The Rise of the Coffice
In today’s tough economic market more and more people are losing their jobs and struggling to find new ones. A by-product of this new world is that more and more people are becoming entrepreneurs and starting a wide range of new businesses. Now if you don’t have a job and want to be an entrepreneur you can work from home, rent an office or join the new trend of using coffee shops and cafes as your office – the coffice!
As someone who spends too much time working from coffices around the world, I have come to know what makes a great coffice. Here are some thoughts. A great coffice has the following characteristics…
- Free internet connection
- Great coffee and tea
- Television … so you can watch the sport or news
- Good food for nibbling on
- Power points so that you can plug in
- Not too loud music
- Big tables
- Friendly staff who don’t mind you staying all day
- Beer for afternoon work sessions
Here is a picture of Classified Ad Ventures’ UK team hard at work at one of their coffice’s in St Margaret’s – a cafe called Zorans.
Let us know of any great coffice’s in your part of the world.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
That guy on the right looks familiar… I reckon I saw him playing for Diamond creek footy club… not much of a player
Hi,
In Luxembourg it is pretty common to go to either one of the McDonald’s or Quick’s (another fastfood ‘restaurant’), as they provide many of the caracteristics you listed in your post… if you leave out the “good” and “great” sometimes
This being said, I’d rather have the people work from home. You can have everything you listed in your ‘home office’ and forget about the ongoing distraction you have with customers going in and out, children screaming, or someone pirating your (unsecured because free) Internet connection.
Coffice no, Hoffice yes.
Federation Square, Melbourne has free Wireless. Fast, great view, great food, big tables at Arintji Cafe Bar and fabulous wine. The location and history makes a good impression on international customers.
p.s. you have to connect to a secure network at Fed Sq, so safer than Maccas.
Having been in San Francisco a few weeks ago, you can almost pick any cafe …
the one i liked best was on lombard street corner taylor street. great food (love the bagels), pretty good coffee and very friendly staff.
little italy and chinatown is near by if you want a different taste.
I’ve seen these types in St Margies, bringing the prices down but paying their desk space in double shot cafe lungo’s.
If you’re travelling in the UK use Virgin rail. It may be more expensive but no productivity lost as they supply free internet and coffee.
After 7 years of enjoying Melbourne`s great coffee culture and a proper job, I`ve moved to Peru and become addicted to the coffice. Amazingly, the hot spot for small businessmen and entrepreneurs here in Lima is Starbucks, go figure… but I have to say the `bucks here are way better than any in the US…they have ample parking spaces,are large and comfortable, have free wireless, bloody patient staff and they are in great loocations so you can always arrange meetings with pretty much anybody.
To me coffice is the way to go….hoffice with 1 year old twins distracting you is definetily not the go!
Great article! My current “coffice” is Coffee Connection in Salt Lake City, UT. I’ve been typing away on my laptop there since they opened in 2007. It’s a great way to work especially when I want to get out of the house. What I would like to do is start an online community of the frequent mobile entrepreneurs that come in to CC (as we call it) and share tips for being productive in our little wifi workspaces
That way we can interact with more than just a nod when we pass by each others table. Interaction at the workplace is vital to work morale but can be a challenge to do in person while at a cafe. It’s something we new entrepreneurs took for granted I think when we had a regular office with a constant stream of coworkers day to day.