My team-mate and I had a meeting with an affordable housing developer in Penang recently. On the way up the developer’s office which was in Tamarins House, I saw Scoopoint (social collaborative opportunities), a co-working office which I read about in Facebook many months back. After the meeting with the developer ended, I went down to Scoopoint for a ‘walk.’ We pressed the bell and the receptionist cum customer service and marketing person who’s friendly and smiley brought us around and introduced us to all the facilities provided as well as the packages available too. Before I share some photos which could easily be found online, first thing I wanted to tell is that the ‘Office Rooms’ are FULLY leased out. At the time that I was visiting, all the offices have the tenants in them and many were having discussions. One lady within one of the offices looked up, saw me and I smiled but she did not smile back. Perhaps she’s busily thinking how to conquer the world. 🙂
I shared with my team-mate that co-working offices would become ever more popular because it enables new entrepreneurs (usually young and energetic too) to start a business with much lower costs than previously. In fact, the number of freelancers are increasing every year. He said, “But even without these co-working offices, the entrepreneurs can still keep their costs low by working from home.” I smiled and explained. If they work from home, they may be distracted by many things. They would still need to sign up for high-speed broadband and this is usually as much as 50 percent of what some co-working spaces are charing for a monthly working space / desk. Scoopoint charges RM399.
IDEAS – They also do not have anyone to bounce ideas with and have no networking opportunities with some other potential new business partners. You will never know, perhaps you may be sharing space with a potential future ‘GRAB’ or ‘FAVE’?
ENVIRONMENT – More importantly, the staffs they hire, who’s usually from the current generation would love an office with a nice view, with a relaxing lobby to rest occasionally and sometimes even play a game of ping pong with another team-mate. This is especially true for people who want offices in some popular areas but just could not bear to rent the whole office by themselves.
PROHIBITIVE OVERHEADS – Environment aside, costs would be prohibitive too. Unless of course, the entrepreneur does not want to install air-conds. Seriously, even when we rent an office, the usable space is by far smaller than the whole co-working office!You do not even need to hire a receptionist cum admin cum marketing person.
Anyway, there are a lot of other reasons but to many aspiring entrepreneurs out there, there’s now a lot of choices. As for commercial offices, they need to change QUICKLY if they wish to take advantage of these changing times. From my 20 minutes spent in Scoopoint, I can safely say that this is a good choice. Oh yeah, according to the friendly receptionist, one of the current office tenant may move out next year. So, do enquire if you need an office yeah. It comes with nice view, cosy resting space including even a sleeping room! Yes, occasionally you can challenge someone to a game of ping pong too. If I happen to be around, please challenge me! All the best Scoopoint. I am sure more things are coming up. When I meet your founder in the near future, I will ask her a few questions too.
More photos below:
written on 31 Dec 2017
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