Entrepreneurs are looking for new ways to work and it’s easy to see why they would be attracted to coworking. Coworking combines the best of different work settings where small businessess thrive: the flexibility of a home office, vibe of a café, and facilities of a serviced office.

Here are more reasons to try a coworking space:

1. Network everyday just by bumping into someone.
“By being surrounded by entrepreneurs on a daily basis, I am constantly learning and growing,” says Joey Coleman, a member at Affinity Lab in Washington, D.C. “Brown bag lunches with guest presenters, featured speakers at evening training sessions, and even the casual conversation in the hallway, have all led to tremendous opportunities.”

2. Build your bridges— from finding team members to generating contacts.
Coworking hinges on the belief that innovation and inspiration come from the cross-pollination of different people in different fields or specializations. Group projects are often successful not because of one person’s technical prowess, but because of the diversity of expertise among different players.
“Being a member of a coworking facility has connected me with a large and talented pool of like-minded, hardworking individuals— some of whom have since worked with me on projects and enhanced my ability to accept a broader range of work”, says Jason Beatty of NextSpace in California.

3. Find opportunities to score bigger projects.
Johnny Bilotta says that when he first came to Indy Hall in Philadelphia as a graphic designer, “I was struggling to find work, picking off things from Craigslist. But before I knew it, I started being contacted by companies in San Francisco, New York, and wherever, who saw the work that I’d done. I would not have the success that I have today if it wasn’t for this space.”

Being a solo worker means independence, but you shouldn’t feel like you have little choice but to work alone. Find your community and thrive.

Genevieve DeGuzman is the co-author of Working in the UnOffice: A Guide to Coworking for Indie Workers, Small Businesses, and Nonprofits (Night Owls Press), the first volume in a series of books planned covering the ‘collaborative economy’.

Don’t let doubts like these put you off, as coworking can both brighten up your usual routine and give you a supportive network – without requiring you to go to any events!

Here are some tips to help you acclimatize to coworking:

Check out the space – If you’re lucky enough to have a choice of coworking spaces, check out each one (they often offer a free trial) for factors such as facilities, atmosphere, noise and levels of interaction. Choose the one most suited to your business requirements, personality and whether you simply want another place to work or to become part of a community.

Introduce yourself straightaway – As it can be awkward to do so later when you’ve been working alongside people for a while. Take in some snacks to hand round if you’re a bit shy about doing this and not only will you get to meet everybody but you’ll be guaranteed instant popularity.

Take headphones – If you prefer working in silence you might be distracted at first by people moving around the space and talking on the phone or face to face. Bring in headphones so you can play your own music or one of the white noise apps; do try not to hum along!

Start with easy tasks – If you’re worried about being distracted, at first just take along some routine work that doesn’t require massive concentration. It’s the ideal time to do that computer housekeeping you’ve been meaning to get round to, or research to keep up with your industry. You will adapt to being surrounded by activity and gradually be able to introduce jobs needing more application.

Learn the phone policy – Make sure you know the policy on dealing with phone calls and follow it. That may mean leaving the room to take a call or simply keeping your voice down. It shows consideration if you put your phone on the Meeting setting so that your colleagues don’t have to listen repeatedly to your ring tone.

Chat a bit – Don’t feel guilty about spending time chatting and view it instead as relationship building. You’ll be amazed how much information and advice emerges from these casual exchanges and they can give you enough inspiration to last the rest of the week. And you never know who might be a potential partner – one of your coworkers might be actively looking for just your skills.

The great thing about coworking is that you can choose how much or how little you want to participate, and slot it into your routine where it fits best. Good luck in finding your own perfect balance for maximum happiness and efficiency, and I’d love to hear your own tips for acclimatising.

This post was first published on www.workshifting.com, the site for people who work out of coffee shops, hotels, airports and their homes every bit as much as the office

In fact the more I get out and about, the more I’m meeting people involved in those fields, such as Richard Leyland of WorkSnug, the app that lets you find not only your nearest place to work, but now also places where you can do printing. Clare Flynn Levy, flexible working champion, was our special guest at How to Work from Home at Central last week.

And I’m thrilled to have just secured two more guests for future How to Work from Home meetups. San Sharma, Community Manager for both Bitsy and WorkSnug, will be leading a discussion on the Top 10 Tech Tools to Save Time on Thursday 29 September.

On Thursday 27 October, Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation and Bitsy, and the person the Government consults about home business, will be the guest at our session on organisation. I’m still working on details of the event for 25 August, but that should be finalised very soon!

All the Jelly information will be freely available on my site, and I’ll continue to post articles on my Work from Home Wisdom Facebook page and to retweet details of new Jellys. (I stopped RTing existing Jellys some time ago, as there are now so many and UK Jelly does an excellent job of that!) I’m happy to keep answering enquiries, like the two emails I’ve received this week about setting up new Jellys, and I’ll be continuing to spread the word about Jelly at my own and other events and to whoever I meet.

