In this second article from the USA, Freelance Advisor founder and serial entrepreneur Darren Fell gets the low-down on the American co-working scene and some advice about the pitfalls of freelancer café culture.

Wanting to continue the debate on the merits of co-working, I descend on one of the very first co-working establishments – the San Francisco based Hat Factory. I meet Ryan Bailey and learn the pitfalls of freelancer café working.

Hatfactory – a Mecca for co-working?

One of the early adopters of co-working, the Hatfactory was set up in the first dot-com heyday back in 1998. The now-famous establishment, created inside a converted warehouse, has featured in so many articles that the core members, including Ryan, are interviewed on a weekly basis.

So as an ‘anchor’ member, Ryan, who also lives in the upper levels of the Hatfactory, should know a thing or two about the world of freelancing and the amazing projects and Internet based businesses that surround the Hatfactory and in and around San Francisco.

True to form with what appears to be a regular procession of journalists, I arrive at the same time as another interview and end up sharing it and the photo session with a Swiss Business Magazine!

Café culture vs Co-working

Ryan, a co-founder of Vidd You and part-time freelancer, described how the tide is turning from the favoured working locations of the café to co-working venues, “you still get many wannabes hanging out in the cafés hoping to meet a VC and get some huge funding but it’s not so effective these days”.

“In fact some of the cafés are rebelling and are either turning the wireless off or simply resisting putting wireless in. The scene in non-wifi cafés is often described as more social rather then people staring blankly (and silently) at a laptop screen for hours on end.”

Personally I can see why the cafés are going the other way. Freelancers can sit there for hours taking up valuable space and only ever buying one coffee, tea or soft drink.

The other down side is that the cafés don’t really stimulate the collaborative working that I see going on in the Hat Factory and for that matter, at the Werks in Brighton – admittedly the only other co-working centre I have been to.

So there you have it. If you are starting to climb the walls working from your bedroom or front room, get out into the real world and check out your local co-working centre. You never know, before long you could be involved in some collaborative working with other freelancers and never have to worry about marketing yourself again – perfect.

photo credit: hillary h

Related:

Part 1 – Freelancing USA – Darren walks the streets of San Francisco and samples the American freelance scene