pariSoma innovation loft. coworking and tech events.

If you are looking for a shared office space, or an alternative to loud, noisy and unsecure coffee shops to get your work done, chances are that you are looking for a coworking space. Finding the right coworking space is very important, because work is where we spend a majority of our waking life.

So what should you be looking for when seeking out a new coworking space to join and collaborate and bring fun back into your work life again?

Coworkers at pariSoma (San Francisco)

1. Blazing-fast High Speed Internet!

If you think that Internet access and speed is given, then you might be in for a surprise. Lot of coworking spaces, especially the ones that just get started, sign up for a lower monthly plan. On top of that, if the existing coworkers are using up a lot of bandwidth, mostly due to the nature of their projects (this is especially true with startups) then internet speed might be slow and could become a deal breaker. So definitely check it out.

2. Conference Space

Startups, Freelancers and small business owners certainly have the need to have meetings frequently. Even if it is over Skype or over the internet, you still need a quite enclosed space. So make sure the coworking space you are checking out has atleast 2 conference rooms, and that they have a propery booking facility that is stictly adhered to.

3. Tiered Membership Plans

Like a Gym membership, you would want to first “try out” a space before diving all in and committing to a long term contract. Almost all of the reputed coworking spaces have a tiered membership plan that allows you to choose something as short and inexpensive as a day pass, to a full fledged yearly membership and several things inbetween. So confirm with the space managers that there are various membership options available to you.

4. Day Pass / Trial Pass

Most coworking spaces offer 1 FREE “drop-in” per person. The goal of this is to allow you to check out the place, get a feel for the peeps and decide if this place is for you. So take a day or two off and work out of the coworking spaces you are checking out and then decide.

5. Awesome Community of Coworkers

At the end of the day, coworking is all about collaboration and community. So it is very important to be working with a group of like-mannered or like-minded people. So if you do the trial run, you will get a feel for this. Make sure you find a coworking place where the people are nice and friendly and appear to help one another grow and succeed, because success and failure are both very contagious.