Oh, and I’ve just had a tweet about Fiona no longer organising Jelly at Monk’s Yard near Ilminster in Somerset, so perhaps a piece about finding a replacement organiser is called for – Jelly never sleeps!

I now find myself in the same position, having organised Frome Jelly for over 18 months, and I’m looking for someone to take over the voluntary organisation and hosting duties from August. Who might it suit?

Well, a start-up business or anyone wishing to make widespread contacts with forward-thinking people across all industries. Here in Frome we are very fortunate in not only having a workhub of superb quality like The Old Church School, but also its owner, Gavin Eddy, who instantly understood the concept of Jelly and offered a monthly space before I even had to ask! He and Rebecca Krzyzosiak, the Office Manager, are very keen for Jelly to continue uninterrupted after the August Jelly, which is a week earlier than usual in order to be part of Old School Start-ups, the small business festival being hosted by The Old Church School.

Already having a venue and the systems I’ve put in place for organising each Jelly means you’ll have much less to do than the 70 or so other organisers who have set up Jelly from scratch!

You’ll need to appreciate that Jelly is not about selling, but about likeminded people getting together to work for a day away from their usual surroundings, to exchange help and advice and catch up on the local news. Because nobody is required to pitch their business, Jelly has a uniquely laidback and friendly atmosphere.

You’ll not only meet local home workers and freelancers, but through Twitter immediately be in touch with many Jelly organisers and attendees from all over the UK and further afield, who are a rich source of friendly help and information.

Who knows what opportunities might arise? I was lucky enough to be asked to help organise The BIG Jelly in March this year. Working with Jan Minihane, founder of Shropshire Jelly, and Fay Easton of Enterprise HQ taught me so much, and has definitely helped me to develop my business to the point where it demands all my commitment and energy. I’m organising monthly meet-ups for home workers in London and planning a programme to launch in the autumn to support women who want to start their own business from home, and of course I’ll keep in touch with all my Jelly friends through Twitter.

So it’s time to pass Frome Jelly over to someone who can benefit as I have from the positive connections it brings. Do get in touch if you find the prospect intriguing and would like to know more.

The BIG Jelly was the idea of Jan Minihane, my Jelly friend and the founder of Shropshire Jelly, who was so thrilled at the collaborations that came out of her local Jellys that she wondered what wonderful things might happen if home workers, freelancers and micro business owners from all over the UK met up for the day.

She also wanted to tell more people about Jelly and how simple it is to start, with the ultimate aim of a Jelly within reach of every home worker in the UK.

But obviously nobody would bother to travel to a central point for a national Jelly when they’ve got one much closer, so the day had to be really special. The Jelly team (me, Jan and Fay Easton of Enterprise HQ in Coalport, which hosts Jan’s Jelly) have planned a day for all small businesses that is not only Jelly, a space with free wi fi where you can catch up with work and emails, but also all of the following:

3 inspirational speakers – Louise Findlay-Wilson of PR Pro
Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation & Bitsy
Daniel Priestley of Triumphant Events – all well-known champions of small business

A choice of breakout sessions run by experts:
Home Working Wisdom
The Money Go Round
Demystifying Social Media
Marketing for Micro Businesses
Setting up & Running a Jelly
Website/SEO Clinic

And:
Mini expo
Refreshments provided throughout the day from coffee and Danish on arrival to brown bag lunch and cookies, and tea and coffee all day
Event bag with useful content to take away
Special rates for overnight accommodation at host venue, 4* QHotels Telford
Plenty of time for meeting new people in the uniquely friendly Jelly atmosphere

The BIG Jelly is for all micro and small business owners, freelancers, home workers, coworkers, new start-ups, business advisers, workhub operators, business support agencies, government ministers and anyone interested in the future of small and home business, whether you have heard of Jelly or not!

Some people have asked why The BIG Jelly isn’t free, when one of the main principles of Jelly is that it’s free to attend. Well, we’d have loved to bring you all this for nothing, but with the economy the way it is, it simply isn’t possible to cover the costs of a national event through goodwill and sponsorship alone. Even the big blue chip companies have tightened their belts. The people and organisations supporting us have been extremely generous and that’s how we’ve been able to keep the ticket price to £50 + VAT if you book before 28th February 2010, and £75 + VAT thereafter.

The BIG Jelly is a not-for-profit event and so we don’t have a big marketing and PR budget. You will soon be reading about the day in the press, but it would be a huge help if home workers and small businesses can create a strong word-of-mouth buzz through Twitter, Facebook and your personal contacts.

Wherever you are in the UK or the world, whether you can come to The BIG Jelly or not, we would be so grateful if you can start talking about the day both on and offline. The hashtag is #BIGJelly, and more information and booking is at www.uk-jelly.org.uk

Thank you so much if you can support us in making this day a huge success and helping to spread the many benefits of Jelly throughout the UK. I really hope to see you there!

