MBA2335 Q&A Wednesday: Should I join a co-working space or work out of a cafe?

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0:58Hey-o! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, because a better you equals a better business. That's why we deliver practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. I'm also the co-founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started back in 2014. And today's episode is Q &A Wednesday. On Q &A Wednesdays, we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you've got a question you want to ask, go ahead and email me over at omar at 100mba.net. Today's question is from Joel. And Joel asks, I'm not that productive at home. I don't like working from home because there's just too many distractions and too many excuses not to get things done.

1:38Whether it's family or chores or what's happening outside the window. I'm thinking about working out of an office or even just a cafe for at least three or four days out of the week. What do you recommend, Omar? Should I join a co-working space or just pop into the local Starbucks? I'm thinking maybe the cafe is a cheap option and might just work. Let me know what you think. Solid question, Joel. I'm sure a lot of people are looking to go to a place to work. Many people, especially like digital nomads that travel, they like to go somewhere to work and get some stuff done to focus and separate life from work so they can go back home and just focus on life and household chores like you mentioned.

2:15So in today's episode, I'm going to share with you a few personal experiences when it comes to this decision. What I recommend and why. Where you work, the environment you get things done for yourself, for your business is so important and worth the investment of time of making this decision. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Throughout my over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, I've worked in many different environments. I've worked from home, of course, at the kitchen table, on a couch at home. I've also worked in private offices that I rented, in co-working spaces, in cafes, in restaurants, at the library, in my car.

2:53I've tried pretty much everything. And here's the bottom line. Like I mentioned, where you work, the environment that you surround yourself in to get work done is far more important than most people talk about. This is a place where you're going to be making the decisions that will shape the future of your business, your life, your everything, really. It's where you're going to have to get the things you have to get done to see your dream come true. It's a place where you're going to have to collaborate. It's a place where you're going to have to meet with people. It's going to be a place where you're going to have to take calls or close sales or write emails or whatever it might be.

3:24you need to make sure this space is optimized for getting things done. This is why you are getting out of the house in the first place, right? Because you want to get things done. Now, I understand everybody's different. Some people like a little bit of white noise. They like a little bit of distraction in the background. But I'm here to ask you, forget about what you like for a moment and ask yourself, what do you need? You need focus. You need the time and space that will lend itself to getting the work you need done, to allowing yourself to make decisions and to implement. So there's a couple options out there that most people look at.

3:59The cafe route, going to a place with good internet. It's bustly. It's nice. It's got coffee and drinks and all that kind of stuff. And then there's the option of an office. And the option I recommend is a coworking space that has a community. And we'll talk about that in a moment and why. And that's a little bit more formal, right? Well, we'll talk about it in a moment. Okay. So let's go down the cafe route. Now, cafes are great, right? They're fun, they're interesting, and I think they're a great option when you're traveling and you're in a pinch for some good internet. But in terms of a place to go to regularly, every day, consistently, or three times a week, I don't think it's a great option, and I don't think it's actually the budget option.

4:37Let's account for the fact that, let's say, maximum, you're going to go four days a week to the cafe. And you just can't sit in a cafe for hours on end without ordering food more than once if you're going to spend eight hours. So let's say, let's be conservative, coffees, a muffin, and maybe a lunch, it's going to cost you around$30. For having enough food on your plate or enough order items to make it seem like you're not just squatting in their cafe, that's$120 a week. That's nearly$500 a month. Yes, you're getting food and you're getting a meal out of it. But when we talk about dollars and cents, most co-working spaces are cheaper than that, right?

5:17Far less expensive, especially if you could do a hot desk where you don't have a permanent desk and you just sit there and you use the space. Most co-working spaces, and I'm not talking about WeWork, the fancier ones, we're talking about the more local ones, the ones that have a startup kind of vibe or community. These are usually subsidized by the government or just less expensive because they're not as super, super fancy as we work. And they're about$300 a month,$400 a month. And they'll give you free coffee. And a lot of them have treats in the fridge and they have events and they have pizza and meetups.

5:48So you will get some perks and you will get some interesting things. But mainly the reason why you're doing this is not for food. You're doing this for the space. And a co-working space is going to be far superior than a cafe. A cafe is not meant for work. It's They're meant for eating. The tables are not meant for laptops. They're not desks. Same thing with the chairs. Same thing with the environment. People that are in that cafe, they're there to have coffee and a treat or lunch. They're not here to help you brainstorm ideas or get through a problem in your business. That's what a coworking space is for.

6:21That's what's so great about having a community around you in a space. But more importantly, there is a security element when it comes to cafes. Their Wi-Fi is not gonna be rock solid and they're not gonna be using high security routers. On top of it, you have a very transient community in there that's walking in and out of that cafe that might not be super friendly when it comes to hacking through and trying to get on people's devices through the router. Yes, you can use a VPN, and I highly recommend you use a VPN whenever you're out in public, but it's just a higher risk when you don't have the same people showing up every day who have a vested interest to keep things safe.

6:53Cafes are unpredictable, okay? Meaning they could close, they could have a problem, they could be too full and you can't find a place to sit. while a co-working space is always going to be available. You got a pass, you walk in, you get to work. So I love the idea of a cafe for the once-off when you're traveling, when you can't find a spot, but as a semi-permanent thing, few days a week, no, it's not a great solution because it's not really meant for what you're looking for, a space where you can get things done. Now, we look at the co-working space. Yeah, it's a bit of a commitment and you got to kind of sign up maybe for two months in advance, but there's a lot you get out of it.

