A decade ago, co-working spaces were a totally fresh concept as it provides freelancers and entrepreneurs shared desks and spaces for "mom and pop" shops or those shops that are small, independent and family-owned. Today, the mom and pop spaces have been replaced with chain companies that provide real developers a new way of leasing office space.
With the boom of the tech start up and the increased mobility that it has granted its workers, co-working spaces made a big take off and has, since then, attracted home based workers out of their pajamas and spared the coffee shop-based freelancers from the obligation of buying a cup of coffee in exchange of having an all - day workstation in that shop.
Gretchen Spreitzer, a business professor from the University of Michigan, made a study for years on how people thrive at work, focusing on co-working spaces in recent years."They'r e people that want more stimulation than sitting at home and being very productive working in your pajamas all day," she said. .
Companies like Grind, NextSpace, Pipeline and WeWork have opened 40,000 co-working spaces in most of the US cities. They can be rented either for long or short term. They can be found in the business districts of major cities and were designed to look and feel cool and modern. These co-working spaces offer amenities such as high-speed Internet, conference rooms, phone booths for privacy, free drinks - coffee, high end artisanal tea and even beer. Prices depend on the city and company, but in Miami , these barrier - free , communal desks asks $200 a month, fixed solo desks for about $500 a month and private suites starting at about $700 a month.
Aside from the great savings on office rental costs, another selling point of these co-working spaces is networking as members come from different pool of businesses and possible mutual connections may be shared in that workspace community.
"They have a community manager, somebody who is the heart and soul of the place ... that helps make connections between people in the workplace, organizes social events, shared lunches, happy hours, seminars," Spreitzer said.
