With pandemic hitting small businesses and start-ups hard, the office rentals continue drain resources. Profits had plummeted and thus rentals ate away the major chunk of the pie, resulting in small and medium entrepreneurs who were running their business from rented office, to vacate and shift their office to co-working shared spaces in Goa.
“From January and February this year, we, at 91springboard have seen an influx of demand especially in small and medium-sized companies, start-ups, etc with about 50 people in their workforce. We have seen about 70-75 per cent demand recovery in these two months as compared to the pre-COVID levels. Since working out of co-working spaces has a multitude of benefits like reduced Capex, flexibility for employees, start-ups and young entrepreneurs are keen to opt for these services. Basic infrastructure, Internet, operational, and admin requirements are already taken care of by us. Hence, this gives them ample opportunity to save and invest their funds in major business requirements,” said Anand Vemuri, CEO of 91Springboard.
He went on to say that networking is another key consideration for start-ups. Working from 91springboard allows them to connect with one of the largest start-up ecosystems in the country, from investors to potential clients to business partners.
“We at 91Springboard also host a multitude of events that see industry experts advising on everything ranging from legal and accounting to pitching and funding, etc. Owing to these numerous benefits, many start-ups are keen to opt for co-working spaces,” added Vemuri.
A start-up in healthcare sector from Goa which is recognised by the State government, Sevarat Healthcare and Nursing Pvt Ltd is of the opinion that they cannot afford to run their enterprise with high rentals.
Founder of Sevarat, Rohini Gonsalves says, “Small enterprises like us cannot afford to pay the exhorbitant rent for office spaces in Goa. We have to pay 10 per cent incremental rent every year or move and that's another 8.33 per cent plus the cost of moving. With the emergence of co-working spaces, it has solved all of these problems. We have a fully furnished office with adequate infrastructure. The facilities are excellent and the work environment is very positive. In fact it even helps networking with other entrepreneurs who help in tossing ideas and getting help whenever one faces any problems. With the various co-working spaces, Goa will undoubtedly become a more favourable destination for start-ups.”
Mangirish Salelkar, CEO, Corporate Deck, a part of Umang Group in South Goa is of the opinion that the lock-down gave birth to many start-ups and freelancers who initially started working from home but in due course started looking for co-working spaces and that prompted us to come up with the idea of the Corporate Deck.
“Advantages of co-working spaces are many. However, during the pandemic to sustain the overhead costs and to save on rentals, start-ups and organisations preferred our spaces for plug n play facility on monthly commitments,” he added.
Mangirish Salelkar explained that the clients can come under one roof where they have a productive space to do something which may not be possible in other co-working spaces which are contemporary with respect to the space and they have too many events going on. We wanted to provide a more calm and quiet environment and not exactly like a coffee shop, as most of these in the area of North Goa have turned into co-working spaces lately. The users do not have to bother about connectivity and other issues and they just check in and plug their laptops and start. We are also introducing the online mode that will help people to book their hot seats faster at the click of a button.
“We have very special rates for the student community, and we welcome students who do not have much resource, to come down and complete their projects at the Corporate Deck with the feel of corporate world. This way they can work alongside start-ups and professionals and build a good networking around the corporate world,” said Salelkar.
Rajesh Golwalkar who is a director in Rajas Advertech Pvt Ltd said, “Working out of 91springboard co-working space has been quite beneficial for us in terms of cost-efficiency, amenities and ample networking opportunities within the premise. With ever-increasing real estate cost, finding good office space has been increasingly difficult and co-working spaces have solved this problem. Another good thing is with regards to location flexibility which 91springboard offers. You can practically visit any major city and work out of their hubs there.”
Luke Sequeira, founder, CEO, Numadic Pvt Ltd said, “the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic, along with differing work location preferences of team members has made co-working spaces an appropriate choice for us. We are able to benefit from elastic work spaces while maintaining high quality common services.”
However, Vijay Kolekar, executive director of Clancy Global believes that nothing has remained conventional from the way we travel, communicate or access information. Co-working spaces are just the same, represent a break-away from conventional; providing, convenience, efficiency, lifestyle and community development.
“We find our future ingrained with resources working from co-working spaces near their homes. We overreacted during the pandemic with the future of work from home. The reality seems to be satellite offices and what is better than evolving with co-working spaces? Copenhagen’s Smart City document reads ‘If you focus on technology and not on human behavior, you will not become smart’. Co-working spaces share a humbling responsibility for conducive human-to-human engagements and their attention spans,” said Vijay Kolekar, executive director, Clancy Global.