Late last year Prime Minister David Cameron announced his Government would be pumping £400 million into a project to create a Silicon Valley-style “Tech City” in the east end of London, specifically in the area surrounding the Old Street Roundabout.
In my quest to find a work space outside the home office and where I can’t satisfy a strong desire to vacuum every three hours (classic procrastination, not mild OCD), I was invited to a ‘We Show, You Tell’ evening by brand new co-working space Central in Bloomsbury, London.
After suffering a short bout of cabin fever as a home-based PR consultant and writer, I’ve been keen to join a co-working space – those hip, buzzy, networking joints full of freelancers looking hip and buzzy but really just wanting to escape the cat stepping over their keyboard every five minutes.
SPACE is a co-working space with a difference. While most of the shared offices we’ve come across are utilitarian rows of desks with power outlets (albeit usually with some trendy flourishes thrown in), SPACE is just that…a space. It is geared towards artists more than developers, and has a thriving community of creative people who use their services every day.
OpenSpace is co-operatively run co-working office facility in Manchester. It offers comparatively cheap, flexible office space in a creative, friendly atmosphere. The co-operative was formed in 2007 when a group of like-minded freelancers and small businesses discovered that they were all facing similar issues
Jon Norris | Events,Working From Home
If you’re a work-from-home freelancer, you may very well have heard of Jelly, the popular co-working group. Born in 1996 out of two New York freelancer’s loneliness, Jelly groups became more popular and finally came to the UK in late 2009, and now over 60 events per month are held across the country. The thinking behind these events is that although working from home is great, sometimes it can get a tad lonely.
According to a new report, the number of co-working spaces worldwide almost doubled in the past year. It’s surely good news for freelancers who prefer to work away from home and don’t have a clients office to go to.
The survey by co-working portal Deskwanted.com, reveals there were 350 co-working spaces at the beginning of 2010 and 650 at the start of 2011. This still looks a rather small number, but it represents a significant upward curve and suggests that demand may continue to rise as freelancing is increasingly seen as a viable and preferable alternative to traditional employment
A study has been carried out which looks into the cost of renting co-working space compared to maintaining a workstation in a regular office.
The results show that renting a desk in a co-working space costs half as much in most cities. It’s statistics like these that illustrate the financial benefits of hiring remote workers and outsourcing vital business functions.
Freelancing in the 21st century offers a limitless number of opportunities for helping you become more efficient and finding more work. Technology really is a freelancers best friend.
So, what are these opportunities and how does the 21st freelancer make the most of them. Read on…
Are you a freelancer? We’re guessing probably yes. Do you like live music, free alcohol and free food? Of course you do. Are you based in or around the Brighton area? We hope so. Because today we’re announcing the inaugural Brighton & Hove Freelancer’s Christmas Party!
Many of you may already be familiar with Desk Space Genie, the website that helps freelancers find workspace in the UK. It’s a useful site which allows you to easily find a co-working space in your area.
The bad news is: it is no more. The good news is: it’s transformed into Office Genie!
We love co-working – it’s the perfect asset for freelancers and contractors, and you get to keep your freedom while also having a nice, professional office setup.
Jon Norris | Working From Home
Everybody knows about working from home – you get to have a lie-in, don’t have to trudge to the train station in the rain, you can even work in your underwear if you so choose (just remember to keep a shirt on in case of any incoming Skype calls).
Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out,Working From Home
The Skiff 2.0 has recently moved to a new space for creative co-working.
In partnership with Wired Sussex the new co-working and events space is a bigger, better, brighter place at 6 Gloucester Street, right in the heart of Brighton’s North Laine .
Leif Kendall | Lifestyle & Time out
As part of our Freelance Stories series Leif Kendall talks with former Freelancer of the Year winner and founder of Callender Creates, Jim Callender. We find out how Jim juggles work in London and Brighton and hear how he found a work/life balance that works for him and his family.
Judy Heminsley | Lifestyle & Time out
Co-working offers freelancers both flexibility of where to work and also the chance to meet with like-minded co-workers and collaborators. Working from home expert Judy Heminsley recommends the Jelly approach.
The guys and girls at Cloud Engines are my new best friends! As a roaming freelancer (working on contracts in other people’s offices, working from home and, sometimes, working from bed) the problem of where to keep my data has always been a difficult one to solve. Not any more.
Pogoplug is a great solution. It’s got 4 USB slots and it connects to a home WiFi router and, yes it really is that simple, now I have access to my portable hard drives wherever I am in the world.
Andy White | Podcast,Working From Home
Andy speaks to Judy Heminsley, author of Work from Home.
Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out
If you are lucky enough to own an iPhone 3Gs and you are wandering around town trying to find a place to do a spot of co-working then this funky Augmented Reality app for iPhone looks like an awesome solution. thanks @stephenfry
Darren Fell | Lifestyle & Time out
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 [...]
