Darina Loakman.com

I know, I know we haven’t quite grasped the first stage of working from home and we’re apparently moving on to the next !

One of the down-sides of working from home, can often be the isolation. Sure there are ways to interact online and with phone calls etc.. but sometimes we do miss the normal social interaction of an office space.

Well enter co-working the next stage of home-based working. It’s an emerging trend for a new pattern for working. Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who generally share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space. It’s different from using resources such as business incubators etc.. it’s a much more casual arrangement. I touched on this a little bit when I spoke about 1 Alfred place recently and I certainly saw it in action there.

In the states where the number of home-based businesses are rocketing, coworking is becoming really popular. Groups of home-based workers often get together on a monthly or more frequent basis in either a large rented out space or the function room of a cafe or bar and just get on with working! The difference being there are people around you to bounce things off, to share ideas with and to even cultivate joint ventures. You can read more about it at http://workatjelly.com/

It’s even taking off here, I came across a website www.coworking.ie which keeps upto date with the emerging trend here in Ireland.

So if you’ve been putting off working from home or starting a home-based business because you fear the isolation then maybe it’s time to start thinking again ! There’s always ways around things !

Darina