![Friuch Consulting home page [logo]](wp-content/themes/friuch-branded/images/friuchconsulting.jpg)
« Let Steve Jobs’ Health Controversy Be A Wakeup Call | Home | How Social Isolation Strikes Down The Best Of Us »
Why Consultants Love Working In Coffee Shops
By crooky | July 28, 2008
Yesterday, I got an e-mail from a grad student named Jaspreet in the UK who is studying at Swansea University in South Wales. They stumbled across Coffee Shop Office – a site that I am peripherally involved in that is exploring how coffee shops have become work spaces for the self-employed, students, artists and anyone that works away from the home or office. She asked me the following question in relation to this work:
“Could you tell me why you work in a coffee shop, when you tend to go there and who you go with?”
Edit Aug 6 08: Jaspreet got some great input from some of my collegues and regular readers and has designed a survey about working in coffee shops based on your input. She’s giving away a 1GB iPod Shuffle at the end of August to one lucky respondent. Check out her survey here (link).
I’m always keen to help out students and this was my response:
Let me approach your question from two perspectives: my personal perspective and my thoughts on the larger trend.
1. My personal perspective
My situation is not unique. In Canada, there are legions of self-employed individuals such as myself. In Vancouver (where I live), the cost of living is so high that few of us can afford homes with enough space to have a dedicated office. This means that many self-employed individuals in dense metropolises like Vancouver end up with small workspaces adjacent to a high-traffic room in their home (my last apartment had a desk to one side of the kitchen). This is not the best environment for getting work done, especially if you are married with kids (like myself).
A typical site at your local coffee shop.
This arrangement drove me out of the home and into coffee shops to get work done. Sure, coffee shops are often just as noisy as a house full of kids but there are no demands placed on you while you’re at a coffee shop. One of the other patrons isn’t going to come up and try to sit on your lap while you’re typing. Well, there was that one time but… I digress.
There’s a steady supply of refreshments. There are distractions when you need them like trying to figure out which patrons are on a first date, which ones are insane and which ones are also working, like yourself. There are other options out there for me such as the library, my old university, offices of other colleagues or the pub.
None of these options are as viable of a location as a coffee shop with WiFi access and lots of power outlets. Why?
- Library – distractingly quiet, can’t eat or drink while you work (although my friend Lori recently wrote on her blog that libraries might start serving coffee soon), that yucky library smell.
- My old university – have to drive 30 minutes to get there, the young student population makes me feel old and out of place, uncomfortable seating.
- Offices of other colleagues – your colleagues always want to socialize while you’re trying to get some work done.
- The pub – with many pubs now offering WiFi, it’s almost a viable option except you’d be the only person in there working on a laptop and would probably get mocked.
Update: July 28, 5pm
Karen Fung, one of my more blog and mobile-work savvy friends, has pointed out in the comments section that I forgot to discuss Co-working space. There are a number of good co-working spaces in Vancouver. One of my partner organizations - Rocket Builders - is in the New Look Business Centre just outside of downtown and it’s a great space.
I favour coffee shops over co-working space because there aren’t any co-working spaces closer than 40 km from where I live. I’m not going to drive 80 km (round trip) to hang out with a better class of mobile workers. That said, I think there’s an opportunity for some form of co-working space in the ‘burbs.
/update
So the “why” for me is this: coffee shops provide the right environment for me to work without all of the distractions of home.
When? I work in coffee shops a lot less now than I used to because I have a proper office at home now. When I was working in coffee shops – there were two times that I used to go: between breakfast and lunch and after dinner. The coffee shops are markedly less busy during these times and I don’t feel guilty for hogging a table for a few hours when there are other empty tables.
I go to coffee shops alone – that’s the point. I’m not there to socialize, I’m there to work. I’ve seen people meet in coffee shops to plan projects but working with someone else, while in a coffee shop? I’m not a big fan of it.
