The way in which we work and do business has changed enormously over the years, pushing further the entrepreneurial narrative. Today, we have a lot more flexibility and freedom to work remotely, without coming to the office, or operating a home-based business, or making use of convenient locations.
More and more women in Nigeria are entering the business world, and many more are being encouraged to do so. The inspirational stories of women breaking the frontiers from all over Africa and the world at large have motivated more women to venture into the male-dominated business world.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that the BBC in a recent study said Nigeria has the highest number of female entrepreneurs in the world, this clearly shows how entrepreneurial Nigerian women are and how they keep pushing the envelope in different sectors of the economy.
These women are rising up to the challenge and have fully embraced the concept of Coworking. Currently, all over the world, there are over 4000 Coworking spaces and about 20 female-centered spaces. In Nigeria, there are over 100 coworking spaces spread across the country with the majority in Lagos.
WHAT IS COWORKING?
Coworking refers to people working in shared office spaces and has been referred to as the future of work. With more and more women getting actively engaged, they are taking advantage of serviced office spaces as against the traditional rent.
Venia Hub is one, the first coworking space in Nigeria. Venia has since opened its doors to budding female entrepreneurs. It is currently housing many female-owned owned businesses and lots of virtual and creative freelancers.
Venia’s sister company; The iLx Center is a training facility which has seen women come in to be empowered by organizations and individuals. There has been a lot of female facilitators and trainers booking the training center to empower both women and the public in general. Women based organizations like the SLA digital marketers training and lots more have been held at The iLx Center. The Center provides first class services such as uninterrupted power supply, fast internet, and generally optimized environment to fit whatever occasion that may be required of the space and ease of location.
While the benefits of Coworking might seem obvious already, here are some more specific benefits working from a coworking space such as Venia does for you and your business, whether big or small.
5 BENEFITS OF COWORKING
1. It’s Affordable
Co-working spaces are affordable and startup friendly, they offer way cheaper rent rates as against the traditional rent and running cost for offices.
From power, cleaning, security, to other needed facilities and infrastructure needed to run business seamlessly, all these can take a toll on business especially SME’s. Coworking with its service nature caters for all of that by spreading the cost with other co-workers
The running cost is spread across the board so the effect is not felt by one alone. This way you work from a secured space with great ambiance, your mails are handled and your visitors properly entertained.
2. It’s Structured
There’s no doubt the amount of distraction that comes from working from home. The truth remains that there are multiple things that can become distractions, affecting output and productivity.
The coworking environment gives the structure needed to get actual work done. You get a heightened focus and higher discipline to achieve tasks with very minimal distractions.
3. Increased Productivity
There is an energy that emanates from interacting with like minds and coworking offers just that; the opportunity to network with people doing great work, share/ bounce ideas off each other and even skills rent.
Coworking serves as a hub for highly creative people whose skills can be temporarily hired, promoting an exchange of skills and knowledge.
Working from a hub surrounded by other industry players keeps you on your toes. You’ll also find yourself constantly informed about the happenings in your industry. There is a supply of all the information you need to energize and achieve more while ticking things off your list and hitting your business goals.
4. Collaboration
Collaboration is the new competition, and coworking is synonymous to collaboration.
The concept of working in a shared space and amongst similar minds enables avenue for networking and collaboration for greater impact. Examples of collaboration that changed the world.
5. Flexibility:
Coworking offers flexibility, depending on available funds, a lifestyle that might involve traveling and move from one location to another.
Venia, offer plans that range from daily, weekly, monthly and even weekends to accommodate different work plans. It also provides options of working from different locations on one subscription.
For days when you don’t want to go through traffic, or you seem to have meetings in a different location, Coworking affords you the options for flexibility.
With all of these incredible benefits that coworking offers, it is apparent that women; motherland moguls take advantage of coworking to boost their productivity, business, and brand.
It is encouraging that women continue to set and raise the bar, pursuing their dreams and embracing their full potential, choosing to orchestra their lives and be part of the future, we are here to propel them on.
This article was written by Joy Kika for ILX.
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