However, it quickly became apparent that while I loved the brand, an empire-building environment it was not!
Between the hustle and bustle of shoppers and strollers, to the ever-growing urge to use the loo but not wanting to leave your laptop, the struggle to get work done in a coffee shop is real.
You see, the coffee shop isn’t set up for work. The clue’s in the name, right?
And it’s not set up for work because you and your laptop nursing a flat white for 8 hours doesn’t make them any money.
So, it should come as no surprise that coffee shop chains and independents alike are cracking down and banning laptops from darkening their doors.
Coffee shops make money when you buy coffee and you’re in and out pronto. Have your soy milk, latte-ccino thingy with a shot of caramel, gobble down your bacon bagel and out the door you go. Money made, 30 mins tops, dirty tables galore, end of.
But, if you’re feeling like a ‘Billy no mates’, lonely and isolated, working from home alone, you want somewhere to go occasionally to break up the week. So, your other option is a coworking space.
But isn’t a hot desk in a coworking space gonna break the bank?
That £4.00 latte adds up faster than you think. Coffee shops seem like a budget-friendly workspace, but let’s be real about what they’re ACTUALLY costing you:
- Let’s say you have 3 drinks per day at an average cost of £3.40 each = £10.20
- If you’re staying all day, you’ll want a snack. Let’s say a brownie at £3.10 (make it last).
- Dodgy WiFi means you missed the start of your client call, costing you your reputation for reliability.
- Public networks pose a security risk, putting your business data in jeopardy.
- Client unhappy because your call isn’t private; their confidentiality is in question.
I spent a year trying to work in my local coffee shop after leaving my corporate career and becoming self-employed, and do you know what — whilst it’s OK for a while, it’s not a coffee shop’s core business, providing free workspace. It’s really not set up to be a place for great work 🤔
Here are some of the real-life stories I have after my attempts at using the coffee shop to grow my business:
- Staring down other early-bird laptop-toting freelancers in the battle for the table near the plug socket.
- Trips to the loo without losing my spot and juggling my pricey iMac, hoping to Billio I didn’t drop it in the bog.
- Praying Mrs Jacobs and her reluctant shopper husband didn’t trip over my charging cable and come after me for compensation.
- Important client calls interrupted by Jayden having a meltdown because he lost his gingerbread man’s head in his babyccino.
- Waiting in the queue for a refill, whilst praying to God, Jayden didn’t decide my laptop looked ‘fun’ and press all the buttons.
But my biggest loss, although I didn’t realise it at the time, was being in the RIGHT environment, with other people like me, building a business 😥
That’s why I opened my first coworking space. Because I needed a place to work with like-minded businesspeople, but it also needed to be fit-for-purpose.
And the cost? Well, we’ve purposefully created ad-hoc day packages for freelancers so they get unlimited artisan coffee and cake included in the price — we throw in the desk, monitor, super-fast secure WiFi, parking and mates for free!
If you want to read more, our good ‘flexible workspace’ mate Zoe Ellis-Moore wrote a great piece on this recently: Why Coworking Wins.
