10 Reasons Why Co-working Leads to Business Growth

Ever wondered how effective your time could be if you combined your business networking activities with your daily work activities? That is a major part of the concept behind co-working environments. These are offices such as The Business Loft, in Newport (South Wales) http://bit.ly/18RU0Q3 that offer daily, flexible rental of work space and individual desks (co-working desks) where space and time are made for networking and collaboration.

When I was appointed as the Business Incubation Manager for the University of South Wales I had no idea what co-working environments were and how they could benefit business growth. However, I was lucky enough to be put in touch with Mark Hooper, the founder of Indycube http://bit.ly/18RUc1N a social enterprise providing co-working spaces for start-up and small businesses in Wales. Working in collaboration with Indycube we have adopted their philosophy that businesses grow best in an environment where the people take a genuine interest in each other’s work in a supportive and reciprocal way that aids business growth.

Co-working has many advantages. It…….

1.       Offers a professional work environment on a day by day flexible
          basis – As a registered Associate can turn up and hire a desk for
          a day for only £10!

2.       Avoids the isolation of working from home – Face to Face
          interaction is a huge motivator for most people

3.       Offers businesses the room to expand – At The Business Loft we
          also offer business mentoring and training

4.       Enables you to understand what businesses around you are
          doing and how you can collaborate or support each other –
          Makes coming to work more productive and enjoyable

5.       Increase your potential for business growth and new clients –
         Within the first two months and with only 6 businesses at The
         Business Loft we had 10 successful work collaborations

6.       Increase the potential for collaborative projects – Freelancers and
          small businesses working together on a joint project

7.       Increases the flow of creative ideas – Tapping the creativity of
          people outside your own business can increase creativity further

8.       Offers you a team of supportive people around you at work even
          though you are all working in different businesses – Supportive
          help and thoughts on a problem or a skills gap make working
          alone so much easier

9.       Increases your contact database – Exchanging useful contacts
          without having to go out networking every day

10.   The opportunity to network every day with different businesses –
        Different people turn up every day to book a desk which adds new
        dimensions to the co-working environment