Work from Home vs Shared Offices

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I’ve been working for myself full-time for two years now. Over the course of that time, I’ve been tussling with the idea of going to work in a shared office space. There’s a place very close to me with decent facilities, costs very little, and it’s very tempting. For the majority of what I do, all I need is a laptop, earphones and somewhere to plug myself in. Besides that, I’m good to go.

I know a lot of other people are in the exact same position as me. With online business, you can do your work absolutely anywhere. That’s great when you need to work a flexible schedule, but it also can make it difficult to focus and introduce strict schedules to follow week-to-week. The idea of having forced structure of going to work – with the freedom to go whenever I fancy – is very enticing.

My very first job in London was in a shared office space. The owners of the music magazine I was at owned the place, which had a studio, record label, and a lot of desks. It was so clean, from the rustic wood meeting room, all the way down to the skirting board in the recording booth. I was surrounded by start-ups. There was a PR agency that doubled in size every six months. There was a games developer that managed just fine by himself. A recruitment consultant doing the solo thing too. There was even a guy that was just trying to find inspiration for his next business venture, and rented out a desk until he figured it out. There was so much to learn from being around these people and the individuals that passed through.

I really don’t like the idea of commuting. I suppose that I would be able to do it at a time with minimal traffic, but it’s still more driving than I need to be doing.

At home I have:

Food
4 different rooms I seem to work from (my room, Marlo’s, front room, the actual office)
Again – an actual office
2 small children
A pull-ups bar for when I’ve run out of brainpower
Lots of distractions

There are a lot of positives and negatives concerning this subject matter. As of right now, I think that it makes more sense to work from home than it does to work from anywhere else. I don’t think the cost would be able to match the value I’d be able to get from being around more people. It’s not as if I’m struggling to get work done at home (most of the time).

Until things change, my home setup is more than enough for me. I may not get to speak to as many different people as I used to before, and it may be a lot harder to get insights of different lines of business, but I’m still getting things done. And that’s the main thing that matters.

I completely understand why others in my position would feel the need to go and find a shared office space, so definitely consider it if you feel like you need a change of scenery. Always consider all of the options.