How Small Businesses and Startups Can Collaborate in Coworking Spaces

Coworking spaces have become mainstream workplaces for entrepreneurs who want to get their businesses up and running. Working alongside other small businesses and startups can be an inspiring environment. It’s also an opportunity to meet local talent, potential collaborators, mentors, and more.

When you maximize these connections, you can turn your coworking space into the ultimate support system. The people around you can become a fundamental part of your business growth. In this article, we’ll discuss how small businesses and startups can support each other in coworking spaces.

Share Tech Knowledge

Modern small businesses heavily rely on technology to function as efficiently as possible. When you can’t delegate tasks across a large team, you need strategies to streamline or automate your processes. Whether you’re using software like Asana, QuickBooks, Google Suite, or something else, understanding tech is key to success.

Unfortunately, this can make it difficult to run a business with limited technology literacy. Even if your software is just a little outdated, you can be missing out on more efficient processes that your competitors are using. This may mean that your business will be left behind by the competition. However, when using a coworking space, small business owners can go to each other for help with software, ranging from CRMs to industry-specific technology. This allows your entire coworking community to stay up to speed with the latest and greatest tech.

Collaborate on Campaigns

Marketing campaigns are essential for every company’s growth. However, when you’re part of a small team or a team of one, it can be difficult to crunch out idea after idea. This is where your peers at coworking spaces can come in. Collaborating with other small businesses gives you the opportunity to share ideas and boost creativity, even when you don’t have a full-blown marketing team.

Coworking spaces connect people from incredibly diverse industries and backgrounds. When you and your peers jump into a strategy session together, you can gain new perspectives that help you make your campaigns more effective than ever. For example, if you’re developing a content marketing strategy for your B2B business, other members of your coworking space — who may match your target market — can provide feedback on your blog posts or videos. Getting feedback before you execute your strategy can help you achieve the best return on investment possible.

Form Mastermind Groups

A mastermind group is a small group of peers who regularly meet to help each other solve business problems. It’s an opportunity to become more formal collaborators and confidants. The more diverse your mastermind group is, the more you can elevate your professional skills and benefit from idea-sharing. By using each other’s collective knowledge, you can avoid common pitfalls for new businesses, like not understanding your industry or not considering cybersecurity.

There’s no better place to form mastermind groups than in a coworking space. When you find members who you click with and trust, consider setting up consistent weekly or biweekly meetings that occur before, during, or after your workday.

Become Business Partners

Small businesses and startups can support each other monetarily, too. Coworking spaces give entrepreneurs plenty of opportunities to spread the word about their businesses and find potential customers within their member base. For B2B and SaaS startups, these connections can even lead to long-term working relationships. Your products or services can directly fit other members’ needs, and vice versa.

Even if you and your fellow members don’t need each other’s products or services, you can always provide each other with referrals. This can help any member in your coworking space achieve a constant stream of leads.

Combat Isolation

Starting a business can be a lonely venture. If your startup is completely remote, isolation can take even more of a toll. In fact, studies have shown that loneliness is the biggest issue remote workers face and that most workers believe friendships are key to happiness at work.

Business owners don’t always have to collaborate to support each other in coworking spaces. Simply being a familiar face — someone who’s ready to lend an ear, chat in the kitchen, or attend member networking events together— can be the emotional support that other professionals need. Your peers can truly become your “coworkers,” even if you’re never directly working together at all.

Thrive in A Coworking Space

Joining a coworking space can already give you a work environment in which you can thrive. When you interact and capitalize on connections, you can benefit from and contribute to a community that shares skills, resources, and emotional support.

A coworking space can offer the perfect support system for small businesses and startups that need help growing their businesses and achieving their goals. Start casually sharing ideas or building formal mastermind groups to take your membership further.

Author bio: Jori Hamilton is a freelance writer living in the Pacific Northwest. She writes about workplace culture, the Great Resignation, cybersecurity, and entrepreneurship. You can find her on Twitter at @hamiltonjori