Building a Shared Office Platform to Help People In-Need

Business Plan
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Business Plan: Build a Shared office platform to help people in need
The proposed business entails building a shared office platform. Shared office workspace, also known as co-working, occurs when companies offer solo workers and small business organizations serviced offices and various amenities. Once the user has signed up, he or she can start working at his/her desk the following day. The user can subscribe to the shared office space by the year, month, day or even hour depending upon their needs. For new startup firms, the flexibility is particularly crucial in case their number of staffs and their funding grow fast (Wiley, M. (2016). On the whole, instead of being tied to a traditional lease for 3 – 5 years, a company can be nimble as needed. The shared office workspace includes furniture, Wi-Fi, utilities and a receptionist.
Almost every single day, there are new startup companies coming up and this presents a significant concern of accommodating them. Startups are usually created with a combination of inventive ideas and a grouping of individuals to execute them (Sykes, 2014). Whereas these innovative ideas do not take up any physical space, implementing them calls for a workplace in which the group could meet, sit down together and work upon those ideas. Establishment of companies and increasing population has led to the lack of workspace. The concept of shared office spaces was started in order to address this and has been highly popular especially amongst millennials (Kreamer, 2016).
In the proposed business, my company will take up a building in a commercial city and then transform it taking into account the requirements of professionals from all sorts of fields. The company would promote an affable atmosphere amongst various firms that would share the office spaces so that they could help one another grow. It would ensure that the people working within that office space enjoy their work rather than dread it. The company will offer a variety of businesses, solo entrepreneurs and freelancers desk spaces and rental offices on a shared floor. Flexible terms would be provided that allow the renters to downgrade or upgrade the size of their office spaces and move in and out with short notice. The business will offer women-focused shared office spaces.
Demographics of the potential customers
Millenials and Generation Z are the targeted demographics. The prospective clientele comprises female entrepreneurs aged 21 years to 35 years who are looking for an inexpensive office space in a good location; a location in which the conventional office spaces are very expensive. Only women would be allowed. The proposed business would be female-centric owing to the growing demand for shared office spaces that cater only to women. Researchers have reported that workplaces dominated by men could trigger social isolation as well as the potential for sexual harassment and nerve-racking interpersonal interactions that could result in self-doubt (Mok, 2017). There are a lot of shared office workspaces out there with this sort of toxic atmosphere. For this reason, it is no wonder that women are flocking to women-only shared workspaces.
Being female-centered shared office work spaces, my company will create a place in which women could feel like they can be themselves, where they can feel like they belong, and where they could find support for their business ventures. The environment would be designed to support the growth of female entrepreneurs. The proposed business will offer women community, connection, as well as a supportive environment for their ventures. As a women-centric and women-only workspace, it will feature pale pink walls, oversize bathrooms with stocked showers, cozy reading nooks, and a library with books by female authors. The environment would make the female clients a lot more productive in their business ventures and would feel there is less amount of pressure within an environment in which there are no men.
Consumer trends affecting the business
The consumer trends that affect the business include growing demand for shared office workspaces. With an increasing contingent workforce and the rise of entrepreneurialism, there has been a considerable shift in where people get work done and how they work. Over the past 4 years, the concept of sharing office workspace has become more widespread, and the market at the moment has in excess of seven thousand players globally. Providers of shared office workspaces have emerged alongside the startup boom. This new, fast growing subsector of the real estate market is today one of the biggest startup segments (Spreitzer, Bacevice & Garrett, 2015). Freelancers and small business organizations similarly are shifting toward shared office workspaces as an alternative to the conventional office and its accompanying lease. In the United States at the moment, the co-working industry totals twenty-seven million square feet (Wiley, 2016). This is an emerging office market. The concept of shared office workspaces is gaining popularity among consumers very fast.
When it comes to how people work, Mok (2017) stated that 2017 is a shape-shifting year. In essence, 2017 is the year that members of the Generation Z enter into the labor force, and a growing number of Millenials become managers whereas members of the Baby Boomer generation retire. In addition, it is a time when increasingly more companies are becoming more and more flexible in terms of when and where their staff members work (Mok, 2017). It is worth mentioning that start-ups, entrepreneurs, freelancers, blended workforces, contract workers, and remote employees all make up a broader part of the workforce.
As technology continues to enable gradually more dissimilar ways of working, Mok (2017) observed that the pressure is on to offer office workspaces which are not just technology-enabled, but also flexible and simple. Many big companies are also embracing the concept of shared workspaces. General Electric, Merck, and even Britain’s Guardian newspaper’s offices in the United States are utilizing shared office spaces. Shared office spaces have also become appealing to people who have a job post in which they are required to travel a lot. Customers from different parts of the globe might utilize the shared office spaces as meeting destinations and/or satellite offices (Spreitzer, Bacevice & Garrett, 2015).
According to Georgules and Ryan (2017), shared office providers since mid-2014 have leased in excess of 3.7 million square feet in leases of twenty-thousand square feet and bigger. This is illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Demand for shared workspaces is on the rise (Georgules & Ryan, 2017).


In the first quarter of 2016 alone, shared office providers leased 928,471 square feet. The pipeline of potential customer demand is expected to go up as freelancers and small business organizations continue to require office spaces that are more customizable (Georgules & Ryan, 2017). The co-working industry comprises only 0.7% of the entire office market in the United States. Even so, demand for shared office workspaces in very high and is, in fact, fueling the growth of bigger shared office space providers in major markets including Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York (Georgules & Ryan, 2017). It is projected that over the coming 2 – 3 years, the shared office sector would continue growing as freelancers and small business organizations seek more perks, c...