7 Ways Coworking Can Help You Grow Your Business

Sometimes the home office grows a little too homey.

The entrepreneur can thrive working out of the house, until the call of the couch and the temptation of the television prove too much.

Who can work when The Breakfast Club flashes onto the screen for the 4,037th time? Your efforts to generate the next great idea aren’t quite as lonely when you’re hanging in the high school library with Molly, Judd, Emilio, Ally and Anthony.

“Don’t mess with the bull, young man, you’ll get the horns.”

Even the focused worker who leaves the TV off may find the silence of home a bit too deafening. So, they retreat to a coffee shop. There, they nestle among strangers and hope that parent doesn’t arrive with a distracting child who insists he deserves a cookie.

When the piercing pleas of a toddler or the gossipy laughs of neighbors don’t disrupt morning routines, ambitious start-up owners still worry someone will pilfer their laptop each time they go to the bathroom or step outside to take a call.

The solution? The cowork space. It’s a place that can lead to laser-focus efforts without laser-like costs, a place that offers the ambient noise of an office and the professional support more commonly found in the corporate world.

Most of all, you get community. The cowork space fosters work ethic while allowing for meaningful connections. Here are seven coworking benefits that have helped the industry become one of the nation’s fastest-growing business trends.

1. Escape the House

Working from home may hold some financial advantages, but the distractions—be it television, sofa or food—eat away at productivity. Devoting your energy to getting up, getting dressed and going to a dedicated work space lends purpose to your work day. Studies indicate people generate greater focus and achieve more when dressed for the day instead of sitting down in their pajamas and fuzzy slippers. Officevibe, a company that monitors and measures employee satisfaction, revealed in a recent survey that 68 percent of coworkers possess a greater focus while in the space, and 64 percent are better able to complete tasks on time. The cowork space also allows entrepreneurs to enhance the intrinsic value of separating work from home.

2. Add the Amenities

The cowork space offers services an entrepreneur may not possess at home: a business address, business mail service, copying and printing, and in some cases, a receptionist and other support staff.  It also features advantages seldom found in the neighborhood coffee shop, including viable Internet services, Skype capabilities, conference rooms and isolated rooms for phone conversations. In the effort to expand your business with face-to-face meetings, the cowork space proves more professional than the home and more discreet than the Starbucks.

3. Keep it Simple

Utilizing cowork space allows for greater flexibility and freedom than renting your own office space. Overhead is minimized because of the shared resources approach, freeing up precious financial resources for other needs. It also reduces the need to work 9-5 in “your office.” Because of the shared approach, someone can mind the store while you’re out lunching with prospective clients, connecting with disrupters, furthering your business or even devoting some midday hours to a family need.

4. Acquire New Skills

Most cowork spaces offer classes and events that can enhance the skill set of folks who own small businesses and start-up companies. Look for the cowork space that fills its calendars with how-to presentations and easily accessible seminars about succeeding in the 21st century business. The chance to expand your knowledge base may be one of the most important amenities offered by a cowork space.

5. Amp the Atmosphere

Entering an office space with like-minded individuals can sharpen focus, boost energy and increase productivity. When people put themselves among other entrepreneurs all looking to fuel their dreams, they can channel that entrepreneurial spirit into their own efforts. The independent mindset that’s so germane to co-work spaces not only fosters a stronger perspective, but it can lend to support when the aspiring business person encounters disappointing days or suffers a setback.

6. Conquer Loneliness

Working at home or squirreling away in a coffee shop can lead to feelings of isolation or loneliness. This not only applies to the enterprising entrepreneurs but to the growing number of corporate employees who are being asked to telecommute. Emergent Research shared its recent findings in a Harvard Business Review article, and the numbers were striking: 87 percent of coworking members meet other members for social reasons; 83 percent decrease their sense of loneliness and 89 percent are happier.

7. Collaborate with Community

Once entrepreneurs and workers find their way into the cowork space, they often discover a sense of collaboration and community. A tech worker looking to develop a new application may connect with a fellow cowork member who can help him market the product. A public relations practitioner may be steered towards a new client thanks to a reference from a fellow cowork member. Infinite networking possibilities exist, and all of them can generate greater success.

The Rising Tide Innovation Center possesses all the above benefits and a few more (like a cereal bar!). With Fletcher & Fischer. P.L. operating the center, Rising Tide members can reach out to a legal team that serves developers, lenders and businesses in Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They also can tap into the firm’s genuine passion for building community, which has served as a cornerstone for the firm. Says partner Leigh Fletcher: “Community building is so exciting and enriching to me. It makes me a better business person, a better lawyer and a better person, in general. I want to create the opportunity for others to have that.”

If you’re looking for the right co-work space, visit the center and discover how a rising tide lifts all boats.