Take a second to think about the concept of sharing and it’s roots in your life – it’s probably been a point that’s been driven home since the days of your youth, right? For centuries, sharing has been a routine operation that family members, friends and loved ones carry out on the daily.
But within the last decade, sharing has become quite possibly one of the most profitable means of an economic model. Not to mention, the growing interest in successfully sharing between two entities has only been bolstered by up-and-coming innovations like co-working for example.
But co-working is a model that has followed in the footsteps of some of the tech giants before it’s emergence within the last decade. Some of the major examples of economic sharing services are responsible for disrupting a certain industry and taking conceptualization to a whole new level.
Some examples of these include:
- Ride-sharing powerhouses Uber and Lyft, which have completely disrupted the transportation industry.
- Home-sharing companies like AirBnB and HomeAway, which are two sharing services that have completely turned the hospitality industry upside down and made individuals second-guess the likes of hotels such as Hilton and Marriott.
With a growing demand for new ways to benefit consumer needs, sharing the economy and sharing office spaces are two ideas that go hand-in-hand and will play a huge part in the future of the economy.
Re-imagining “Ownership” And The Concept of Sharing
When you think about a shared workspace, you need to think about reimagining the way we view the idea of “ownership.” I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, just because you didn’t buy something outright, it doesn’t mean that you can’t call it your own. It’s like leasing a car or borrowing tools that your neighbor uses only once or twice every six months – if you can get passed the fact that your name isn’t necessary on it, but it’s yours entirely to use however you’d like, the ideology of ownership takes a whole new form.
Such is true with shared office space, where you won’t have to make any costly investments, especially upfront costs, but you still get all the perks of owning that object or space. Most co-working spaces have shared common areas where all tenants are able to use any of the items in the space without hesitation. Whether it’s access to Wi-Fi, on-site cafes, comfy couches, or even whiteboards and printers – it’s theirs to use.
Give Consumers What They Want – Short-term Pacts, Long-term Growth
Gone are the days where it’s a mandatory request that tenants lock themselves into long-term contracts that sometimes they will not be able to honor. You never know when adversity is going to come knocking on your door, and if you’re stuck into a lengthy pact with no way out, that will hurt both your business and your wallet.
Which is why “idling capacity” is becoming a new way of viewing how we lock ourselves into contracts. By leasing in less conventional ways, both tenants and landlords – especially of co-working spaces – are reimagining how to get the best of both worlds without any hassles.
Take a short-term lease for example, a situation where a tenant has the ability to cancel on a monthly-basis whenever they want. A tenant gets what they want by having a space to use at their disposal and a landlord doesn’t have to leave a prime piece of real estate vacant for an excessive period of time.
Embracing The Open Format Workspace
Maintaining and sustaining an open environment workspace is perhaps one of the most important aspects of why co-working spaces thrive on a daily basis. Whether it’s from a large co-working company like WeWorks, or a privatized one in your local town, the conceptualization of dividing huge retail spaces into subleases for startup companies and entrepreneurs is invaluable.
It’s kind of like creating a centralized hub for working professionals to thrive and bounce ideas off one another. With amenities like cafes, dozens of beers on tap, common areas to hang out and play ping pong, private suites where working professionals can have some privacy in an open format, and even surfboard storage depending where you are – the idea of an open environment for working professionals is a building block for the future of how we work.
