Interesting discussion here, and something that has piqued my interest.

What is the demand for this kind of office space in Pakistan? (Particularly Karachi and Lahore.) Given the cost of land here, I’m sure the cost of setting up an office would be prohibitive for most, which is an entry point for such an idea. The important thing would be to get enough people in one of these shared offices to reach “critical mass”, where there is diversity within the tenants enabling the sharing of ideas, as well as enough people to have it break-even (or even make a profit).

A good example of “coworking” is The Hub, which has offices in many cities across the world, and regularly brings speakers and events to their office space:

http://www.the-hub.net/

There’s also an opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of people working in the office, by introducing recycling initiatives, offsetting power consumption with carbon credits, or even better, having the office powered with renewable energy.

If anyone is seriously interested in taking this forward, I’d love to discuss it further!

Jeremy

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

http://www.regus.pk

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

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.

This should really be helpful to buddying entrepreneurial firms but it can only succeed if it really delivers advantages upon working from home.

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 …