Have you been on the fence about joining a shared office space? Not sure if you will enjoy it or wondering whether the cost is worth the experience?
The coworking model has become increasingly popular across the world as more people take the leap to become their own boss or opt for remote and hybrid roles. Coworking can serve as a home for entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, work-from-homers, and freelancers. Coworking spaces are the very essence of embracing the shared work economy and the benefits of joining a coworking community are endless.
De Kamer has nine coworking spaces designed to provide workspace facilities across the Netherlands, and unlike renting a traditional office, each space offers flexible coworking membership options, business support, and meeting rooms to host clients or run workshops and so much more.
We believe that everybody should give coworking a try, so we’ve put together our top five reasons why coworking is good for your business, good for you, and good for the future of work!
1. Save on expenses for your business
Economically, times are tougher than they have been in a very long time. Increasing expenses and the cost of living can lead to stress and worry. People are looking to cut costs and one of the greatest benefits of joining a coworking community is the amount of savings you will make on your running business expenses. The shared coworking economy means that you share all the hard costs of a workspace office. You do not have to seek out a long term and expensive office lease. You can choose the membership option that allows you to drop in anytime or a certain number of days a month.
In addition to savings on renting an office space, you will also enjoy savings on your energy bill, WIFI, and data costs and avoid escaping to coffee shops to work, which always ends up costing you more than you planned. Your coworking space is fitted with a kitchen and refrigeration and microwaves for your lunch boxes.
An additional benefit (which is a big one for most), is that many coworkers also enjoy the savings on time and money spent for continuously keeping their homes clean during the day in the Work-From-Home context.
2. Improve your mental well-being
If COVID gave us anything to take away from years of lockdown and uncertainty on every level, it is the importance of prioritising our mental health, especially when it comes to our need to be in community with others, interact and connect.
There’s nothing wrong with a morning spent in sweatpants working in bed, but the novelty doesn’t last and remaining isolated while staying motivated to be creative and work is not always easy. When you become part of the De Kamer coworking family, you have a welcome and warm place to get out of the house and change up your environment when you need to. Leaving home and restoring work-life balance is critical to your mental wellbeing.
In fact, studies have shown that coworking reduces stress levels. An average of 17.8% of people cited working alone as the sole reason they had mental health conditions. This is because they feel isolated, with little daily contact with either an employer or colleagues.
3. Step up your physical fitness
Finding a convenient coworking location makes all the difference to your decision to join a community. By selecting one that is close enough to ride your bicycle to or take a brisk walk, is well, let’s face it – good for your health and good for the environment.
You can enjoy the endorphins from the exercise and feel good, knowing that you’ve made a positive step to a cleaner atmosphere by skipping the car or train ride. This also aids your mental health and increases your overall energy, counteracting feelings of lethargy as a result from spending too much time sitting at home.
4. Meet people and create new synergies
This one is critical to your personal and professional growth. Where or how can you upskill and scale your business if you’re not making an intentional effort to meet new people and discover potential opportunities to collaborate? We’ve all heard the expression, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and this rings true for many entrepreneurs and freelancers.
Another great benefit of expanding your network is that you have access to an immediate database of local business people with whom you might discover new ways to increase your revenue or partner together for a training event.
5. Our office is your office
Different coworking spaces offer different perks and benefits. Our goal in creating De Kamer was to provide more than just a space to come and work. Your membership means you are part of the De Kamer coworking family and you can treat the space as your personal office. For this reason, and to make running your business easy in the Netherlands, we can assist our members with:
- Registering a business address with no fixed term that is valid for the Chamber of Commerce.
- Warehousing facilities at some of our locations including a Webshop Service to manage collection and return of packages.
- Workshops and events that enable you to organise the space according to your needs.
- Part-time and fixed rental options offering permanent storage of your belongings.
Are you still wondering if coworking is right for you?
Coworking means you are part of something much bigger, the sharing economy. This means so much more than borrowing from your neighbour. At De Kamer we do sharing in the real sense of what it means, and we love it.
We put access to resources and people above ownership and we’ve seen that sharing leads to doing more together, more consultation, more joint solutions, and more sustainable initiatives that make real impact. Meaning that we all have a better time together instead of just each of us for ourselves.
Our goal is to grow the community to 80-100 members at each location, so that together we can do more. For every new coworker referred, we give our members one month FREE membership!
We are proud to apply the concept of Open Coworking, in which five values are paramount to ensuring the success and equality of all our members. Look at our coworking spaces and feel free to visit one to learn more about being a De Kamer community member.
