What’s your style?
When deciding what coworking environment to join, there are several things to consider. First, let’s go over a few types of coworking spaces and what they include:
High End, Fancy, All Inclusive, Full-Service Coworking
Usually located downtown in larger cities, they have beautiful, professionally designed interiors, community managers on staff, usually offer snacks, and cater to established businesses or well-funded startups. These are the most expensive of all the types of coworking spaces. The community in these spaces is sometimes divided by floor or type of membership. The culture depends on people going to the events and interacting with other coworkers in passing as you don’t see everyone everyday.
Balanced Coworking
The majority of coworking spaces fall into this group. Balanced coworking spaces can be of any type, size, or location. The space is well put together, but might not be professionally designed, they might provide snacks as part of the monthly membership, some have a community manager and others don’t. They tend to attract many different types and sizes of businesses, but most tenant groups are smaller than 10 people as larger groups can quickly outgrow the space. These communities are not usually divided by more than 2 floors and often, the entire office is on one floor. These are not going to be the largest spaces, but they can build a great culture because everyone is in the same area together. The events along with the proximity of coworkers drive the community and teams together and directly affect how everyone interacts.
Minimal
These are some of the smallest spaces. They do the basics well — coffee, tea, WIFI, desks, etc. Often, the founder of the space is also a coworker who decided they wanted to build a community or work with other people while decreasing their office bills. Many coworking spaces start this way and then grow into something larger. The vibe of these places is highly dependent on the founders, the events at the space, and the core group of coworkers. Most of these spaces have a tight knit group of people if they are done well. Workers can expect a quieter, but open and welcoming, space.
A great example of this style of coworking is SoBeCoWorks in south Bethlehem, PA.
Bare Bones
In general, this type of space might include coffee but often times it doesn’t. It is really just a place with WIFI, desks, and a space to work. Typically this is a quieter and cheaper option without a lot of frills or extras. Often, events only consist of meetups, community events, or gatherings run by fellow coworkers.
Now, within most of these options you also have:
- Private coworking
You get a private space, it may be a whole floor, it may be an office with a door, it may be a closed off section with simple moveable walls. - Semi-Private coworking
Here you may get an office space with other coworkers and your own desk or cubicle. - Open coworking
Completely open floor layout. You can look around and see everyone or you may all be sharing one large or a few small tables.
While there may be more styles than what we have listed here, depending on what you want to consider a coworking space, these are the most popular and recognized styles.
Let us know your thoughts on coworking spots.
