This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's up, friends, listeners, community. Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Have you been spending a lot of time indoors, perhaps talking to someone on the other side of the screen, perhaps with a partner or small child or roommate nearby who's also trying to work online, or perhaps all those things? This is a club that none of us have wanted to be in, yet here we are.
I especially feel for everyone in small apartments or in situations where there are multiple people sharing the same internet connection or trying to make phone calls in a small shared space. I know it's tough out there. Might there be a way to create some distance for yourself, some physical distance that is, and not just in pandemic times, but to have a space you could go to to be able to focus on your side hustle in the midst of all the busyness? That's what our listener is asking about today. She's feeling cooped up, wants to find a small space outside her home to dedicate to her electronics repair service.
Now, is this possible aside from renting commercial real estate? Well, there actually are some really good alternatives. So depending on where you live, there could be at least one good option. And I'll tell you what you need to know to find that because if you just go searching for office space for rent or commercial real estate, you're gonna kind of go down the wrong path. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First, let's hear the question right after a quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Sarah, and I just started listening after a friend recommended it. I've been working at home recently, and it's a little crowded. To devote more time to my side hustle repairing headphones and other electronic items, I'd like to rent a small workspace near my home. Among other things, I'm thinking it would help to separate the time I spend on my day job from the time I spent on my after hours job.
I looked at getting office space, but it seemed really expensive. Is there somewhere I could rent for maybe 200, 300 a month, or perhaps even less? What's your thoughts on this? Oh, and thanks. - Okay, so here's the thing.
And first of all, thank you so much Sarah for the question. But here's the trick. If you search for office space, like quote unquote, if you Google office space in your city or whatever, most of what you'll find is designed for corporate offices. And commercial real estate is its own industry. It's often expensive.
There are brokers involved, agencies, et cetera. And you probably don't need a whole floor of a high rise for yourself, right? So for years, the best alternative option, like I remember back when I got started, 20 years ago or whatever, the best alternative option was to search for quote unquote, executive offices. And this was also a little industry. Those offices cost less than typical commercial leases, but they still weren't super cheap.
However, what's changed so much since then, especially in the past 15 years, let's say, is the rise of co-working spaces. And these spaces of which there are many, they have helped a ton to provide for everybody who doesn't find those options ideal, everybody who's not looking for office space or for that executive office kind of thing. So there's a lot of different kinds of co-working spaces. If you've heard of them before and you've kind of written them off, I would encourage you, if you're in this situation, you're like a little bit cramped, or even if it has nothing to do with the pandemic, as I said, you just want to have a little bit of a workspace you can go to. In most cities these days of any size, there are options for usually a lot less than $500 a month.
Like I said, 500 is kind of like a high end, but it's actually possible to get a membership at some co-working spots for $100 a month or less. That price doesn't usually come with your own dedicated space. You often have to just kind of show up and take whatever desk is available. But there's usually a range of packages you can sign up for depending on your needs and budget. So co-working spaces, as I said, there's a lot of them and different kinds as well.
So look for co-working spaces, look for maker's space, just search for that as well. It might bring up some different options. Active space is kind of a branded version of this, but it's in multiple cities. I believe it's $200 to $300 a month and you do have a dedicated space. So pretty cool.
And of course, if WeWork remains in business, which was kind of an open question for a while, but I think they're going to be around at least for the foreseeable future. WeWork has 850 locations worldwide. So check into that stuff because as a bonus, the right space can be a whole community. Like some of them are actually quite social. Some are more social than others.
And I realize as well, some people may not want a social space. That's what you're trying to escape in the situation. So be sure to check that out before committing. And like so many industries, a lot of these spaces have been struggling during the pandemic. So I would encourage you to make relationships now.
You might be able to get a good deal, or you might just get inspired to make it a goal in the future to say, okay, well, you know, for the next year, I do want to make it a goal to be able to go into one of these spaces and have my own little area where I can work on whether it's electronics repair or something totally different, whatever it is, can definitely be a good option for a lot of people. All right, listeners, if you have a question of your own, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. I look forward to hearing from you, and I'm glad you're hearing me. Thank you for listening. Be sure you're subscribed.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
