Co-working spaces can be a common venue where people with different business ideas may join and learn from one another, from meeting other business professionals to collaborating on separate initiatives. Joining a co-working space means chasing a new opportunity and becoming a member of a professional business community.
Small firms, freelancers, and other professionals can use co-working spaces to work, network, and participate in the local business community.
Co-working is a new kind of working style where self-employed, small start-ups or a team of people who work for a company sit together in common premises and share ideas and exchange business opportunities.
Workingdom Co-working brings the greenest, tech-enabled, automated, 24*7 well-managed working environments with a variety of affordable office solutions which allow every aspirant to grow firmly. In an exclusive interview with Insights Success, Preeti Yadav Srikrishnan – Founder of Workingdom, shares some valuable information about the dynamics of the operations in her company. Following are the highlights of the interview:
What different types of facilities and perks do your co-working space provide to its clients?
We understand that the key to success is to provide choice for the customer. So, we have designed a variety of seats, services, amenities, etc., which creates a platform for networking. We have designed a space that needs to provide all the work settings that will accommodate many different types of people.
The facility includes:
- Touch-less Entry & Exits – Secure Access
- Visitor Management for better security
- Mobile Member Application to connect with community and networking
- Open Cafeteria with basics, snacks, and Qualitative Hot Beverages
- Dedicated landline numbers
- Air purifiers for a clean environment
As a co-working space enabler, what challenges have you faced?
There are some systemic issues that we face most often like a mismatch of the rental cost and client demand. Now that competition is also increasing, we need to add more features and perks to retain clients. Also, it is very important to be a multicity center so you can cater to our client in maximum prime locations and for this, we require huge funding. So, in the long-term we need to keep reinventing with changing times so that we will be able to remain competitive.
What is the current industrial scenario of the co-working spaces in India? Give us an industry overview if possible.
Besides the pandemic, we can see co-working as a rapidly emerging industry that offers you to work with new grace and style. Opting for co-working is always a good decision in terms of your monetary saving, business productivity, facility management and so on.
Co-working will be hit by lockdowns, but people are now looking for flexible hours, rostered shifts, and workspaces closer to home. Big companies are now re-evaluating their real estate strategy. Co-working space helps companies to reduce their capital cost as well as operational hassles. According to recent industry reports, the Indian flex space market witnessed a supply boom which resulted in a significant rise in the total stock of flex spaces, which nearly tripled from 9.9 million sq. ft. in 2017 to 29.5 million sq. ft. in 2020 over close to three years.
In the case of new start-ups, it allows your access to a range of high ambiance benefits of the space at a very reasonable cost which helps to gain the trust of their clients in finding business opportunities.
What kind of technological solutions or advancements does your company utilize to make your clients’ experience worthwhile?
In Workingdom, we believe that member experience should be the prime focus. We have introduced our MOBILE MEMBER APP which raises customer’s experiences to the next level. The App is being used to manage customer’s future reservations, meeting room bookings, grievances, plan and activation, visitor’s management, team attendance report and avail credits and perks.
This application allows the Entire Workingdom’s Community to connect each other on a common platform irrespective of their geographical location. Connecting community through a digital platform upgrades your communication style, makes you understand their business nature and especially, to get business opportunity form the In-house Community.
As Workingdom is tech-enabled center, we are trying to make it fully automated with our contactless entry and exit systems for authorized members only.
We will be using IPBX in our CP center for members to avail the benefit of an individual landline number.
How has the ongoing pandemic affected the operations of your co-working space?
This ongoing pandemic has affected almost every business scale very badly. Since a large number of people are working from home, we have faced falling of our revenues continuously. Our Member Companies faced monetary losses and resultantly we faced decreasing occupancy rates. But we support our members fully and provide them with rent-free period during lock-down.
But because of the pandemic, now demand for co-working will increase surely. Irrespective of some short-term disruptions and challenges, large enterprises are now moving to shared spaces and this will help the industry grow.
What would be your strategic approach to scale your business in 2021 and beyond?
To uplift the business again post-pandemic, we would like to boost our Marketing and Business Development Strategies first. We’ll try to find out business opportunities with our existing collaborations.
We have planned to come with more flexible options for clients like – shift work for their employees, better IT infrastructure, short term contracts, etc.,
Workingdom is planning to open four more centers in 2021 to give better access to its clients.
Where do you envision yourself and your company to be in the long run and what are your future goals?
As a Co-Working brand, we are working to achieve a broad vision. Since we are catering to every small business need, we see ourselves as a chain of Co-Working Space transforming the traditional concept of real estate into an emerging, developing work style.
While working with a focused team, we’re trying to establish our brand in four Multiple Business Cities – Tier-2 cities like Lucknow, Indore, Ahmedabad, and Mohali will be our first preference to go with.
