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Comment by robterrin | Hacker News Reader

Coworking spaces aren't about work. As a small business owner who uses a coworking space, my perspective is that it's about signaling that you are a real business with a business address. Working from home may work for freelancers or online only businesses, but the second you start signing contracts or having meetings, you need a professional space to be taken seriously.

That said, it's incredibly hard for me to get anything done in a noisy environment with no visual barriers and so many wantrepreneurs around. I like the coffee, camaraderie and event spaces, but for most days, working from home is sufficient.

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That reminds me that one of the co-working space I worked at in Brooklyn had a really cheap plan where you could receive mail there and do a couple other things but not even have a desk. Perhaps look into an option like that?

At that point why not rent a small office? I don't know where you are, but small offices are usually pretty cheap. The thing that gets me about co-working space is that they are pretty expensive compared to normal office rents. The equivalent of studio apartment as an office in a building can be the same price as a co-working space.

If all you need is a business address, you are paying for a lot of things you don't need if you are renting a coworking space.

Some coworking spaces, especially away from the city center, can be had for the cost of a cheap utility, like $30/month. That's one reason. But these are also privately run and maybe offer a step or two above a public library in terms of services. So there's a spectrum of places to get with features to match.

That might depend on your business and/or location.

Employees might need to share resources, for example, as was the case when I worked in a VR-related startup with a limited amount of headsets.

For your regular webdev based business or similar, I agree with your statement though.

Sounds like you need to find a better coworking space.

Many accountancies (at least in the UK) will, for a small fee let you use their address as your registered company address, and some will either receive mail on your behalf that you can, or forward it onto you.

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