Coworking is simply an arrangement where employees of different organizations or freelancers, share office space, infrastructure, utilities, or other resources between themselves. The arrangement may be licensed and supervised by a company managing coworking spaces professionally or simply a shared arrangement between the participating businesses themselves. The main USP of coworking as contrasted by traditional office space is that it is comparatively very affordable and provides a host of other administrative facilities and utilities required for the daily running of an office.
In 2017, there were about 2600 co-working spaces worldwide. That number is projected to almost double to more than 49,500 by 2022. The concept of co-working as a convenient and affordable solution is clearly gaining traction rapidly within the small business and startup community. The demand has been forecasted to increase exponentially in the near future as office space becomes more and more expensive in urban metropolitan areas, especially the iconic cosmopolitan cities and startup hubs around the world.
India is set to become a major demand generator in the coworking space with a surge in startups, huge demographic and rapid urbanization. From an annual growth rate of just 4% in 2017, the graph has seen a continuous upward curve to more than 10% annual growth currently.
It is clear that the modern workforce is wholeheartedly adopting coworking spaces as their preferred working arrangements. To understand why coworking has had such a revolutionizing effect on the modern workspace, let us take a look at some of the key solutions that it offers compared to the drawbacks of traditional office setting.
Office space is one of the largest spends that you will ever have to make for your business. The rising cost of infrastructure and office spaces is an overwhelming hurdle for especially small businesses and startups who scramble to find ad-hoc locations to congregate and work. Coworking offers major savings of over 25% by utilizing shared resources. This is perfect for a moneywise and fund cautious business in the early stages. But not only SMEs and freelancers, even large companies are seriously harnessing coworking as an inexpensive solution for their expansion needs. Corporates can now save about 15-25% on their operational expenses when they switch to a coworking space. It is predicted that by the end of 2019, 40% of the worldwide demand for coworking will come from large corporates.
Office location is a very important consideration for the success of your business. Being situated in a commercial hub can generate new business for you by making you easily accessible to potential clients and lends your business visibility and credibility. It is thus vitally important for your business to strategically switch locations accordingly to take advantage of the changing landscape.
However, in traditional office spaces, either you end up buying or mortgaging the property, or enter into a long-term lease with the owner which prevents you from moving to another location even if your business demands it. Coworking, on the other hand, offers a yearly or even monthly contract. Simply check-in and check out as required. Help your business become more agile.
Just like a house is made into a home by the addition of furniture and utilities, it is the same deal with offices. After you purchase or lease out your office building, you have to purchase cubicles, tables, and chairs, etc., set up electricity and telephone lines, air-conditioning, wifi and IT infrastructure, buy office sized industrial copiers and printers, hire office boys to provide tea and a lot many other things. Not only is this expensive, but it is also a tremendous headache and source of anxiety for new businesses. They are sometimes forced to hire professional logistics firms to help them out. And you bet that they don’t come cheap!
A professionally managed coworking solution, on the other hand, takes care of all these things for you. There are already ready to work office spaces set up, fully equipped telephone and internet facilities, printers, ergonomic tables and chairs, storage units, business lounge area, conference rooms, 24/7 CCTV surveillance, etc. Everything that a modern office needs. You can have complete peace of mind to do the only thing that you need to be doing – managing and growing your business.
Networking is absolutely crucial for the success of your business. Not only does it help you get new business opportunities and client leads, but it also equips you with exposure to identify key business insights and industry benchmarks in your area of operation. Also you get to learn from other people’s best practices. The old saying “it’s not what you know, but rather who is known”, is not merely an empty platitude. It’s an absolutely true fact of life and business.
A traditional office space, however, cannot provide an effective networking environment because you are surrounded by only people from the same organization. You are inside the box. Contrast this with coworking, people from different organizations involved in a host of different industries work together inside the same office, sharing office space amenities, and wouldn’t you know it – ideas.
Around 82% of people in a 2018-19 survey reported that setting up an office in a coworking environment has given them the opportunity to interact with other professionals outside their organization in the shared space, and this has resulted in the expansion of their professional network. 64% said that it was an important source of business referrals. 83% of people reported decreased levels of isolation and loneliness, and 79% reported an increase in their social circle.
India has one of the youngest workforce demographics in the world. More than half of the population is younger than 30 and one-fourth is about 45 years of age. And the results are in – the majority of millennials and younger employees like the idea of open offices.
New Age coworking solutions have revolutionized the industry by providing an open workspace landscape that encourages employees to sit in an open view with each other and foster a collaborative environment. Special care is taken to include recreational spaces such as gyms, games room, meditation rooms, and open cafeterias and kitchen to make the workspace into a relaxed environment that can boost employee morale and productivity.
So, did we convince you to take another look at coworking? If you are looking for a state of the art co-working solution in Bangalore – the Silicon Valley of India, we at GoodWorks have just the right option for you.
We are one of the largest coworking infrastructure company in Bangalore with more than 6000 seats at 7 centers and counting. We have also been awarded as the 2019 – No. 1 coworking space in Bangalore by popular vote. Located at prime commercial hubs in Bangalore like Whitefield, Indiranagar, Electronic City, Millers Road, Manyata Tech Park and Varthur-Whitefield. Our solutions include private and shared offices, meeting rooms, business centers, and even virtual offices. We are extremely proud to count industry behemoths like BWM, Decathlon, South Indian Bank, Senvion and others among our clients.
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