Curious About Coworking? You Should Be

by Carr Workplaces

Coworking has entered the lexicon and the landscape with impressive force. Until a few years ago saying you had coworking space got you a puzzled look, and while there’s now far greater understanding of it, for many it still conjures up the glorified coffee house image of twenty-somethings in hoodies sprawled across couches, laptops firmly...on their laps. 

As you’ll see here, coworking comes in many forms and, with the right provider, such as Carr Workplaces, can be a smart way to minimize your overhead, get added support for your business as well as have a professional work environment with a built-in community.  

Having an office to yourself or your company, particularly if you have a small or medium-sized team, can be both pricey and impractical. It’s not just the commitment and financial sting of the multi-year lease and utilities but the furnishing of the space, the staffing of it, including administrative and IT personnel, and the IT infrastructure like servers and cabling. What if you travel a lot for work, or are a remote worker, how do you justify an office and support staff? And if we’re being honest here, working from home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be – there are loads of distractions and you’re not exactly going to receive a client in your living room with your kid’s toys in sight.

Coworking was born: workers from different companies sharing an office space, allowing cost savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructure like equipment, utilities, receptionist and custodial services, as well as having an environment to focus on work while still having community in order to avoid isolation.

David March is the CEO of Exergy Energy which helps make large grid-dependent companies, like hospitals and manufacturers, greener. He has a private office at a Carr Workplaces at 211 N. Union Street, one of three Carr Workplaces coworking locations in Alexandria. Exergy Energy has individual staff spread around the country, so having coworking space for their employees is ideal. He explained that, “today you don’t need a lot of capital to start a business. You can purchase IT as a service, reception as a service, things that you need but don’t want the stress of managing - secretaries, IT, and reception.” Coworking, then, allows David and his staff to just focus on their work. 

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Coworking isn’t merely a trend (no offense you spin class worshiping avocado toast aficionados) – it’s meeting a real need in the marketplace. It is estimated that in ten years over 50% of the workers in the U.S. will be freelancers, many of whom will be knowledge workers needing a private office or at minimum a desk in a shared area. 

What surprised David the most about life at Carr Workplaces was how great a benefit it was to be around other businesses. “The diversity of experiences is invaluable. Normally when it’s just your company in an office space there is just one perspective. We’ve even done business with our neighbors here at Carr Workplaces over coffee in the café and used the services of an immigration attorney here for one of my employees in New York.” 

David said that not all coworking companies are the same, though, and advised against those that favor cacophonous common areas over private offices. “Large workrooms have too much distraction.” He also cited an improvement in his quality of life since getting an office at Carr Workplaces due to his ability to walk to work, and the location’s direct access to nature and proximity to the shops and dining of Old Town. “It’s a wonderful, beautiful location, right on the water, opening onto a large park. You can clear your head, come outside for inspiration, sit out on the patio with your clients.”  

Mark Hagood, of The Wesley Group, a legal services firm, has seen his company mushroom in size since coming to the same Carr Workplaces location at 211 N. Union, going from 2 employees to 22. Previous to entering coworking Mark was working from home. “Here there’s no worry about internet, phones, you can invite clients to the office, there’s a professionalism that has allowed me to focus on the business. When you work from home you’re always working, there’s no work-life balance. And there are distractions: you can have AC issues, phone issues, IT issues, and how do you get people to come over? Working from home feels like you’re living a lie, like you’re presenting something that you’re not.” 

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Does coworking, at least how it’s done at Carr Workplaces, sound like it might benefit your business? We’d like you to see for yourself with a complimentary week at one of our Old Town locations. Visit carrworkplaces.com to learn more.