My partner and I consult to women business owners, most of who work from their homes. After years of hearing the same complaints about working from home (– isolation; lack of colleagues and community; small, cramped, unprofessional office spaces; contending with home distractions such as children, partners, laundry, etc…) we decided to change the direction of our business in hopes of providing a solution to these very common challenges and problems.

So, last fall we launched In Good Company WorkPlaces (www.ingoodcompanyworkplaces.com), a community work space that offers flexible and part-time work space and community solutions for women business owners.

Women can join at different levels of membership based on their business needs. This membership structure is designed to complement working at home and provides an appealing alternative to renting a full-time office space.

Our members are able to meet with clients in the small meeting rooms, hold large meetings, workshops, or seminars in the large conference room, or use the individual workspaces for up to 20 hours per week. Additionally, the community provides the opportunity for members to meet and connect with peers, attend business related learning events, and advertise to a larger community.

No one solution works for everyone. Hopefully more intermediate options will appear so that entrepreneurs don’t feel they have to exclusive work from home or exclusively work from an office.

Adelaide Fives

Definitely an interesting company despite its stuff is located only in USA.

I suppose technology could help to make it work. VNC/Remote Desktop + Skype might actually do the trick for two people to work together.

Another interesting program is Gobby (http://gobby.0×539.de/trac/), which allows you to collaboratively edit files with any number of people, with a chat at the bottom of the editor.

Unfortunately I’ve never been able to sucessfully get it running between Windows and Linux, so I’ve never been able to use it in a real work environment.

It could be great for remote pair-programming, though. Perhaps with Skype as well for times when just typing to eachother takes too long.

And one more thought for the sake of discussion: what do you think about other alternatives than working at the office or at home? Libraries, bookstores, airports, parks? Coffee shops seem to be rather popular too…

I am actually a software developer for a government agency, so no freelance thing. I’ve got a flexible boss and managed to sell him the idea of moving jobs (by moving the staff) to the country side would be a politically strong point. Here in Iceland well over 50% of the people live in or very close to the capital area and it has been government policy to support the other areas -> high tech government jobs are valuable for small communities on the country side.

Going abroad to work is nothing that exciting after all. Just needs time, preparation and right opportunity. Some people call that luck.

From what I read, the common thing that most of you value in an office is the social aspect. You get to spend time with your workmates and do some natural team building.

Good point, but I don’t want to let go of my own thoughts so easily so I’m continuing with more questions: Mainly, my question is why would team building require being physically on the same location?

There are many open source projects (for example) that function completely over the internet using e-mail, IRC chats and such, and through working together like that, the team grows closer – just like in a regular office. Don’t you think that could work for you too, and if not, why?

And some specific questions for each of you:

@David: You say something interesting: that it’s easier for you to concentrate at the office. My experience is almost the contrary, because at the office there are always people close to my desk discussing projects and other issues vaguely related to what I’m doing, so I can’t help but listen to them… What’s your trick? Your own office and a door, maybe?

@Lynoure: Have you heard of the concept of coworking. It sounds like an interesting option for freelancers and solo entrepreneurs who want to work in an office setting for a while every now and then…

And I found this link that claims that Jaiku is inviting people to come and work at their premises occasionally. I wonder how much room they have reserved for this. http://coworking.pbwiki.com/CoworkingHelsinki

@Genesis: Thanks for the link. Just like Shane, I wouldn’t like to work (out) in that office, but I loved the sketching wall the guy had for drawing his ideas.

And I promised a question for everyone, so here’s yours: What are you doing to get your dream office? (this bike thing?)

@Sveinn: I think you did a great choice. If you can get the best of both, I guess then you really do have both.

How did you do it? I would guess that you are a contractor / freelancer / entrepreneur, or then you have an extremely flexible boss and good selling skills? Which one is it? ;)

@Shane: How does your officeless life work in practice? I mean, do you and Peter work together at the same location (your home / his home / some place else) or do you both work wherever you like?

And what kind of systems do you use for communication and keeping track on how everyone is doing?

@Peter: The trip to El Salvador is something not every company would do: amazing! Definitely more of a team building thing than sitting in the same room and coding.

How long are you going to stay there, and how do you plan to split the time between work and fun?

@Pepez: Those are good questions, but I believe they can all be handled if you just talk with good lawyers and accountants. It’s pretty much a question about taking the leap, right?

In a sense you traveling around the world working in different countries sounds like the first step. How did you get the courage to leave Finland in the first place?

@cindy: Sounds good! Is your conference room at home too?

@isukki: Hi, dad! Nice that you stopped by on your holiday. It’s great to hear that things are going well in Senegal – and thanks for getting me in touch with Adama again!

@Paul: Do you think technology could help you in doing the same things away from the office. For example using some screen capture tool to show what’s on your screen and Skype for talking over the internet? Or does it get too complicated?

@Adama: Great to hear from you, my friend! It’s been a while! I guess in your line of work, your office really is where you are. What do you carry with you when you go to work?