The lockdown due to coronavirus has its disadvantages. Besides disrupting the economy of our country it has also started showing its vexation on startups. One sector is the sector dealing with coworking spaces.
With the economy taking a hit, many startups are ranging from fin tech companies to restaurant startups which are facing huge financial loses, of which many are struggling to exist in the market. So, the first thing that comes to someone owning a company is to reduce costs and save for future. And a company’s major cost comes from renting an office or a working space. And with the new work from home culture making its unique mark in the corporate world, many startups have utilized it to their best interests to move away from costly coworking spaces which allows them to save huge amounts of money. Highly ambitious entrepreneurs are not found anywhere in the coworking spaces, sipping a cup of coffee, and sharing their immense knowledge with their teammates. Empty office spaces seem like it has been deserted for years with not even one person coming in to check it.
One of the example being WeWork which is shutting its restaurant coworking space which it acquired barely 1 year before the lockdown. “As part of WeWork’s renewed focus on its core workspace business, Spacious will close its doors on December 31, 2019. We regret any disruption that this may cause to you or your business,” reads an email sent to Spacious customers on Thursday.
According to Business Insider, which first reported the shutdown, Spacious’s entire staff of 50 employees was laid off. Most companies have started work from home daily and will refuse to terminate it even after the lockdown ends as they consider it to be a viable option. Awfis, 91springboard, and other coworking spaces have asked for a rent reduction. Also, the companies nowadays are slowly refraining themselves from office space as their productivity is equal by working from home and it saves them an essential part of their money. Awfis founder Amit Ramani quoted that coworking offices are finding it difficult to pay their fixed costs right now. These costs include electricity charges, employee costs, among other things. This has become a major problem for them as they are unable to find a balance between the money spent and the money lost.
We wish they come out of these situations. The government might soon take some steps to help them come out of the crisis. Till then we hope they find a way out and their businesses start flourishing again.
