Rented Office to Coworking: A Step-by-Step Strategy for a Smooth and Hassle-Free Move
You did an online search for the phrase ‘coworking space near me’, found out a great service provider offering all the facilities and amenities that your office needs, and are now ready to switch to your coworking space.
Well, this is when you need to consider steps to minimize the stress involved in shifting from a rented office to a coworking space.
Your Nearest Coworking Space - Your Existing Office
Your search engine may not have included this in its reply to your query about coworking space near me but your own rented office is the nearest coworking space. There’s nothing stopping you from treating your office as a coworking space.
Bring all the office desks and chair into your biggest room and ask your team to follow the open office design for a while. No partitions. No cubicles. Just a couple of desks and chairs together for people to work on.
This simple rehearsal will give you a good idea of the challenges you will face once you shift to the coworking space. Further, this will help you and your team understand that most potential issues about coworking simply fade away once you embrace the idea.
Field Research for your Team
Prepare a simple field exercise for your team consisting of the following tasks.
- Do online research about coworking space near me.
- Visit the location that seems most appealing.
- Discuss the modalities of using the coworking space with the service provider.
- Share your results with the team.
Putting boots on the ground will help your team feel more involved. Further, it will give you a clear idea of the comfort level of your team, which will help you move on to the next step.
A-Team vs B-Team
Nowhere does it say that you need to move your entire office to the coworking space all at once. So, you can start the move a few months before your lease expires and ask one or two team members to switch to coworking.
You can even start small and opt for a hot desk before moving on to a monthly contract for your team members. Give them a week or two before asking more team members to move out. Depending on the size of your team, you can have them all working together from a coworking space in a month or two.
Once this is done, you can surrender your office keys and make the grand entry into coworking yourself.