Mobile Grows Shared Workspaces and Changes How We do Business
Regus, ShareDesk, WeWork and other shared office space providers are the biggest expanding real estate market in the United States. The prime metro areas of NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas are seeing the emergence of a new breed of commercial real estate.
Mobile phones and tablets play a large role in fueling this growth. The net-based work world demands new and flexible business models.
Long gone are the days of old corporate offices
Their replacement includes co-working offices, shared workspaces and loft offices, minus the cubicles. As this trend continues, it will forever change the look of business in today’s big cities.
This development really started with laptops. Today’s 30-somethings came of age doing their homework sitting at a table in Starbucks or typing away in the cafeteria. The entrepreneurs of this generation start new businesses the same way. Mobile phones connect them with customers. Laptops and tablets take care of the work, and they can set up “offices” anywhere they want.
This individualism in work space doesn’t quite work well for a company. Just as soon as they start hiring employees, there is a definite demand for real office space. But the new business model doesn’t use office space property in the same way. Businesses of today look nothing like the corporate offices of Dilbert or Office Space fame.
Move to Shared Workspaces for Small Business
Instead, new companies like Lover.ly, the company behind an app that helps brides organize their weddings, are taking over lofts to create communal work spaces. All 15 employees sit together at several long tables, in the third-floor of a walk-up building not far from Madison Square Park.
Even though business needs and practices constantly change, client expectations don’t. Lover.ly doesn’t deal with clients in person often so they can use whatever set up works best for them.
A business that sees clients regularly or meets with investors still needs to project corporate office professionalism–even though it may no longer be relevant for the company. This entrepreneurial style basically fuels the growth of shared offices.
With short term leases and the ability to set up a variety of work space configurations in a traditional corporate setting, shared offices are ideal for start-ups that don’t want to be trapped in a long term lease and traditional office set up.
The corporate styling of these shared spaces reassures clients and investors they are dealing with professional businesses. Meanwhile the business, armed mobile phones and tablets, works in whatever configuration fits best.
Traditional offices are dinosaurs just yet however. In spite of Google and a few other big corporations using shared workspaces, most established businesses and large corporations will continue to field corner offices and cubicle farms.
But shared office spaces are growing at an explosive rate with more and more new businesses following the same tack as Lover.ly. The mobile phones and tablets that powered this office revolution aren’t going away–and neither is this new style of office space.