Doing business over a coffee

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This was published 10 years ago

Doing business over a coffee

Is it really the best idea?

By Jacqueline Lehmann

Thanks to 21st Century mobility, and the rise of Australia’s savvy start-ups, more and more people are working from third places such as coffee shops – but is this really a good idea for small business owners and their employees.

The link between the cafe and business is as old as the practice of drinking coffee itself. In the 17th and 18th centuries when coffee houses first began to appear in Europe they quickly became the place for traders to negotiate and for new exciting ideas to flourish. For me, it is reassuring to see that hundreds of years later, Australia’s businesses are still using the coffee shop as a place of trade and work.

Jacqueline Lehmann says coffee meetings may not be the best way to conduct business.

Jacqueline Lehmann says coffee meetings may not be the best way to conduct business.

Here’s the rub: Australia boasts a huge number of new tech savvy start-ups and SMEs, companies looking to do things differently. Many are starting ‘in the cloud’ – and working from home and on the road – and basing themselves from their local cafés. But while buzzing coffee shop environments may seem appealing, there are many challenges that come with this type of café-based work that many people aren’t aware of, until they find out the hard way.

We recently conducted a national survey of over 600 Australian business people and quizzed them about their working habits – to try and find out how people are working while not in the office.

The results identified some of the key obstacles that people face when trying to work from a coffee shop. The top challenge, reported by 79 per cent of Australians, was concerns around the privacy of conversations and documents. From overheard business calls to sensitive documents I think we can all associate with this headache! Other turnoffs include the security of belongings (77 per cent) and noisy customers (66 per cent).

These hassles are just the start of what business owners need to be aware of. The research showed that older generations also deem the café as an unprofessional place to work – with 52 per cent of Baby Boomers reporting this and 45 per cent of Gen X professionals. For small businesses trying to gain traction and credibility with clients and prospective staff, this can be a real and serious issue.

So what is the answer for the new breed of businesses, those who refuse to be tied down by old ideas and the outmoded concept of the traditional office? Well, firstly, it’s important to realize that it’s not just small business workers who face the challenges of life as a worker on the move. In fact, around 35% of Australian workers spend half their working week outside their main office.

Also, it’s important to know that working across a variety of locations, or ‘third places’ is indeed the future. Only 38 per cent of Gen Y Australia business people agree with their older colleagues that cafés are ‘unprofessional’. The roll out of the NBN, the opportunities of including untapped sections of the employment market such as back-to-work mums, and the move to a more freelance culture – are all contributing to the move towards different ways of working here in Australia.

In this new flexible work world, work happens everywhere – and as a small business owner there are a range of different options at your fingertips to support your workers. Whether it be a pay-as-you go business centre, an independent co-working space, even a library, you can offer solid alternatives to the drone and hassle of the coffee shop office. In Europe, Regus are partnering with organisations like Shell and French national railway company SNCF to bring flexible co-working spaces to train and petrol stations – something that it would not surprise me to see happening here in Australia within the next few years.

Don’t get me wrong, coffee shops will always have their role in the business of flexible working. Many of the world’s great start-ups sprung to life in a café, in fact the idea for Regus percolated into life in a coffee shop in Brussels over 20 years ago. But to really find the right brew for success, businesses need to move out of the café and into spaces that are more conducive to work.

Jacqueline Lehmann is the Australia country head for flexible workspace provider Regus

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