If your city isn’t one of the bigger cities in your area, you are probably feeling like you are missing out on joining coworking offices that are popping up in the major metropolitan areas around the world. Being able to go to an office without the large expense of getting your own office, coworking has been a great benefit for entrepreneurs or single-owned businesses who want a place to work that is outside of their home. Many coworking memberships that aren’t dedicated desks usually range from $100-$400 per month, depending on the region. For many professionals, this is much more affordable than getting a private office, which can range from $400-$1500+ per month.
However, I just realized something that allows you to get free coworking. And you don’t have to be in a large metropolitan area.
Because believe it or not, almost every city already has a free coworking space.
It’s called the library.
If coworking is defined as:
- A place with wifi and quiet to get work done
- Copying, faxing, and printing services
- Bathrooms for all tenants
- Events for tenants
- Private rooms you can reserve for calls or meetings
- Tables for work with outlets and lamps
Most libraries already has all of this, and it’s free. They only thing that the library may not have is free coffee and a fridge, but even if you bought your own coffee ($1 at McDonald’s) and went out to each every day ($5-10), it would likely still be cheaper than a coworking membership. And you don’t even have to do that. You could bring your own coffee and food from home.
While you can’t be conducting meetings the entire day in a library (though there are usually private rooms you can reserve for a few hours), that likely wouldn’t fly in an open coworking space either. Making calls for hours on end is disruptive to the people around you, no matter where you are.
The library is often overlooked by professionals because it was the place you would go as a kid or student to get homework done. But if you look at today’s libraries, you’ll see that there are people of all ages, there every day, enjoying the space. I urge you to check out your own library and take advantage of their free coworking space and everything else they have to offer. 🙂
Images via Unsplash.
Kelsey Jones
Latest posts by Kelsey Jones (see all)
- 16+ Holiday Marketing Tips, Tricks, and Trends - November 27, 2023
- 9 Great AI Tools For Content Marketers - October 5, 2023
- SEO For Lead Gen: Six Stories Founder Kelsey Jones on Wix Podcast - May 11, 2023