Alternatives for working from home

I know a lot of freelancers and consultants — writers, designers, illustrators, photographers, communicators. People who don’t take a paycheck or who work remotely. For them, there are now more places where to “do business” thank just from the “home office.”

Coffee shops

You can’t go to a Starbucks these days without seeing the endless stream of people who have converted their tables into makeshift offices. For some coffee shops, the issue of someone taking a table for the entire day (and stopping others from using it to order more items) has gotten so big that they’ve removed the Wi-Fi access and electrical outlets. And I know several wine shops that will ask you to move along if it looks like you’ve camped out at a table to do business or work. However, this is still the favorite choice.

In Houston, Cafe Express is always my choice for morning meetings; they serve breakfast, offer free coffee refills, have Wi-Fi, and they are rarely busy before lunch.

Co-working Locations

I really like the concept of the co-working locations. Offices that have been set up in such a way that you can rent an office or a desk on a month-by-month basis, or sometimes on a daily basis, or where you can just pay for access to the facility as you would the coffee shop (i.e., pay a fee and get to stay there as long as you need, use the Wi-Fi, get coffee, and make friends).

Caroline Collective is no longer open in Houston. What are my options these days? I just reported about the opening of White Space. I know Houston has others; I’ll need to make this a project, to go out and find them.

What are your suggestions?

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NOETS:

• Found via Lifehacker.