7:28You get the community, you get the feedback, you get a lot of perks often, A lot of companies sponsor these spaces and give you credits on server costs or tools that you might need to run your business. You also build a network. You make friends. You get to know people. And there's kind of like an underlying agreement between everybody that, hey, we're all here to work. It's much easier to run a meeting with no noise in the background when you have a meeting room in a co-working space or to run an interview or to collaborate with your team. It's just better for work. It's reliable. It's safe. It's easy.

8:03And in my opinion, it's a no-brainer. Now, when it comes to choosing a coworking space, I highly recommend you shop around, okay? Some communities are gonna have a lot. If you're in a big city, a major city in the world, you're gonna have tons of options. We're talking about dozens and dozens of options that are local to you. If you're in a smaller city or a second city, you might not have as many options, but still explore all your options because some spaces are gonna vibe with you and you're gonna like it. Maybe you like a little bit of livelihood and noise and maybe even just the personnel and the people there are younger and that's kind of your vibe.

8:37Go ahead and choose that. But some places are going to be really quiet and buttoned up and quite professional unless there's an event happening and people are having pizza and drinks and relaxing. That might be up your alley. So it's good to actually visit and to see what the vibe is. Remember, these spaces, you're usually going to commit to something not long term like a year, but maybe a couple months in advance. And then it's month to month. And of course, you can buy a date pass. I recommend this if you want to try a place out. Heck, you could say this week, I'm going to try five different places, five different days.

9:08A lot of these date passes are like$10,$15. And it's worth it because now you know what it's like, what the people are like, what eight hours there is like, what the commute is like, all that kind of stuff. You have a real world experience. It's a good investment of time and money before you make a commitment. I've been to a lot of different coworking spaces and I've signed up for a lot of different ones. as high-end as like a WeWork or Regis, and even on the low end, really scrappy coworking spaces. I'm the kind of guy that likes the ones that are closer to the scrappy side. I like people that hustle, that work hard, that are trying to make it happen.

9:40I like that energy. I found that when I went too high-end, like with WeWork, just too many corporates, just too many non-entrepreneurs, people that are maybe employees or it's just an office space for bigger companies. And it had a different vibe and it was just too fancy for my liking. I just didn't value all the fancy furniture, and the lighting and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's good and all, but I'm okay with something a little bit more scrappy with a great community. And I'm all for saving some money when I can. But I only discovered that because I tried them all. Now, when you go to a coworking space, they usually have a few different options.

10:13You can do like the day pass I talked about. They usually have like a hot desk option where you can either say, hey, I have a membership that allows me to come in a couple of days a week, which is a really inexpensive option, or you have unlimited and it's still hot desk where you just plop yourself on a desk or a tape and there's specific tables around in the coworking space that you can choose from, or you can go full-fledged and get yourself a dedicated desk. And this means that you can set up your monitor and you'll have a filing cabinet and you have all your stuff and your mug and all that kind of stuff.

10:45And you basically have an office or a desk in an office that's permanent. Now, if you travel a lot for long periods of time, maybe the permanent desk is not a good idea for you because you might be wasting a lot of money because let's say six months out of the year, you're traveling around and maybe the flexible desk is better for you. But if you're not doing that extensive amount of travel and maybe you travel a few times a year and when you do, it's only for a few weeks, then the permanent desk sometimes will be a better value in terms of time. Why? Because I used a hot desk and then I moved to permanent desk.

11:18Why? Because you save a lot of time. Every morning you come into the office, You've got to set yourself up. You've got to set up your computer. You've got to unpack. You've got to plug in your charger. And you've got to try to find a nice spot every single time. With a permanent desk, you have your own desk. It's always there. No one's going to use it. It's all set up. You go in. You save a lot of time every day. I'm a big fan of co-working spaces. I think that if you're building a business and you're looking for some collaboration, some support, some help, a community, maybe just some people who bounce ideas off, then it's a great option than just trying to work by yourself at home or at a cafe.

11:51It's really a good value, in my opinion, and I think it's one of those expenses that some people might think, oh, I'll just work from home instead of paying the few hundred dollars a month. But I actually think it's a good investment in getting focused work done. Thanks so much for listening to The$100 MBA Show. If you've got a question you want to ask here on Q &A Wednesday, go ahead and ask. Email me at omar at 100mba.net. Don't forget, hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app. If you haven't subscribed yet, go ahead. whether you're on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Overcast, hit subscribe, hit follow, so you get the next episode automatically and you get our latest episode immediately.

12:26Before I go, I wanna leave you with this. Most of us spend more time working than living, meaning we probably work more or spend more hours of the day working on our business or working at our job than living at home. If you remove sleeping, really, then you probably work three times as much than you do live at home. So where you work actually is a big deal. It's a choice that you need to take seriously because you spend most of your wakeful hours there. You might as well make it a good choice, something that you like, something that you enjoy, something that makes you motivated and gets you going to show up.

13:01One of the things I thought was a really interesting benefit of working in a coworking space that I didn't think about before is you kind of feel motivated to go see your colleagues. They're not your colleagues, so to speak, but your coworkers in the coworking space. They become your friends. You want to see what's going on with them and how they're doing. and then when you don't show up one day or you come in late, they're like, hey, is everything okay? We haven't seen you this morning. It's just nice to have that camaraderie like in an office when you're an entrepreneur. It can get lonely sometimes, as you know.

13:27The best part about it, you could just try. Try it for a few days to see if it's for you. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you on Friday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

13:47Thank you.