I spent three years organizing a coworking community while maintaining a full-time job telecommuting. Remote work is what drove me to coworking in the first place, and it can absolutely be done.
It won't necessarily be easy, as such an approach lends itself to things like trying to take urgent support calls while touring spaces far from an internet connection, or having to decide between the sidewalk and the noisy cafe as the lesser of two evils for an impending conference call, but it does allow you to build a community while also paying your rent. My work was highly performance-based, so as long as projects were being delivered reasonably on time, my employer didn't have a problem with my community organizing activities. I earned my paycheck and did what was expected of me. If I were held to a stricter 9-to-5 clock, it wouldn't have worked. Determining what path you want to go down is critical. If you are employed full-time and are looking to start a coworking community, there is a huge difference between starting a casual club of people to defray the loneliness and launching a business that leases space and is designed to become your full-time engagement. The sooner you identify which path you want to pursue, the better. Starting a business and leasing a space is not something that should be done casually; it's a hard thing to do and is only fun if you enjoy all of the crazy risks and responsibilities that go along with it. Regarding when to quit the job, having talked to others in similar positions, I can say that the time to jump is almost always a singular moment when you just know. If your'e not pursuing organizing as an eventual full-time effort, then it's simply a matter of doing what you want. If you get people to gather consistently in one place, and let things evolve organically from there, you have nothing to lose and lots of fun and friends to gain. On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 12:31 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski <[email protected]>wrote: > An interesting question was posed to me last week and I'll be honest, > I'm not really sure how to answer it so I thought I'd put it up here > for group input. > > Has anyone started a coworking community while you still had a full > time job (either traditional or working remotely)? What types of > community building activities could you do in your spare time and how > many hours/week did you devote to them? Also, at what point did it > become clear that you could quit the full time job and just focus on > coworking? > > Thanks! > Angel > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
