Business Centers or Co-working Spaces? Highlighting key differences
By now, most of us would be well-acquainted with the concept of Temporary Workspaces. From Central Business Districts, to Start-up hotspots, to IT corridors, and to residential neighbourhoods, these Workspaces are mushrooming everywhere. In your search for the ideal Workspace, it is important to know that there are two main categories that tend to dominate the Temporary Workspace landscape. They are a) Business Centers and b) Co-working Spaces. Even though each caters to a different set of needs, the lines between the two have blurred considerably over a short span of time. Here are some important differentiators that could help you decrypt both formats
| Categories | Business Centers | Coworking spaces |
| Pricing | Premium to uber premium | Affordable to Premium |
| Pricing Range (Bangalore rates) | Rs.15,000–Rs.40,000 per seat per month | Rs.4,000-Rs.20,000 per seat per month |
| Types of offices | Mostly Private Suites with a few floating desks, Meeting Rooms, Board Rooms. | Floating Desks (Hot Desks), dedicated Open desks, Semi-private desks, and Private Offices, Meeting Rooms, Board Rooms. |
| Ambience | Formal yet Trendy | Casual, vibrant, and trendy |
| Customer Segmentation | Established and growing brands looking for Corporate Offices, Sales Offices, Liaison Offices, Satellite offices, Branch Offices. | Start-ups, Entrepreneurs, Solopreneurs, Freelancers, Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). |
| Main objective(s) | Provide high quality business environment for companies to operate in
|
a) Develop communities to nurture collaboration
b) Provide exposure to Start-ups to scale up their businesses |
| Infrastructure | Infrastructure include:
a) High speed internet with redundancy b) Cafeteria Services c) Charging stations d) Reprography services e) Voice and data ports at each workstation. f) VOIP Speaker phones in every room g) HD Audio and Video Conferencing Facilities h) Secretarial Services i) Telephone answering Services j) Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) Systems k) Dedicated Server Racks (upon request) |
infrastructure includes:
a) Wi-Fi, b) Cafeteria Services c) Charging points d) Reprography services (Printing, scanning, photocopying) e) Telephone connections (upon request) f) Dedicated Server Racks (upon request) |
| Locations | Generally located in Central Business Districts, Suburban and peripheral Business Districts | Generally located in and around Start-up Hotspots, Residential Neighbourhoods and Central Business Districts (Occasionally) |
| Seat Density | Low-medium. Business Centers usually prefer low density in terms of number of people operating within the center. | Medium-high. A Co-working space will usually accommodate nearly double the number of people when compared to a Business Center |
| Typical Contract Tenures | 6-11 months | 1-6 months; Daily, weekly passes on a pay-per-use basis also provided |
| Popular Brands | Regus, The Executive Center, Vatika, Corporatedge, Evoma, iKeva, Golden Square, Access Work, InstaOffice | Awfis, CoWrks, Innov8, Commune, Incubex, WeWork (Coming soon), |
About mymatchbox: mymatchbox is an online market place providing real-time solutions to users requiring temporary workspaces such as hot desks, meeting rooms, board rooms and training rooms. The portal www.mymatchbox.in has over 500 inventory items across Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, National Capital Region, Hyderabad and Chennai. The portal is also available in the form of Android application on Google Play store for free. IOS app is under development.