Introduction
The rise of the cowork space (The Work Project at OUE Downtown pictured above) signals a change in the tide relating to commercial work space and a fresh look at traditional working methods. We would like to take you on a brief tour of the cowork space landscape in Singapore.
It is useful to note that the cowork space first reared its head in 2005 in San Francisco. The cowork space was a business solution born out of the need to have a place to work, whilst managing rising costs, but still facilitate business development and promise.
Subsequently, entrepreneurs being the beasts they are, started adding their own values to this idea. When the real estate industry started to realise the potential of filling up otherwise vacant units, cowork spaces became the talk of the town.
In this brief article, we take you on a little journey about cowork spaces through our eyes. Here are some suggestions as you consider how cowork spaces may apply to your needs.
1. Cowork spaces usually have existing tenants mostly from tech-related industries. Consider if your business will benefit from interacting with or being in close proximity to these other people in the cowork space;
2. In light of the above, consider next if your business would benefit from being with overseas-based businesses rather than local businesses. We have discovered that cowork spaces are largely divided and defined by its tenants. Cowork spaces filled by local enterprises can be distinctly different from the predominantly expatriate-filled cowork spaces commonly found.
3. Most cowork spaces offer you various membership options from a part-time hot desk, limited by time and days of use (from S$250.00 per month) to small private office units for rent on a full time basis (from S$800.00 a month). It may also be useful to consider the rental of service offices (instead) if confidentiality and preserving data and information on your business is key.
4. One of the models that we found most effective is to maintain a base office in a more traditional space. This is where the back office functions are performed, whilst the business development team forges out to a cowork space to find potential and networking opportunities for the business. You end up having a base unit in a commercial space, and at the same time having a desk at a cowork space, in order to manage costs.
5. Cowork spaces are also great for holding events and will have a ready crowd to fill the event space.
We hope that the above serves to guide you when you look at cowork spaces. We are more than happy to have a chat with you on their potential and your plans.
