What Does Local Community Mean for Flexible Working: Are Large Co-Working Spaces Really Answering the Needs? [Podcast #88]
“We are really passionate about creating a community for individuals,” says Georgie Randon, our guest for this episode of the SOL Podcast. Georgie is the head of marketing and customer experience at HomeWork and we had an incredibly insightful conversation about the progression of co-working spaces and HomeWork’s journey amongst all its market competitors.
Since 2019, HomeWork operates as a coworking space that prides itself on its locality. They provide all one needs from an office space whilst remaining as cosy as a coffee shop. With its small community and plans that can fit all, they aim to make working as flexible as possible. They currently operate in Putney, Southfields, and Fulham and plan to expand nationwide.
As is usually the case for every new enterprise, going into an already busy market is not easy. However, with its three branches in three years HomeWork appears to have things under control. We wanted to know what lies at the heart of their success, so we asked how HomeWork is different from other workspaces. Georgie shared with us her thoughts on the things that make a co-working space better than others since some are getting traction whilst others are not.
Next, we chatted about why people continually go to workspaces and Georgie stated that for HomeWork, it is certainly about social interaction. As a result of the lockdowns during the height of the pandemic, it appears what people lacked the most was a sense of community and HomeWork’s workspace is addressing this issue. We also talked about the other reasons people, such as employees, freelancers, and small business owners, prefer to work in these places and the demographic that frequents HomeWork.
Then we turned our attention to the apparent shift in the co-working space industry. We talked about the possible motives behind the increase in co-working spaces and why the trend has shifted from large office buildings to localised co-working spaces.
And finally, we asked Georgie to share with us the difficulties that come with running a co-working space. If you like to know what the most difficult hardship they had to overcome and learn more about the key points of starting and running a co-working space, make sure to listen to our episode above.
