An ever-growing number of businesses are turning to coworking solutions as an alternative to traditional office space. This is clear considering the growth in coworking has surged over the last decade.
There were just 160 spaces available worldwide in 2008, compared to nearly 19,000 spaces when the data was last recorded in 2018, according to ScienceDirect.
The following article explores why coworking is key to the success of any startup, and why you should consider coworking solutions from the outset.
What do coworking spaces offer?
Coworking spaces offer businesses a flexible, cost-efficient route to secure desk space in a modern, collaborative working environment. They are ideal for startups as the fair investment, flexible options available allow businesses to reduce the overheads required to have office space.
Startups can scale up or move location flexibly, giving more freedom to business owners, whilst allowing their teams to work in a vibrant, collaborative environment that motivates and empowers workforces to work at their best.
Why coworking spaces are ideal for startups
One of the biggest expenses on a startup’s balance sheet is office costs. For startups to scale, they need a comfortable, energized, well-equipped office for employees to thrive in.
Coworking spaces offer all of these things—and more—for a fraction of the cost, which is why businesses should look to coworking as an effective solution for workspace when starting.
We will discuss five key reasons why coworking spaces are essential to a startup’s success below.
1. Cost
With the growing necessities of modern office space environments, the cost to secure space can be out of reach for most startups.
A key factor for startups is the ability to keep office costs low when starting. Coworking allows you to do this while having a fully functional, collaborative workspace where everything is taken care of.
Flexible agreements are also a huge advantage for startups. As the business scales, you can adjust your requirements as and when needed. This ensures you’re only using what you need and there’s no surplus spend on furniture, maintenance, and expansion of space when growing.
2. Increasing business opportunities
When your business is new, networking is essential to growth. Shared office space allows you to put your startup around other startups, allowing you to build relationships that could lead to potential referrals, partnerships, and growth.
Coworking allows you to surround yourself with like-minded people where experiences, challenges, and solutions can be shared. Relationships can be established and reinforced as your teams sit within proximity to everyone in your company and others, from MDs to marketers.
3. Good office culture and community
Coworking spaces are vibrant environments, packed with passion, enthusiasm, and vision.
As a startup, you want to enable these values within your business, and shared office space allows you to plug your business into these environments quickly, energizing you and your teams to thrive.
You’ll want to foster a positive working culture amongst your teams and bringing people together face-to-face in a positive environment will allow that to happen.
Startups usually start with one or two employees, and this can sometimes lead to a feeling of isolation, especially when working from home. Coworking spaces help with this, offering a space for employees to work from and visit when you need them.
Coworking places you and your business in a vibrant, interactive environment that can improve the productivity, happiness, and effectiveness of your workforce with regular interactions, collaboration, and support throughout the typical working day.
4. Services and amenities are all taken care of
You want to portray the best image of your business, both to your workforce and your clients/customers. Ensuring your business is operating in a comfortable environment keeps the workforce focused while also impressing your prospects, clients, and customers.
Our coworking spaces provide your team with all the amenities needed, from well-furnished office space to clean, well-maintained kitchens and bathrooms. All whilst having a fully-staffed reception to manage phone calls and deliveries to give your business a professional first point of contact.
We also use key card systems to enable secure entry and exit from our coworking spaces. Amenities are something that you’ll want to understand before selecting the perfect coworking space that matches the requirements of your business to the amenities on offer.
5. Flexibility
The flexibility of a coworking solution allows you to modify your requirements as and when needed.
This is true whether you need your coworking space for a little longer than anticipated, want to customize a longer-term agreement, or prefer a pay as you go solution for when visiting a new city. Whatever option you go for, coworking spaces allow you to be flexible with your desk space.
With the flexibility to scale up and down in terms of size and number of locations, startups can avoid the pressure of needing to scale at a particular pace that may have been dictated by less flexible office solutions.
This grants peace of mind that your business is accommodated, without the pressure of carrying expensive office overheads within your business’s P&L.
At Regus, to become increasingly flexible, we provide all our users with the Regus app. Customers can book rooms within seconds and tap into our global workspace platform whenever they need it.
The app is easy to download, and office space can be booked worldwide at any time required. We provide access to well-designed workspaces with a support team to match.
Find the right coworking space for your startup
Coworking spaces are an excellent way to give your startup the office presence and space it needs for a fraction of the cost of more traditional solutions.
The flexibility offers businesses the opportunity to scale at a pace that suits them. That’s true, whether it’s in a single location or multiple locations across the globe. Startups have the freedom to hire talent flexibly and have a distributed workforce.
Whether you’re looking to switch from home working or have a growing workforce that requires a collaborative space whereby everyone can work together, coworking solves a lot of the traditional challenges that startups have faced in the past and more and more startups are turning to more flexible office space to grow their business.
At Regus, we have more than 1,200 locations across the United States. We take great pride in providing services that are built for flexibility and shaped to match the evolving requirements of businesses. As the world's largest coworking brand, we offer convenience, professionalism, and cost-effective solutions for our clients.
Both startups and large, listed organizations are making the switch to hybrid working spaces. This is because of the cost savings, flexibility, and enabled collaboration between teams that coworking provides.
Alongside this, our coworking spaces offer flexibility in pricing, based on contract length, location, and other business needs. This means you won't be paying more than you need to if you scale up or down.
We are trusted by some of the world's largest tech companies and banks, including Uber, Paypal, and Samsung.
Arrangements can be month-to-month for your convenience. Get in touch today to secure your place and join the movement. Work your way with Regus.