Works well with others
By Gordon Powers, Sympatico / MSN Finance
Fed up with working out of your living room and escaping to coffee shops with unreliable wireless and dirty washrooms? Then it’s probably time to check out that drop-in office space down the street.
Not to be confused with fax-heavy business centers, this type of service, more formally known as co-working, lets mobile workers rent space in a more open, communal setting. Rates start at around $195 for a once-a-week drop-in slot and go up to $595 a month for a private desk.
Initially the province of tech-savvy freelancers, co-working centres like Vancouver’s Workspace, Montreal’s Station C and Ottawa’s Code Factory are now attracting a broader combination of small-business people, consultants and even job searchers. While that might include the Dwight Schrutes of the world, users are really looking to connect with a community of people who may have different occupations, but who want to share ideas.
If your work takes you farther afield, here’s a co-working wiki that hosts pages for dozens of other North American cities with co-working initiatives.
And if it’s just the appearance of a busy workplace that you’re actually looking for, try the Thriving Office. A two track CD, it offers a variety of hectic office background noises, including ringing phones and whirring computers, to mask domestic noises such as kids and dogs and let people know you’re at the hub once again.
Posted by: Ian Graham | Feb 12, 2022 10:46:08 AM
Hey Gordon,
thank you for the mention. I just wanted to clarify a bit on pricing. At TheCodeFactory our pricing is based on a pay per use hourly rate of $4 per hour which includes wifi. The daily maximum is also $20 regardless of how long you are there. This is unique among coworking spaces that I am aware of.
cheers, Ian