Reducing Costs, Bringing Flexibility, and Work-Life Balance Through Coworking

It is common knowledge that the use of coworking spaces and virtual office services, as oppose to a traditional office, can help businesses and entrepreneurs reduce considerably their costs. According to a new survey by eOffice Network Partner, Avila Business Centers, over 50% of respondents claim that the main reason for having chosen a coworking space or virtual office was the savings on rental costs that they wouldn’t have in an own property.

Avila Business Centers, the market leader in virtual offices and shared workspaces in Portugal, published the results of a satisfaction survey to 625 of its customers. Entrepreneurs and companies were interviewed from March until April this year. The survey led to conclude that the main reason professionals to opt for a new working model based on coworking and virtual office, is the ‘cost reduction with a property’ (53.2% of responses).

Many coworking spaces, such as eOffice, in London, and Avila Coworking, in Lisbon, offer several plans for their members to choose from, all of them ready-to-go, with Internet, cleaning services, secretarial services and other premium services included on the price.

“There are international studies referring the need for organisations to adapt themselves to a new relation that professionals have with the workspace, namely the generation of millennials: there is more mobility, people seek to work in different places to get out of the routine, be more inspired and have more contact with other professionals; they seek a better balance between personal and professional life, ” recalls Carlos Gonçalves, CEO of Avila Business Centers.

According to the survey, coworking spaces and virtual offices allow a better work-life balance. By not having a fixed workplace or being restricted to schedules, it is easier to reconcile the working hours with the social and family life.

Flexible contracts, flexible schedules a and prestige address, complete the range of answers given by the 625 companies and professional respondents who participated in the satisfaction survey.

“The conclusions of this study come only to show that new professions, many created by the demands of new Technologies, do not require a fixed workplace […] A clear example of this paradigm are the so-called “digital nomads” who, when choosing their schedules and having flexibility of movement, improve their quality of life, always with the possibility of working in a premium space, such as Avila Business Centers”, concludes Carlos Gonçalves.