This concept is getting quite popular within the US, where rising real estate prices make it really hard for small business to have physical office presence in decent neighborhoods.
Small vendors, exporters, freelancers really don’t need huge offices but only a decent place where they can have a desk, good internet connection, steady electricity, and a nice clean environment close to the business centers in the city.
There can be several reasons why somebody might need a place like that.
1) I need to have a decent front-end to show my clients.
2) Need to get out of the house to be more productive
3) Running a part time business along with a day time job and need some place to work after hours.
3) Can’t afford a full fledged office space with my current business.
Now what if you provided these people an On-Demand office space that they can access any time, without any contracts, without any major expenses? I’ve seen places here in the US where you pay a low monthly fee to guarantee that you’ll have a space to work at 20 hours a week. Whenever you need an office, just walk in and sit down at one of the small offices that they have. You have your own official mailing address, a phone number that a common operator answers and forwards your calls to your cell phone if you’re out etc.
Now, I’ve been out of Pakistan for quite some time and don’t know if somebody else is already doing this or if this is even a financially viable business. But the demographics seems to be just perfect. Highly populated areas like Karachi have high real estate costs along with really high costs of living due to inflation. There’s a booming IT industry thats giving birth to a rising entrepreneurial mindset.
What do u guys think ?
June 7th, 2008 at 1:56 am #Muhammad Qasim Pasta
Nice Idea… I think Ali have started to think about this ;)
But in Pakistan, we could face legal problems in this case. Because as per law (or by agencies) the owner of internet-cafe is also responsible to get copy NIC of each customer …
June 9th, 2008 at 12:08 pm #Rakesh
Good Idea!
This should really be helpful to buddying entrepreneurial firms but it can only succeed if it really delivers advantages upon working from home.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:22 pm #dave
This will help out: http://blog.coworking.info
June 20th, 2008 at 11:29 pm #Kashif
There are number of such offices already working in Karachi. One is at MT Khan road and is managed by Regus (www.regus.com). Another one is in Mashrique Center, Sir Shah Suleman Road (near National Stadium). However, there is still much room for new entries.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:07 am #Mohammad Talha Ghouri
I know of some places in Karachi offering these services, a friend of mine, pays a really minimal fees for a desk/internet/fone etc services in a huge nice looking office on main Shahra-e-Faisal. I guess… this idea has been initiated already.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:14 am #Sohail Abid
Its great to know that such places have started to emerge! I get bored staying in my room 24 hours. If I were in karachi, I would have thought of going to Talha’s friend’s place :)
June 30th, 2008 at 12:27 pm #Mohammad Nawaz
The idea is quite afloat in the UK and US, as mentioned above, and in most cases it is just a virtual office. I have worked for an organization which offered such facilities to UK companies, with their operations here in Karachi. The concept is to have a suitable “registered address” for your business, and in some cases having a area-related “phone line” is important. So the entrepreneur only visits the office space when he has a meeting etc.
The best part is, the law in Pakistan does allow this, as a registered address of a business/company can be any place, as long as presence of a person available can be established. For a company to set up (private or public), there is a need for a Company Secretary. Even in Pakistan, you can hire the services of such a person, who is not only capable of offering you the services required, but can also report and advise you on issues at times. Since the work of such an individual is not very demanding, for a small company of course, the person can definitely support the requirement of several companies simultaneously (this is an accurate observation). Ultimately, the company’s director(s) is responsible for filing of all relevant documentation and compliance of laws.
For businesses (proprietorships, partnerships etc), there is no need for a Company Secretary. Hence the owner has the ultimate responsibility for managing the business affairs from start to finish. For a business, any place may be a registered address, as long as it can be furnished that it works as an office space, even if it be an apartment in a building. Any contact address is sufficient.
Hence, this idea of Virtual Office space actually is workable, and should suit most start up businesses in Pakistan too.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:39 pm #Arfeen
Kashif & Talha,
Do you have any contact information for people working in these virtual/temporary offices?
if you do, can you please send it to me at agodil - at- pkstudent -dot- com
Im about to go to Karachi and will need some office space initially.
Thanks
August 21st, 2008 at 11:07 pm #sumair(szad)
afreen here is a website of a company who provide office space
http://www.regus.pk
August 21st, 2008 at 11:13 pm #Arfeen
Thanks Sumair …
October 31st, 2008 at 11:10 pm #Aqeel Zafar
There should be something like that for Lahore too. Another benefit of having such a place is that freelancers sometimes get really bored working alone in home, could be nice to meet some other people sometimes :)
November 18th, 2008 at 1:21 pm #Farzal
I am going to paste an email from someone seriously working on this idea. here you go:
Hey Farzal,
First a little about myself, my name is Usman Sheikh. I am currently running a HR consultancy out of Karachi with multiple business interests in Singapore and Dubai as well. I moved back to Karachi around 1.5 years ago and one of the major challenges was meeting like minded individuals and good networking opportunities. I was recently introduced to the concept of co working by one of my cousins in the states and I thought it would be a great idea to implement in Karachi to facilitate all the home based consultants and create networking opportunities. As such I am currently evaluating the feasibility of this project.
The space which I plan to convert is behind bahria complex 2. It is a flat which I plan to convert to prototype this concept. Based on the response I get I will launch multiple such set ups throughout the city and somewhere close to your ideal location eventually. However at the time being the best I can offer is this space which will become available in Feb 09. Tenants will be part of a unique community which is passionate about entrepreneurship and will have a variety of skill sets for every startup to tap on. For instance I have got an independent lawyer, accounting and print media company to sign up which will facilitate the administrative side of running a business. Apart from this you will have access to:
1. Fast Speed Internet
2. UPS Facilities
3. Back Up Generators
4. Meeting Rooms
5. Conference Room
6. A Lounge
7. Seminar Room
8. Parking Facility (Only Personalized Desks users will be applicable)
The space also plans to hold networking mixers and interesting seminars to help get everyone connected and known in the local market.
I am setting up two working zones. One will be private desks for individuals and the other one will be co working space where individuals will share a large desk etc. Depending on your requirement and budget one can make an appropriate choice.
Please let me know if this interests you. I would greatly appreciate any feedback and advice that you may have. This space is going to be built to cater to individuals like yourself so I would really like to know what sort of facilities and requirements you will require.
I would appreciate it if you could fill out this short survey http://tinyurl.com/coworksurvey and could pass it on to your other colleagues as well. Thanks.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best Regards
Usman Sheikh
http://www.usmansheikh.com
http://www.twitter.com/usmansheikh