You are a freelancer, have a virtual mailing address and work from home. You are happy that you can avoid huge expenses involved in getting an office for rent and maintaining it. But you would be surprised to know that you are missing out on not just many more clients but also from a reduced efficiency and productivity. There are far too many distractions at home lowering your productivity. These are the reasons why more and more individuals are moving towards the concept of renting shared office space these days. Let us understand why it is a much better option for those who work from home.
You get to communicate directly with other creative people
In a shared or executive office space, you get a chance to interact with different types of people not directly related to your own profession. Communicating directly on a face to face basis has been proved to be a much better way of communication than chatting, emailing, or talking via Skype.
You get a chance to develop team spirit
When you go to your desk in a shared office, you get in touch with different people and develop relationships with them. Working remotely in your home keeps you devoid of this human interaction that is considered necessary for your own development as a human being. You not only learn new skills but also find an increase in your efficiency and productivity when you find human beings surrounding you in a shared office. You solve problems of others and they also help you with their fresh perspective in solving your problems. This helps in developing camaraderie among the people sharing the office space.
You can evaluate the productivity of your employees
If you run a business with the help of several employees working from home, you are never sure whether they are working when they tell you they are at work. But in a shared office environment, you can clock your employees to find out their productivity in undertaking a given task. They can charge you per hour when working remotely but you know their actual output when you see them working in real world situation.
Loss of data is a possibility
When all your employees are working from home, you never know what kind of security measures they have adopted in their computer systems. Your business can suffer a lot if data is lost or gets corrupt in the laptop of any one of your employees working at home. Such a loss can be dealt with in a more effective manner in a shared office space.
Resources
Shared or temporary offices typically allow you to have access to a greater number of resources. For example, a shared space might have a training room that can fit dozens of employees or clients to discuss your product or service. The shared space might, also, provide video teleconferencing room rentals for a fraction of the cost, were you to purchase one yourself. Most shared space provides coffee, WIFI, projectors, TVs and other tech equipment, eliminating the need to buy your own.
Conclusion
It sounds contradictory, but being around others might actually increase your daily output. Shared office space does not carry the high cost or commitment of a traditional office space and it provides much greater flexibility. Shared office space can be consumed and purchased by the hour, day, month or year, depending on your needs. It also typically allows greater access to office resources, without the upfront cost outlay. While shared office space is not the answer for all businesses, it can be a great solution for those working from home, but need to increase productivity for themselves and their employees.
