New business idea - What do you think?

[Statsanddata]

I'm thinking of setting up a new business.

If you are a remote worker or a freelancer...or basically anyone who works from home, would you work in a coworking space?

Whether it was every day, once week or a few times a month, or even sporadically, would it be something you would consider?

I'm thinking of somewhere with free tea and coffee, good internet, proper desks, good location, meeting rooms etc.

I've done some research and I think I can see more pros than cons, but wanted to ask people directly what they think about it.

Is there anything specific that would attract you to working in one or anything that would put you off?

Aren't these 'rent a desk' places already?
I think you have to factor in the rent in the discerning, all the internet tech required, the furniture, toilets, mini kitchen. The inspections for the above, cleaners, insurance. Maybe a meeting room for privacy? A chill out room? And as mentioned upthread if people need to talk on the phone etc how does this work?
There will be times when there's not full occupancy- in fact full probably isn't desirable for those working there. But you'd still need to pay gif the rent/utilities/internet etc.
I think it will cost considerably to set up, but could work. I have a home office but I could see how people might want like to work where there are other people even if they had space at home (after all isn't that why people work in cafés)?

This is a thing already.

A pub near me does this for £10 per day with free tea and coffee. If I lived within walking distance I would, but I wouldn't get in the car to go there. It's on the outskirts of a major town, in a village, so I suspect they just get a few locals going in, which is nice if you live there. I wouldn't cope without a proper office chair.

I'm sure I saw David Lloyd had set up office work space. I think the only way I would pay a lot is if it were joined up with leisure and hospitality facilities and I could make a whole day of it.

Awesome! Don’t suppose you’re setting up in Manchester, are you?

Sadly not!
Though if this one goes well who knows!

Isn't that pretty much what WeWork offer?

Yes they are. That is correct.

It's going to completely depend on your area, dont think you will get any helpful answers here. If its somewhere where lots of city commuters live then maybe, but it's definitely not a good model everywhere.

Nothing about this appeals to me, if I'm going to leave the house I might as well go to the office, or library or coffee shop if I really need a change of scene. Two of these spaces have failed in our local town in the last couple of years. We also got surveyed by the local council who obviously thought it was a great idea to make some money from empty units, but the results showed about 2% of people would actually consider using them. And that was regardless of the facilities provided, people just weren't interested.

It is, but WeWork aren't in every town and city across the country.

There is one near me that works really well and DH uses it. We are in a rural market town in Northumberland so there are lots of people that WFH and then travel to their city head office once a fortnight/ once a month. I guess there needs to be lots of people who WFH who are in need of company to make it viable.

I would research location and the size of your market very carefully. I live semi-rurally and tried a couple of these places because I wanted to see people, get a fresh perspective - creative work, so going to a new place can give you new ideas etc - but every time I went to one I was the only person there, so I stopped going and just go to Costa/Starbucks instead, which fills my isolation gaps.

My local pub did similar during covid and that was popular, £10 for a table including unlimited coffee/tea and lunch, but as soon as things went back to normal the alternative venues didn’t seem to have the same demand - probably because they’re quite expensive in comparison.

Fair enough, well I've just walked past WeWork in Central Birmingham and its busy...so, I would say yes.

We have several in our town I use one for meetings. My friend runs one, it has offices and co-working space. The premises were over £1m to buy and almost the same to equip. Her utility bill is £40k a month so they are quite spendy. She also leases 30 car parking spaces and charges 15£ pppd for casual use. We also have a freedom works and a basepoint as well. So many people work in Waitrose cafe as well so I don't know how you would price it to attract those types.

Printing idea is an 'email to print' setup. The printer we have found supports this so, in theory, it should work. That said, printers are evil so will need to consider backup options.

Love the idea of a quiet zone. Headsets for video calls would be mandatory, we'll have some onsite to rent if people forget along with other things such as chargers, monitors, keyboards etc.

Our idea is to offer both single day passes and monthly memberships similar to a gym. Perhaps also a tier that includes business support if we could set that up.

I'm also hoping to setup some relationships with nearby independent venues such as restaurants for cross promotions etc.

Personally I wouldn’t do this but I can see the market. For me, free tea and coffee and just a change of scene would be the biggest draw. However, for me and many others one of the reasons I like to work from home is to avoid the commute, so maybe think about location, could you set up in a surburban residential area rather than city centres where all the other co working spaces seem to be. Maybe near schools or something. Or near nurseries. I also think that with the trend in homeworking we could do with more coffee shops in residential areas, I always think Starbucks and Costa have maybe missed a trick there!

There’s 3 in my local area I can think of off the top of my head. So there is presumably demand. Good luck!

I live in a commuter town just outside London. If one was in my town I would say that parking would be very important.

Are you buying the building? If not then the owners may not allow dogs.

How would you assure people that you couldn't access the documents with an email to print system? My work would be twitchy about the IG risks, so will be worth having good documentation showing why it's okay.

Unfortunately I don't think headsets change the way that video calling is very intrusive. They help a bit but people physically speak differently on calls. Not sure what the answer is to that though, but I do think a quiet zone would help.

The other thing I personally like (though may not be of interest to many people) is bike parking. Even just a couple of the hoops in the ground (ideally with a nice prominent CCTV camera?) makes a big difference from a convenience perspective.

I've done something similar to this previously and really struggled to find somewhere I could also have a monitor, was happy to buy my own and have it at a specific desk. I'm not going to squint at my laptop screen for 8 hrs despite how much coffee you ply me with. Plus I networking with graduates while playing ping pong wasn't what I was after.

Ive used coworking for 20 years. See impact hub and platform
9 in brighton for inspo.

There are loads of those around me- Surrey.

Oh yes definitely need big screens! That's my major reason for going to one instead of a coffee shop lol. Should've mentioned that before. Also keyboards and mice tho cos it's a pain taking mine with me