Part of the beauty of freelancing is location independence. As long as you have a laptop and a wifi connection, you can work from home, the coffee shop or anywhere in the world. However, as anyone who primarily works from home can tell you, sometimes working from home comes with some significant challenges.
As a business coach and fellow freelancer, I often get asked whether or not freelancers should rent office space to run their businesses. Usually my answer is no. Offices in the traditional sense are pricey and it defeats the purpose of having a low overhead business. However, I’ve recently joined the ranks of renting out shared office space so I can have a place to focus on my business.
How did I make this decision? Below you’ll find some ways to determine whether or not you should rent office space as a freelancer.
If You Need To Explore New Places to Foster Creativity
Sometimes we feel creatively blocked. And sometimes the only way to release the block is to explore a new place. After working from home for two and a half years, I was finding it very difficult to stay consistently creative day in and day out. I needed a space I could escape to whenever I needed a change of scene.
This isn’t entirely uncommon among creative folk (or anybody really). According to a Psychology Today article, breaking away from the mundane is an excellent way to foster creativity.
As an additional benefit of co-working offices, they are filled with other creative people! From painters to startup founders, there is no shortage of inspiration when renting out shared office space.
If You Can’t Focus At Home
Another sign that you may need to rent office space as a freelancer is if you have a very difficult time focusing at home. Let’s face it, we start procrastinating by doing laundry or cooking. Or, we get distracted by family members. If you’re one of these people, you may want to consider looking into getting some office space.
If The Money You Spend at a Coffee Shop is Comparable to the Cost of a Co-Working Space
Let’s say you currently need to get out of the house a lot in order to be able to work. Let’s also assume you go work at a coffee shop where you end up buying a ton of coffee and, at least, two meals (breakfast and lunch) to get you through the work day. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out this adds up quickly.
If you spend 20 bucks a day at a coffee shop, it would only be 10 days before you reach the same amount of paying a monthly membership at a co-working office space. There’s an added bonus that coffee is free at co-working spaces.
If you’re already spending a ton of money at a coffee shop, you might as well save yourself some coins and rent a seat at a co-working office with full amenities.
If You Meet Clients in Person
I don’t usually have in-person client meetings, but lately I’ve been gaining a lot more business from my local area. If you’re in a similar situation it may be wiser to rent office space instead of having people drive to coffee shops or your house. This is also a beneficial solution if you get lots of mail and need an address other than your home.
Additionally, your business may eventually experience multiple streams of income that require your own space. For example, clients started hiring me to film business classes and financial q&a videos. Needless to say, it wasn’t really working out to film these things in my kitchen.
Final Thoughts
The good news is that renting office space as a freelancer no longer looks like paying thousands in one year lease for no reason. With co-working spaces, you have flexible monthly membership options based on what you need. They are an excellent and affordable option for freelancers and business owners who need their own space to keep their businesses running.
