The Future of Coworking.

Predicting the Future of Coworking

Depending on what you read, the future of coworking is either the next hot thing or closing down. The truth is, the industry is expected to continue growing as more and more people embrace the flexibility and community of coworking spaces. Coworking is anticipated to expand by 6% year-over-year with coworking spaces projected to occupy 30% of office space by 2030.

However, jumping on this trend and building a successful coworking space is a challenge. Building out a traditional 10K+ square feet coworking space will cost $100K-$1M. And franchising will cost between $500K-$1.5M which makes profit and sustainability 4 to 5 years down the road, assuming you can pick up enough tenants. Individual operators need to pay the overhead, staffing and marketing needs. This threshold makes it a challenge for landlords to easily and feasibly start up a space.

So how does Small Officer fit into this conversation? We think of ourselves as “micro-coworking.” We work with landlords to fit out modular offices that cater to short term rentals (down to the hour!) and shared office needs. This services landlords and owners in multiple ways. One, it helps to bring people to your building. Next, it provides short term revenue for unused spaces (often more than the leased amount) and helps convert people into monthly or longer tenants in both small and large spaces. Finally, Small Officer is an amenity (that you make money on!) for your current tenants. Our service is more of a flexible funnel for your building and can even be moved space-to-space. We are less concerned with “coworking” and more about sharing and flexibility.

Our model is a service that can be accessed across multiple locations with technology that allows us to keep overhead costs extremely low. Our technology allows us to unlock and lock doors, control HVAC and even the lights and everything is done remotely. Instead of building out extremely expensive and large spaces, we convert a handful of offices, lightly furnish and provide free WiFi. 99% of "coworkers" are actually just looking for a clean room, a desk and reliable WiFi, not all the fancy details and decor that drive up cost. Our guests aren’t required to buy memberships, pay upfront and tend to come frequently. We target more suburban communities where our smaller spaces meet local demand and are well above competitive standards. If demand is high, it is very easy to expand, if a guest wants to become a monthly or annual tenant, the space easily converts. Thus opportunity cost is low, being flexible to what comes in the door is high.

Overall, the future of coworking is very promising, but the ability to enter the market is the challenge. The industry is poised for continued growth, as more and more people embrace the flexibility and community of coworking spaces, and we provide a way for landlords to quickly convert spaces and grow their long term tenants.