If you spend a large part of your day between 4 walls, staring at a computer screen, to-do list piling up...you’ve learnt the hard way it can kill your productivity, give you serious creative block and just send you stir crazy. Whether you're a freelancer, blogger, creative or business owner - there are so many benefits of a coworking space. It's an affordable way to tackle the issues we face working from home, especially as a small business without the means to rent an office space!
At WeBlogNorth, we’re so lucky to have Wizu Workspace as our home away from home in Leeds. For the past few months, we’ve been hosting our Leeds workshops and events there, met so many new members there and really got to know the space.
Before we dive into the 5 benefits we've found in our business, here's a bit more about Wizu from their team:
"Wizu create workspaces that result in exciting collaboration and help businesses to grow. Our goal is to put human factors at the heart of our thinking and create a community platform where our members thrive. We always look to remove the hassles and headaches of entrepreneurs by focusing on a simple, all-inclusive service so businesses can focus on growth.
We provide unlimited speciality coffee, business-grade connectivity, meeting space and creative rooms, access to a curated event series along with a dedicated support team who know everyone’s name.
Good coworking spaces should primarily encourage productivity not just look great. Wizu has a central hub, spaces to meet, socialise and create. People like to work in different ways and facilitating these different ways of working and thinking fuels the ability to generate ideas and collaborate with like-minded people."
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5 Benefits of a Coworking Space
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Fuelling your creativity
Your environment has a huge impact on your mental state. Coworking forces you to think outside the box (literally!) and can kick start creative projects. They say the best way to get over a creative block is to remove yourself from the situation. A coworking space provides a change of pace to your home office (or kitchen table!) and, in Wizu's case, has different areas if you need to stretch your legs and try a change of scenery.
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Human Interaction
There are some days working at home where the only human I interact with is the postman. And whilst I am a crazy cat lady, there's only so many times I can speak to my fur babies before I realise I'm going mad and need to get out more. Heading to a coworking space means you get to meet, connect and chat with other people. Often like-minded, creative business owners and freelancers who understand the low points, can offer advice and could be willing to give you feedback or collaborate. There really is nothing like getting out of the house and having conversations in real life to make you feel positive and energised!
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All the convenience, zero distractions
We've all been there. The washing basket is piling up. The dishwasher beeps. The wifi's gone down and you're phoning customer service for an hour. There's no milk for coffee. Oh and there's the postman again! At home, there are just. Too. Many. Distractions. At the best of times it's an easy procrastination tactic, at the worst of times it's just frustrating and can stifle your creativity and sabotage your business' priorities. It's so nice to head to Wizu and leave all of that at home. Just you, your laptop and your to-do list. Fast reliable wifi, unlimited tea and coffee, not a postman in sight.
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Work-life balance
I really struggle with my work-life boundaries. Can you relate? I love what I do so much, it often means I'm going into my evening with 'work mode' still switched on. Which longterm can lead to increased stress, poor sleep and ironically, less productivity in my workday. Going to a place of work, just like you would in a 9-5, can be really healthy for many freelancers. A coworking space is an affordable way to do this and has done wonders for creating a divide between 'work mode' and 'chill mode' when I shut that laptop and head home.
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Collaboration
As they say, in business it's not always about what you know, but who you know. Networking can be a bit cringy for some freelancers, especially if you're introverted. I speak to loads of our members who struggle with meeting like-minded people and creating new work relationships, simply because they're shy and find the traditional way of networking (people stood around in suits with business cards) intimidating. A coworking space is a thriving hub of creatives, most of whom are happily cracking on with work and interested to share their work with others. It's the perfect place to be if you want to meet new people, make some business mates and potentially collaborate. You never know who you'll meet and how you can support each other's businesses. Most spaces also offer community events, mixers and other meetups to help you create those connections.
Those are just 5 benefits of a coworking space. We think there are tons more though, it's just a case of trying it out and seeing how much it can do for you and your business! Another thing we love about Wizu is their events space. We've been lucky enough to host a few seminars in their Victoria Suite now. It's bright, spacious and seriously Instagrammable - the Make It Happen sign always goes down well with our attendees. You can also book the rooms for private meetings, presentations and anything else you might need them for.
Take a look behind the scenes at our Take Your Content to The Next Level seminar there last month. Thanks to Sean our in-house videographer and WeBlogger for capturing this!
https://twitter.com/WeBlogNorth/status/1116644272244166656
Missed out on this event? We're back for our Kick Start Your Content and Take Your Content to The Next Level seminars at Wizu in Autumn!
Have you used a coworking space before? Have you found it boosts your productivity too?
