Entrepreneurs cozying up to new workspace models

After seven years in journalism, Li Ying decided to strike it out on her own.

The 35-year-old started a consultancy, and one of the first things she needed to do was to find an office for eight employees.

Li spent a whole afternoon searching and finally found a place in southwest Beijing — a room in a shared or co-working space.

She was lucky, considering how the 3,300 available spots in the area were snapped up within seven months.

“A married woman has a lot to balance when starting her own business. Co-working makes it a lot easier to access services,” says Li, who is one of many entrepreneurs realizing the benefits of operating out of the community workplaces.

In recent years, the authorities have been encouraging young Chinese entrepreneurs like Li to start their own businesses and fuel innovation.

Many millennials taking up the challenge enjoy more freedom in choosing jobs and getting financial support for their ventures. But their youthful enthusiasm can often come up against real obstacles and practical considerations.

Finding a suitable place to work can be a major hurdle. Traditional office spaces can be expensive, so a number of freelancers and startups try to rent apartments instead.

IT graduate Wang Peng recalls how his first business endeavor failed: “I didn’t dare bring investors to our workplace. We only met in fivestar hotels, so they saw us as frauds. We didn’t manage to get any financing.”

Still, much commercial space remains empty. An industry report from the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic-planning agency, showed how the commercial property inventory significantly exceeded the housing one.

A recent report by global commercial real estate group Colliers International also estimates that the shared office space sector is growing by 30 percent a year, amid an entrepreneurship boom and demand for flexible working situations.

One entrepreneur, Mao Daqing, saw the huge potential in unlocking all that space.

The former vice-president of Vanke, one of China’s largest property companies, founded UrWork in 2015 to provide co-working spaces. He now has branches in 35 cities globally, serving 100,000 people.

Half of the 5,000 companies renting UrWork spaces are startups.

“Co-working is not simply renting workspaces,” says Mao. “Our projects cater to different needs. We aim to build a community among co-workers. We often act as an incubator and accelerator for small and medium-sized companies.”

UrWork renovated a vacant supermarket for four months to help form its first community in east Beijing. Traditional spaces are fully refurbished so co-workers can share a gym, kitchen, store, cafe and lounge.

Tenants can book a meeting room, find a designer or seek legal advice through an app.

Getting a work station costs from 1,800 yuan ($275) to 2,200 yuan a month. The spaces have already been helping to connect people and form business networks.

Startup Zhiguagua.com, which handles intellectual property registration, took up a few work stations in 2015 and provided most of its fellow tenants with registration services. Orders have increased seven-fold, and it now serves Chinese enterprises in Singapore as well, according to the company.

Another tenant, Runnar, which organizes and promotes marathons in China and around the world, worked with a charity group to raise funds and adopted a new facial-recognition technique from an IT company to position the photos of marathon runners.

“You only see desks, but it’s what’s behind the desks that matters. For example, we can meet our investment and financing needs,” says Runnar market supervisor Zheng Hao.

“A lack of communication can kill great ideas.”

In October, a report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out the gap between unbalanced, inadequate development and the people’s desire for better living standards.

In a move that could help plug the problem by unshackling underused resources and tapping talent in local communities, UrWork is making inroads in the suburbs of metropolises and third-tier cities.

More businesses are also trying to

We often act as an incubator and accelerator for small and medium-sized companies.” Mao Daqing, founder of Urwork

be more mobile and flexible as they expand to other cities, driving the shared office market in China’s third- or even fourth-tier cities. “Time is money,” says Mao. “Enterprises take longer to find support if they don’t make full use of shared-office resources.”

For Li Ying, who looks after both her child and aging parents, an office that is close to home is certainly a bonus.

“I expect the suburbs to be the next pool of innovation,” she says.

“My dream is to build my consultancy into a Chinese think tank.”

PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Tenants in the UrWork co-working space share a table in the public area, which is conducive to communication.