There are many benefits from having your own home based business. There are cost savings, time savings and other lifestyle benefits. One of the biggest drawbacks however is a lack of social interaction and missing out on potential new business opportunities because your simply not aware of them!
At the core of business is the interactions between people. There’s a customer and a client and communication is critical in order to make your business successful. If you have poor interpersonal skills or poor communication skills then you really need to work on that as much as possible.
One of the drawbacks of the home based business is the isolation. Isolation can lead to depression, lack of motivation and ultimately the failure of a business due to a loss of momentum.
Effective business communications requires practice. You have to be communicating every day with as many different people as you can to avoid losing the skills.
Working in a coworking space or serviced office environment may allow a home based business person to overcome this isolation. The real question is, how much business are you loosing not how much does it cost you. There are tremendous benefits of working in close proximity with other similar companies to yourself. Even the most benign conversations can impart vital information and in some cases have completely changed the direction of a company or personal career.
There are numerous anecdotal stories of companies gaining more work than they can handle as a result of participating in a serviced office. Of course, it’s not an automatic recipe for success, you don’t just move into a coworking or serviced office space and hey presto you have more work, but it’s pretty well understood that when you are surrounded by other small businesses or larger businesses who need services then your chances of success improve.
So, if you’re bashing away at your business and you’re feeling a little blue or can’t seem to get things going, maybe a serviced office might help to give things a boost. Many serviced office operators have flexible terms so you can try, and buy. Don’t be afraid to ask for exactly what it is you’re looking for.
Chris Mosely is CEO of The Cluster which provides Coworking Melbourne