Join Entrepreneurs Sydney Here
The White Collar Café Society
(Why working from home is no longer were it’s at)
© David Newton
6/28/08

Business has now become a latte driven world. Just the other day in the Qantas Lounge they installed a Santos café barista with staff to turn around the huge demand of coffees in the member’s room.

Maybe customers were bringing in too many coffees from outside to drink?

But Why All The Fuss?

Maybe they're acknowledging the obvious after all. These days when you visit a café - even the most casual looking café, you'll see inside are people doing their work.

At some tables there are full blown meetings of business owners talking with a group of staff or some people doing a sales presentation with all the paper work open, laptops open and blackberry phones buzzing away.

Sitting in some of the corners of your local café you'll also see the 'lone worker' with a laptop open and carefully doing their writing or excel spreadsheet work in front of them. And its not just the cafes, restaurants are experiencing the same thing too. They're attracting the mobile workers just as much on a mass scale these days.

How can you work more effectively these days? To join this trend, you'll need a few basics;

• A Laptop or Notebook computer
• A wireless internet connection for portable networking
• A modern mobile phone - 3G or 2.5G connection
• If you have a PDA, you'll need to buy a Bluetooth foldout keyboard
• A secure laptop carry case that's easy to put your laptop inside and carry over the shoulder or as a backpack

In the 1990's there was a lot of talk about "telecommuting" and "working from home" these were the buzz words of management of those days. The term "hot desking" was also a buzz word that meant staff could work out on the road or where ever, but when they returned to the office, they would have a desk allocated on the basis of temporary needs only. Such as a small cubical, with all the regular office connections, phone, etc, but for a few hours or a day or two, when they visited the main office.

The term "working from home" has now become so popular we see many people doing just that. But it doesn't come without very clear set backs.

At Home Workers Suffer Due To;

• Lack of people contact
• Constant distractions - family, kids and domestic duties
• Lack of home office essentials - like things they take forgranted in a real office
• Nobody prodding them to do the work, or quite often no one to tell them when to stop working
• No properly 'defined office space' in the home area

All these things take a hit on productivity or even over producing - when the work from home person really needs to work less hours.

Cafes Become The Solution Here

Around where I live here lives a staggering number of cafes. You could almost measure them by how many they cram in to the square meter ...lol.

And when I visit them, which means its nearly impossible not to, they are all packed with people doing work, holding meetings, many laptops open and papers out on the tables, plus the financial newspapers are read by the majority of them while drinking coffees.

The Future Of Working

For the small business person who used to work from home, now will more often be found inside a café near home. Sure they will still do some work from home, but not exclusively. My educated guess is that about 2 or 3 hours each day will be the norm at cafes for the new mobile business owner, who used to only work at home. In fact café and restaurant owners tell me they plan their menus and tables around the new mobile workers.

Places To Check Out;

Brisbane
James Street - New Farm is an ideal spot, not too busy, but a place with art and culture.

Noosa
Hasting Street - maybe one of Australia's most eclectic spots to have a coffee and it sure has the backdrop of a nice beach too.

Gold Coast
Surf Parade - Broadbeach has a wonderful cafes and dining. It’s a place where people meet and ideal to work at during the day time.

Sydney
The Toaster Building at Bennelong Point Circular Quay - on the weekends its very busy, but during the working week its an ideal spot.

Melbourne
Yarra's Edge (beside Lorimer St) - Docklands is a lovely area plus the Victoria Harbour on the Docklands Drive side also has great cafes too. It’s like a hideaway from the city and not as congested as the Southbank area has unfortunately become.

I'm sure you'll have your own favourite spots near where you live. If not, its time to get out and about to look at what your city is made of and get out of the home based cabin - to see the life away from home. You'll enjoy working at your business much more if you get out and visit cafes.

60 Minute Trader

 
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