Nights and Weekends Offer Some Great Quiet Time
If you walk into a co-working space on a Monday at 10 am, the place is buzzing. The conference rooms are filled; the phone booths are buzzing with business calls; and the private offices are teeming with enthusiastic entrepreneurs. But by Friday at 4pm… it’s slow. And by Sunday at 7pm… it’s nothing but crickets and tumbleweed.
But that doesn’t mean that no one is busy working on the weekends. In fact, most small business owners are working out of a garage, basement, or spare bedroom on nights and weekends. And if you add in established, small businesses that support the round-the-clock industries (healthcare, hospitality, etc), there’s no reason for those co-working spaces to be quiet; they should be thriving during traditional and non-traditional hours.
So why are they so quiet? Generally, co-working spaces are rented through word-of-mouth. And co-working is very popular among young, techy entrepreneurs. In short, the only people who know about the vast number of empty co-working spaces are busy hiking and drinking craft beer on Saturdays.
And more than the small business start-ups or 24-hour service providers, artists, writers, and arts organizations are missing out on a huge opportunity. Writers crave quiet; no one successfully wrote a novel or play with noisy kids and a hungry spouse interrupting every five minutes. And theatre companies are constantly looking for a small workspace with a big rehearsal room. Co-working offices might not look like the traditional artist studio or black box theatre, but for those in need of space, co-working offices offer a perfect fix for their problems. Plus, artists add a cool vibe to the overall feel.
Realistically, the major, national co-working companies aren’t likely to negotiate too much on price based on weekend and nighttime use. However, the smaller, boutique co-working companies are eager to fill up their square footage with as much activity as possible. Quiet time means lost revenue. Plus, the more activity (at any time of day), the more word-of-mouth about these great working spaces.
Take advantage of the lesser-used hours at a co-working space. If you’re not working, it’s still a great way to enjoy a bag of chips while watching Netflix on the common room couch.