Pajama Entrepreneur

Years after the publication of Dan Pink’s Free Agent Nation, we are finally seeing better arrangements for people who don’t necessarily want to work out of their home all the time, but who can’t afford to rent a full office for themselves.

Co-working is a fancy term for sharing an office with several people who work for themselves. Typically these people are web designers, consultants, advisors, etc. According to this article in the International Herald Tribune, many co-working spaces are popping up around the world to serve the needs of this growing class of independent worker. The example given in the piece is the Hat Factory in San Francisco. You rent desk space and share an office (including printers, fax machines, full kitchen, Wi-Fi) with other people for the recession-friendly price of $200.

Advantages:

• low cost: office space rentals for $200 and up
• social: dispels the loneliness and isolation of working alone at home all the time
• concentration and productivity: if you have small children at home, having an office allows you get work done
• meeting space: gives you a place for meetings with clients

In Amsterdam, there have been a lot of co-working spaces opening up. Indeed, recently, Dutch designer Marcel Wanders announced that he and his business partners are turning the former Amsterdam Central Library into creative workspaces, a hotel, cafe and museum.

I like the flexibility of co-working and the low cost, of course, not to mention the social and networking aspects of being around people in your profession. Even though our homes are well equipped with broadband and we can work at home just as easily, I miss the camaraderie of the office environment.