Coworking is an excellent way for independent professionals to get motivated and increase productivity. Done the right way, it combines the advantages of an office (a sense of community, collaboration, interesting conversations, dedicated work area) and home-based work (freedom and independence). No wonder that coworking spaces can be found in thousands of cities around the world, and more are constantly opening.

What does coworking mean? 

Coworking (or co-working) is a good alternative to working at home or leasing long term space too early. Social-hungry solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, home-based and nomadic workers rent space in buildings to create a community of people who have different jobs but who want to share ideas and collaborate on projects. 

Coworking has become tremendously popular over the last few years. It involves dozens of places around the country and increasingly around the world. You can find coworking websites from Argentina to Australia and many places in between.

A shared office space is not a new idea. In some ways coworkers, armed with cell phones and wireless laptops, enjoy a new interpretation of the age-old practice of artists to team up to rent a studio. 

However, internet-age freelancers come together to share more than just a space. The basic idea of coworking is social interaction. You can communicate with writers, designers or web developers to create new projects that require their talents and skills. 

A coworking space is typically rather large and flexible. It may include an open working area with wireless Internet, a conference room or private meeting area and a common area where people can relax and talk.  

Coworkers pay fees on a sliding scale to use the space, depending on how they use it. The fees can include hourly or daily rates, monthly rental of premium space, or one-time rental of a conference room for meetings and events. In some cases, people may use the common area for free. 

Why do solo entrepreneurs need shared space?

Working at home has a plenty of benefits. You can be your own boss, set your own work schedule, spend more time with your family, avoid commuting to and from work, or simply wear your pajamas as a uniform. Why do people need coworking facilities?

First of all, a lot of entrepreneurs have a hard time concentrating on their work away from the corporate or office environment. If your home has always been a place for you to relax, it can be very difficult to change that outlook even if you really want to. 

Moreover, you may face much more distractions than people who work in the office! For example, your spouse and children may demand attention or your neighbors can drop by. There is no clear separation between your work and personal life. Missing the work atmosphere will significantly reduce your productivity. 

The next reason is relative isolation. Typically, work-at-home professionals or freelancers lack social interaction. It often limits creativity and becomes stifling. Keep in mind that even people who are antisocial feel a need to be around other people for at least some part of the day while they are working. 

Previously, trying to solve these problems, nomadic entrepreneurs would go to local coffee shops and cafes. However, while it helps to avoid physical problem of isolation, you still can’t interact and collaborate with like-minded independents. 

Organized coworking spaces have become a good solution for internet-age freelancers who don't want to use Starbucks as their office. These spaces, while serving a certain target audience, are optimal for solo entrepreneurs interested in dedicated work area and social interaction.

Coworking fills the gap between working at home and an expensive office. You can avoid services that you don’t need but have to pay for regardless of your desire to use them, for example a central phone system with a secretary to answer your calls. 

The coworking atmosphere allows like-minded independents to interact easier and more freely with one another. There is an expectation that you will collaborate where possible whilst respecting other participants’ right to get their own work done.

For example, if you need some new ideas you can ask the other coworkers to brainstorm. If you notice that someone is struggling with a problem that you can solve, you can offer advice. It develops a sense of community among participants. 

What can you get?

New coworking spaces are constantly popping up in cities all over the world. What benefits can they offer? 

•    Person to person community and conversation. You can avoid social isolation and meet other interesting people who have different life experiences and different ideas. Having an opportunity to interact with other people on a daily basis makes your life more balanced.
•    Affordable real estate and facilities. The shared costs make office space less expensive. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to have a conference room where you can meet your clients. 
•    Network. Enjoy the opportunity to make a lot of new business contacts. Your coworkers can become virtual project team members when you need them.
•    Creativity. When you work at home, in the same environment every day, it is hard to find inspiration. Seeing different people, places, and things will stimulate your brain to think in new ways. 
•    Quality. A coworking space encourages collaboration between participants. In turn, it boosts the quality of your work.
•    Effectiveness. Separating work and life is good for your work. Productivity often increases in office environment. In addition, you will work better when other people around you are working (even if the tasks are unrelated to what you are doing). 

Of course, there are also some annoyances. The downside of coworking is that it can get noisy because shared offices are usually constructed as an open working space. If you need to take sensitive phone calls, it may sound that you are hanging out at Starbucks. 

Another problem is security. With some coworking spaces, you may have people that come from time to time, so you may not know them. Some individual are not honest, so leaving things out in the open overnight could expose you to theft. 

Sharing a space with a lot of people might cause friction between some of them. Although it is supposed that the participants are open and helpful, the reality bites. In addition, meeting the same people every day can generate the office gossip that being independent was supposed to save you from.

Taking all pros and cons into consideration, an increasing number of freelancers and solo entrepreneurs believe that the community-building and networking benefits outweigh. Over the last few years thousands of like-minded individuals have decided to share working spaces in their respective cities.