10 Ways to Harness Coworking Spaces for Business Expansion

58% of knowledge workers now work in a hybrid arrangement. The days of spending five days a week in a permanent office are behind us. And yet, there’s little evidence that the world is ready to move to permanent remote work. So, how can coworking spaces for business help?

Business expansion is a vital step for any company aiming to elevate its presence, increase its customer base, and boost its revenues. However, the road to expansion can be complicated.

One of the challenges is the scaling up of physical office space, which brings logistical hassles and steep costs.

This is where coworking offices can help. With their flexibility and accessibility, they are an increasingly appealing option.

10 ways to use coworking spaces for business expansion
A coworking space can help you achieve business growth in plenty of ways. Here are 10 of the most important:

1. Flexibility
   Coworking spaces are perfect if you want a more flexible approach to office space.
2. Traditional offices can be challenging to scale fast. If they’re leased directly from a landlord, gaining permission to make changes that accommodate growth can take time and effort. Often, business owners have to get more space than they need, so there’s room to grow later.
3. When you outgrow your office, you have to start a new one from scratch. All of this adds further costs, admin, and stress. With coworking, space isn’t an issue.

2. Cost efficiency
   The flexibility of coworking offices also helps save costs. A permanent office comes with plenty of upfront overheads, especially if you buy outright. At the same time, having to get more space than you need can often feel like a waste of money.
3. With coworking locations, you only ever pay for the specific number of employees using the office at that time. That means costs can rise in line with your head count.
4. Access to services and facilities
   With a solely traditional office, making space for the full range of facilities you need can take much work. This is because, in the cases where you can’t accommodate a hybrid officeor hot desking, you often have to prioritise much-needed permanent desks.

Coworking and office spaces give you access to private booths, meeting rooms, breakout areas, and more. All as and when you need them. This lets you work when and how you like without compromising on cost or space.

4. Engage with diverse communities
   In a fixed office, you’ll usually only come into contact with people from your company.
5. Of course, you want to collaborate as much as possible. But it’s also great to work alongside people from a whole range of companies and diverse communities. Coworking offices for business offer a great way to build networks and get out of your comfort zone.
6. Geographic expansion
   Coworking spaces are also perfect for expanding in different cities or countries> Leading providers will have a portfolio of locations for coworking space across the country and worldwide. This makes adding a seat in Manchester or Berlin no harder than one in London.

This approach makes it easier to hire the best talent wherever they are. That means you can expand into new areas without a substantial upfront investment in cost, admin and space.

6. Employee wellbeing
   Employee wellbeing is another key reason to use a coworking space. One recent survey suggests home working creates ‘loneliness and heightened stress levels’ for 81% of under-35s.
7. By allowing remote workers to leave the house and be around other remote workers, you can help reduce this stress.
8. Potential networking and business collaboration
   As a place to build connections and meet new people, there’s nothing quite like a coworking space for business.
9. They’re filled with like-minded professionals; you don’t have to go to dedicated meetings and networking events to find them. This makes it easier than ever to bump into potential clients and partners in an organic and natural way.
10. Encourage innovation
    Innovation is the key to achieving success as a business and growing your customer or client base. Coworking and office spaces are great places to do this. That’s because they’re full of small companies, start-ups and flexible workers from a wide range of different industries.
11. Coworking spaces are where all this talent can come to exchange ideas and learn from each other’s experiences. That plays a massive role in boosting innovation.
12. Access to supportive systems
    Coworking locations can offer support like mentoring programs, workshops and networking events. This is particularly helpful for small companies that might not otherwise get access to schemes like this.
13. These programs can help you understand how to manage time and stress. At the same time, you can learn from industry experts and find new solutions to business challenges.

• Reduce secondary costs
  With a traditional office, you’re buying more than just the space. You also need to pay for the infrastructure, furniture, utilities, and more.This differs from a coworking space since you don’t have to pay for overheads. This makes for a much cheaper and more flexible approach to office space.

How to maximise the use of coworking spaces for your business
It’s about more than having a coworking desk to put your laptop on. There are plenty of different ways you can use the space to support your team:

• As a secondary office space
• As a satellite office
• As a training and meetings space

When renting a flexible coworking space, you can also enjoy access to meeting rooms and training spaces on demand. This will save you from having to commit valuable office space for irregular events like client meetings or in-house training workshops.