Some of you might be a little uneasy about going to a coworking space for privacy issues or noise but I can assure you, it was one of the best decisions I’ve took.

Moving was first of all, an economic decision, we save alot of money by renting two desks and we don’t have to worry about spending time paying electricity, water, internet, cleaning, taxes and other legal stuff related to the working space. If there’s a leak in a pipe or some other trouble we don’t lose time taking care of it.
We also have access to a bigger and nicer working environment which we couldn’t afford on our own.

Second of all, it’s a great opportunity to meet other professionals and companies, some of them similar to ours and others in completely different areas. This is big because it enables us to create… Wait for it… Synnergies.

“What kind of enterprise class bullshit are you shooting?” is what most of you are thinking right now but really, making connections and talking to people lets you take better understanding of your products and company. Tell them what you’re doing. What’s your passion. What can you teach them.

And by sharing knowledge with other professionals you’re learning more and showing off your skills in the process. That makes it more likely for you to be referenced if someone is looking for a person with your talent.
And if there’s other people with the same profession as you, that’s a good opportunity to learn from them or work together to reach a bigger client. You can virtually scale your company depending on the projects with your fellow coworkers.

More likely, a coworking space will have professionals with a variety of skills which you can offer to your customers, like for example: translation services or copywritting. So get to know who are the best and partner with them, once again, you can offer these based on the client and project.

It’s more productive than staying at home and you get a perspective of what’s going on very different from being isolated. There’s people you can talk about your products, experiment them and get insight from diferent professionals.

It’s like being able to stare at the forest instead of being focused on the tree all the time.

Most coworking spaces have very diffent working environments, culture and rules but also have a trying period which you can use to get to know the place. Use it to see if it’s the right one for you.

I did and I don’t regret it.

So tell me about your experiences. Do you prefer working at home? Have you tried a coworking space? Comment below and share.

Liberdade229 is one of those examples, located on Avenida de Liberdade (one very central avenue of Lisbon), it’s home of several outstanding startups and features some very good conditions to work.

COWORKLISBOA is another one, located on the LX Factory - a creative think-tank space – with dozens of amazing artistic companies, ateliers, design agencies and tech startups.
If the location isn’t good reason enough, the space has fantastic working environment and features several types of desks available to rent.

I’ve moved my company to this amazing space 6 months ago and it was one of the best decisions i’ve ever made.
I was very excited when asked to design the new website for COWORKLISBOA and I’m very proud of the end result. The site is online and I think it clearly states the mood and fantastic environment.

If you’re around Lisbon be sure to drop a visit.

I’ve been very busy since the start of the new year with all the work happening at Think Orange and participating in the SHiFT organization (more on that later).

Last week the Think Orange website received some very good buzz and appreciation, which is very nice. I love sites that follow a minimal style and I’m happy it served as inspiration and got recognized. I wish some clients would realize cramming more stuff into a site doesn’t necessarily make it better.

Also, we’ve got our projects planned for the upcoming months, setup goals for this year and moved to a new working space.

The COWORK Lisboa, located inside the LX Factory will be our home for the next season and is a cool place to work. Lisbon needed more coworking offers and this is one solid one. The location is very good with a public transportation interface nearby and lot’s of local commerce around.

Best of all, we’re in a room full of interesting, creative and entrepreneur people. I hope in the coming weeks we get to know them better and share some interesting stories/knowledge over some coffee. If you’re in the area feel free to visit us and have a chat.

On the subject of SHiFT, if you didn’t already know, it’s an international conference happening on the 16-17th of April in Lisbon on the subject this year of  Do It Yourself.

SHiFT 2010 will bring together the leaders and newbies of the communities which have serviced in the past 2 editions, with a single purpose: to empower you, so that you can empower others.
It’s a fantastic event where leaders and participants from all walks of life discuss on how technology impacts and changes our life, this year there’s already these great speakers enrolled: