Coworking, Coffee Shops and Entrepreneurs

by Anita Campbell

December 30, 2008 at 2:31 am · Filed under Collaboration, Communities, Web Commuting

There’s a strong connection between entrepreneurs and coffee shops. Entrepreneurs — tired of working in isolation — so frequently head to the local coffee shop that it’s become a cliche.

In a coffee shop with other entrepreneurs amid the hustle and bustle of activity, at least they feel connected to the rest of society. For some, it energizes them to have human interaction around them.

Drea at BusinessPundit.com suggests that coworking spaces may displace coffee shops as the workplace of choice for entrepreneurs who are tired of working at home alone, but equally tired of the limitations of the local coffee shop. In Coworking vs. the Coffee Shop: Who Wins? she writes:

Coworking, on the other hand, allows you a range of cafe-like benefits, without the cafe:

-You pay a flat membership fee instead of a daily fee.
-Everyone has a laptop!
-You get the chance to collaborate with your peers.
-The seats are probably more comfortable.
-Cell phone use is more acceptable–it is a workspace.
-The hip factor may not be a factor, although I am not sure about this point.

I think co-working can be a helpful arrangement for some people who work best in an environment with the stimulation of other people around. On the other hand, it might quickly become a negative experience — and distracting.

Here, for instance, is an image of a coworking space from CoworkUtah.

CoworkUtah features a particularly social flavor of coworking — they call it a “social media community workspace.”

To many people this would be an inviting scene. It’s a warm, relaxed, welcoming work arrangement with other humans around. It feels like you could occasionally bounce a question off of someone, or kick around that new idea you have.

But here are the downsides — people who:

talk loudly on their cell phones right next to you, while you are trying to concentrate
want to endlessly chit chat with the neighbors around them
hog up the best chairs and table space, every single day

You catch my drift — there are a dozen ways others can annoy you in a communal shared space. To some degree it depends on how the coworking space is set up and how closely together you are all crammed in.

I can see how coworking might be energizing and attractive to some, especially extroverted types who crave social interaction and feed on the energy of other people around them. Probably a good target market for coworking spaces are entrepreneurs who would otherwise go to a coffee shop, but are looking for an experience superior to the coffee shop experience.

For those like me who cherish quiet concentration, an absence of distractions, and complete control over our physical setting, it is probably not our cup of tea. But, then, I never much liked working in coffee shops, either.

For more about coworking, including resources, read my earlier piece: Coworking Spaces: Cheap and Sociable.

Share:

Permalink

6 Comments »

Coworking in a space like that holds no appeal to me at all. I can see how one person, in this tight space, could hinder everyone from getting their own things done. The appeal of coffee shops to me is that you get to be around people and out of the house but everyone for the most part leaves you alone. I get tired of working alone sometimes but that doesn’t mean I want someone talking my ear off either.

Very interesting topic. I had a physical meeting place in Gothenburg, Sweden, called Blue Chip Café & Business Center. It was like a combination of a coworking office space together with a coffee house with WLAN and personal computers hooked up to the Internet. I am very interested in discussing this matter with entrepreneurs, potential business partners, investors, facility owners, e.g. regular coffee houses and and tea lounges that want to add a business network dimension.

My main inspiration is the historical coffee-houses and the concept called The Third Place. For more on this, please read my post, The Third Place: http://www.bluechipcafe.se/blogg/?p=19

Telecottages or Telecentres have existed for some time in Europe, although they never met with much success except in UK and Nordic countries - especially Sweden. The idea was to share expensive resources - in those days high speed internet access, colour printers, etc. There was the added benefit of sharing expertise, with enough shared knowledge to fix the more common computing and networking problems, help with design, dtp, marketing etc.
The shared expertise would be the only justification with the relatively low cost of technology today, although some home environments are often not best suited to work.
I think the pure social side is better served in the café, coffee shop, tea room, bar, pub or where ever.

Interesting comment. Are you located in Belgium? It would be interesting to discuss the telecentres a bit more.

Coworking in a space like that holds no appeal to me at all. I can see how one person, in this tight space, could hinder everyone from getting their own things done — I agree with you on this point Amanda. I couldn’t just imagine how much noise would I experience if I am in to that place. But I love the idea of being social but still not convince to use co-working spaces.

And in addition, there are lot of ways to become social. There are a lot of social events we can attend to. So why have spaces like this when the benefit you can only get is being social? What do you think?

Your comment

HTML-Tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>