2. The larger trend
I think there are a few issues that are coming together to drive people into coffee shops (in Vancouver anyhow):
- The number of coffee shops with free WiFi in the Vancouver area has gone up 10-fold in the past few years which makes working in coffee shops a lot more tenable than it was even as late as 2005.
- There are an increasing number of consultants coming into the market as baby boomers who take early retirement realize that they can still make money as a freelancer. They have many of the same issues that I do with working from home.
- Thanks to the penetration of BlackBerries, the work culture is such that people are never out of touch from the office. You might have gone to the coffee shop to just sit, relax and read the paper but your smartphone won’t let you do that for long.
- I believe that coffee shops are becoming more tolerant of people using their business as a drop-in office space. I don’t think that tolerance is going to last long-term. There are several coffee shops I know of that are always packed with people working on laptops. That has to have some kind of influence on the bottom line of the business.
There are a few issues that I feel might reverse this trend of working in coffee shops:
- Backlash from owners. In the EU, many coffee shops have a “to stay” rate and a “to go” rate. The “to stay” rate is higher and a reflection of high rent per square foot in retail space. When rent is high, you have to recognize that a customer taking up space at one of your tables for X amount of time adds to the cost of their cup of coffee. If customers didn’t use up table space, a coffee shop could be little more than a coffee cart or a deli counter – bringing down the operating costs of the business. My friend who used to be a restaurateur once told me that the ideal situation is when someone comes in, orders their food/drinks, eats and gets the hell out so you can get more bums in seats in a day. When someone holds down a table in a coffee shop for several hours that hurts the ability of coffee shop owners to make money. I’ve seen patrons come into an incredibly busy coffee shop, look around for a seat, not find one and leave without buying anything. That’s not a good situation for the owner.
- Oil prices means that the less driving someone needs to do, the better. My favourite coffee shop for working outside of the home is about 10km from where I live. Last year, I would drive there a few times a week to get some work done. Now, I never go there. Why? Because I’m conscious of the fact that I’m wasting gas by doing so. If there was a decent coffee shop closer to me that I could work out of, I would probably still go.
- The current economic slowdown will decrease demand for many types of freelancers. This, combined with many lucrative job openings as we finally see the baby boomers retire, will drive many mobile workers back into office jobs.
That’s my $0.02.
*********************
Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.
Topics: social issues |
Loading ...
July 28th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
There’s also the co-working concept which is a good alternative to coffee places, as there’s no guilt involved if you choose not to caffeinate or raise your blood sugar to dangerous highs. But they usually have some sort of fee structure that weighs on the pocketbook a bit, keeping out the really broke students.
And for me, the biggest drawback about working at the library is the fact that people do need to call my cellphone, and the librarians shush me for talking even if I am within 10 feet of the door _outside the library._ In other words, they are not sympathetic to my plight of being my working space.
July 28th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
You’re absolutely right. I didn’t mention Co-working space because there’s so few of them and they’re all concentrated in downtown Vancouver and the immediate area. For us in the ‘burbs, these co-working spaces are a bit of a long-shot.
I do think there’s room for a modified coffee shop business model where there’s a normal coffee shop downstairs and a small co-working space upstairs.
As for the blood sugar part - I’m a black coffee only guy. I buy about one per hour while I’m in these places and that’s it. :)
I completely forgot about the part that you can’t take calls at the Library. That’s a big downside.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Coffee shop is an ideal place for me to meet my work partner sometimes to discuss any particular aspect of our project. Simply because as you rightly pointed out, working with kids at home is not the most ideal situation. It provides me the time to discuss with minimum amount of distractions and you get your coffee served without having to do it all yourself.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
It is nice to get some socialization time in with colleagues too. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I’m anti-social. ;)
September 30th, 2008 at 5:37 am
I can totally relate to this - i go to starbucks down the road two or three times a week just to study! I find the noise actually helps me concentrate. Plus I never feel tired - just buy another coffee ! ;)