Networking: An Underrated Benefit Of Working From A Coworking Space
If you own your own business, work as a freelancer or a remote employee or have work-from-home days, you already know that you can work from anywhere! While many prefer to stay at home and work from their own office, some choose to explore an alternative place that fuels better fuels their creativity and productivity, such as a coworking space.
This type of workplace provides many perks and benefits since the space is filled with other dedicated and hardworking individuals from all industries and backgrounds. While the decision to work alongside complete strangers might be daunting at first, it’s really no different than getting some work done at a local coffee shop. It’s really not as intimidating as it sounds and can be very rewarding.
Working from such a space comes with perks from renting out the space like conference and meeting rooms, concierge level support, on-site health clubs, mail and delivery sorting, cafes for eating and ultra-high speed Internet access. There’s also the ability to concentrate better with minimal distractions that you’d have at home or a coffee shop. Then there’s a sense of community, making you feel less lonely than working alone in your home office. Coworking spaces provide the feeling of community so that users don’t feel disconnected from the outside world when working in solitary at home.
Networking as a Benefit
But one of the most underrated benefits of utilizing a coworking space is all the networking opportunities they’ll have. When you share a space with others, you feel as if you’re in a community with other likeminded individuals and professionals. Finding the right coworking space allows you to meet people from different industries, professionals and backgrounds you might ordinarily come into contact with otherwise.
You’ll be able to network and surround yourself with other high-achieving and goal-oriented professionals that might come in handy down the line. After all, you never know what the future holds and these new professionals you meet at a coworking space can help you advance professionally in the future. Remember that many successful companies such as Instagram were working from a coworking space in their humble beginnings (SOMAcentral in Instagram’s case). Having so many different professionals in one space means endless networking opportunities! You’ll never know who you might meet and how they can help you down the line.
Networking is part of your professional success. Even though networking isn’t of importance to many, it really should be. Sure, it can be time consuming and awkward as you try to meet new people, but it can be beneficial to have a strong professional network if you want to be successful.
Valuable Networking Opportunities in Coworking Space
Networking is important because when you invest in relationships, you get paid back in dividends over the course of your career. Networking allows you to develop and improve on your skill set, stay abreast of the latest trends in various industries, keep your finger on the pulse of the job market and meet prospective mentors, clients and more. Plus, these professional connections can later turn into lifetime friends with the right people.
When working in a coworking space, you don’t have to worry about awkward situations that many experience at networking events because the space was created to be like an office. You’ll naturally see the same people each time you’re day (with new faces every now and then), so you’ll be able to start a rapport with them naturally. You’ll then progress into small talk and then later end up having lunches and dinners with each other. Thanks to a coworking space, you’ll be able to grow your networking circle of professionals in no time!
Finally, networking is not the only benefit of working from a coworking space. There are many other benefits in working from a coworking space, but networking is certainly one of the most overlooked benefits that its value is highly underestimated when startups choose a workspace.