Best wishes
Judy

James knows he’s not going to get everything right from the word go, which is why the logo currently contains the word ‘beta’. He’s being refreshingly open about Central’s plans and is sharing everything – from layouts to furniture and lighting – in an attempt to make it as close as possible to what users want and need before the first Central opens in London in April. He’d like you, as home workers, freelancers, Jelly fans and occasional coworkers to let him know what you think of his ideas, and what you’d ideally like from a space like his.

Don’t be put off if you live miles from London, either, James has plans for rapid expansion, so Central could be opening in your local town sooner than you think!

Have a look at the plans on the Central site or Facebook page and leave your comments there, or here as usual, or you can e-mail me or James if you’d prefer not to go public. How often do you say of a new business “Well, it’s good, but it could be so much better. Why don’t they just ask the people who are going to use it?’ Well, now’s your chance to influence what happens at Central.

I’ve already mentioned a couple of points about people being welcomed in off the street and whether mobile phone calls will be allowed in all areas. Have you got any likes/dislikes about working in a coworking space that you think James should know about? He’s looking forward to hearing them.

Technology can cut us off from other people, if that’s the way we choose to use it, but it can also connect us in ways that would have seemed miraculous not so long ago. I discovered Jelly through Twitter only a year ago, and the idea has caught on all over the UK through people tweeting and sharing information like my How to start your own Jelly guide. Jelly brings people together who otherwise wouldn’t have met, despite living very close to each other, and gives them the opportunity to help each other and collaborate.

The other day I had a Skype call with Jan Minihane, business adviser and social media trainer, who runs Shropshire Jelly and Fay Easton of Enterprise HQ, the workhub in Coalport, to discuss Jan’s idea of a national Jelly event next year. I’m a strongly visual person, so being able to see the people I’m speaking to is very powerful, and the call was very motivating for all of us.

Watch this space for more details as we crystallise ideas and start planning. We’ll be able to share updates by using cloud content management, a concept presently as woolly to me as its name, but which will no doubt soon become as clear as a blue sky!

So this Thursday I’m very grateful for what technology enables me to do, and very excited about its human end product, a roomful of likeminded people sharing ideas, enjoying each other’s company and making leaps forward with their businesses.

As he points out, the recent surge in popularity of Jelly means he won’t be desperately missed, as not only is Jelly now happening all over the UK, but workhubs are holding their own free coworking days.

This might have happened because the timing was just right, because a number of factors just happened to come together, but I also believe that Lee’s personal qualities have a lot to do with the amazing upsurge in Jelly since his first event last autumn.

His absolute insistence that Jelly should not be a vehicle to promote his own or anybody else’s business, his friendliness and generosity in communicating the spirit of Jelly – I am sure these have greatly contributed to its takeup by so many people. I may have written the How to start your own Jelly guide and published it on my website, but all of it was first edited and occasionally amended by Lee, who could be relied on to phrase potentially controversial points in his uniquely diplomatic way!

It speaks volumes about the man that I still don’t have a photo of him to use on this post – only the coworking avatar he uses on Twitter!

I’d like to thank Lee for all the help he has given me in establishing Jelly in Frome, in putting together the Jelly information on this site and to wish him every success with his new projects.

The Workhubs Network, who ran the conference, will be launching a redesigned website at the end of the summer with a workhubs directory. In the meantime, in response to queries I get from around the country, here are some more coworking resources at all points of the compass:

If you’re a home worker in the North East of England looking for good spaces for meetings, training and so on, you’ll be interested in Space on Tap. The site allows you to search for the kind of space you want under categories such as relaxed, inspiring etc. Just click to open the doors to view the space! Space on Tap also runs coworking events for home workers to get together.

Down to Winchester and Charlotte Baker runs OutThere events with speakers on topics of interest to freelancers and small business. She’s also planning her first Jelly in early September. Also in Hampshire the County Council is opening Smarter Working Centres around the area and are interested in hearing from people with spare office space that could be used for coworking.

Travel eastwards almost as far as you can and the first Norfolk Jelly will be held on Monday 13 September. And to keep tabs on all the new Jellys popping up around the country check in at the Jelly Wiki.

The conference launched the new report on workhubs written by the Workhubs Network (run by Tim Dwelly, whom I know from my Cornwall days. It’s really quite spooky how the past can pop up in your life again!) Workhubs are also known as coworking spaces or workspaces, and are the places you can rent a desk for just a few hours if you are a home worker or freelancer who fancies some company and a change from your home office.

I was invited along on the strength of the Jellys I organise at The Old Church School, the workhub we are lucky to have right here in Frome, Somerset. (And I’m delighted to say I was also quoted in the report!) I met workhub owners from London, Brighton, Leeds, York, Scarborough, Penzance, Coalport in Shropshire and Wing in Bedfordshire, so you can see it’s not just the big cities that have these facilities.

Fancy trying out coworking but not sure where to go? Just Google your location plus ‘workhub’ or ‘coworking’, or put out a question on Twitter. You can try coworking entirely free for a day by attending a Jelly. Check out the Jelly Wiki to find out where they are being held.