviews
Over the coming months me and many of my colleagues here will be going to co-working spaces to live and work in their environments. We want you to join in our “Co-working Around the World” coverage so please let us know about a co-working space in your area and we will reach out. We look forward to showing fellow small business owners that coworking is more than just a rented desk but a place to build a business.