Want an office? Co-working spaces will sort you out

Co-working spaces are quickly gaining popularity in Nyeri town and the country at large. 
The idea is to create a serene place where people can rent and work without worrying about high rent, power, water and electricity bills at the end of the month. 
They offer services that their clients need to do their jobs collectively, making them affordable for them. 
Many people have adopted this, mainly youths who have their start-up jobs have a hard time getting the right places to do their jobs. However, creating co-working spaces has given them a convenient and cheaper location for them to do their jobs with minimum interruptions. 

DENNIS MUNGA,25 

I am an academic writer and a part-time social and digital media strategist. My work requires me to be on my laptop most of the time in a comfortable and quiet place for concentration. I moved to Nyeri from Nairobi last year, where I had just left formal employment to focus entirely on academic writing. 
I quickly got acquainted with working at home, and while it was convenient, I had locked myself away from the world. I found myself needing to go out for a change of environment. I started scouting for places where I could go work during the day that was different. The public library would have been good, but it was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced me to settle for cyber cafes in Nyeri town. However, they were costly for me and not exactly work-friendly. They lacked the ambience and quietness I needed to allow me to focus on my work. 
I kept searching with futility and finally gave up and settled on making myself a home office, but I still needed a change in the environment. 
It was until one day I randomly wrote a Tweet and Facebook post asking for a workspace within Nyeri Town, and that is when one of my friends told me about WeraSpace. I did my research about it, and I felt that they offered a lot of what I was looking for. It was perfect on paper, so I decided to go and physically. I met the owner, who told me about what they do and how the space works, and I was excited about it. 
I went in to work there a week later, and it was all that I had wanted. It was cheap, quiet, tranquil, comfortable and had fewer distractions than those in my house. 
Working from home, while convenient, can be a bit tough because you want to watch something, you want to keep eating, you feel sleepy, and you get back to bed after a slight hitch in the name of taking a break. All these things distract you from work at hand. 
However, in a working space, I have to focus because I am paying for the space so you try your best to get the value for my money and this way I find myself being more objective. 
I come to the workplace at least twice a week, and every time, I set my objectives on what I need to accomplish that day, and I always do, which becomes somewhat difficult for me to do when I am working from home. 
The working space also has a high-speed internet which I need for my work, and the speeds are better than those in my house. I also get to meet and network with people who are doing a job like mine or others to interact and learn from each other. 
JOSEPH NDUNG’U , 24 
I am a digital marketer and developer. This means helping businesses come up with digital strategies and help in implementation. 
It also entails creating a digital strategy for them, developing a website or app, designing a social media plan and calendar and finally developing the graphics. I go as far as media buying, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization for some clients. 
I need a professional space to do my job efficiently and without distractions, and that is how I landed in co-working spaces. 
Before this, I used to use a cyber in Nyeri, do my work, and pay per minute. I would end up spending several hours there, and at times it would be a bit expensive. I later pitched the idea of co-renting an office with my friends to split the internet, rent and power bills. 
 I could not rent an office because of the high cost of setting up, branding, the furniture, rent, deposit, installation of Wi-Fi and monthly bills. We had estimated a setup cost of Sh100,000 that we did not have. 
However, one of them instead introduced me to co-working spaces. 
The idea was explained, and I decided to visit and see if it fitted my needs. 
I liked it very much because it was professional, cheap, and with a high-speed internet, all I needed. The serene and quiet environment made it perfect for my work, and I ended up being a regular client. I started by going daily before I started the weekly plan. Currently, I am on the monthly plan. 
I cannot work in a place with distractions like in my house, so I prefer a professional space. 
Weraspace is also located in uptown which is not that busy hence not noisy and allows working quietly. 
The fact that in the co-working space, I have access to uninterrupted solid internet access is a plus for me. 
I can also have my meetings there. There are days I have back to back online meetings, and it is way much convenient and affordable to have them in the space. 
Since I have a private space, I comfortably have my meetings there, both physical and virtual; it is an all-white office with beautiful gypsum designs, which gives the professional vibe that clients look for. The ergonomic seats and tables mean you can work all day and not get tired. 
For someone who spends 80 per cent of my day seated, the seats are very important, and they are great for my back. 
The co-working space also allows people in the same profession to meet, discuss, exchange ideas and networking which is a big part of the business. I have met and learnt some new digital marketing tools this way because everyone has something new that you don’t know. 
The best thing about it, however, remains that it is very affordable for startups compared to working in a cyber which charges you per minute and the high-speed internet and since I work online, internet connectivity is the basic requirement, and the co-working spaces have invested heavily. 
In the partitioned spaces, there is a section with a window where you get to view Nyeri. It is beautiful. When I don’t have engaging tasks, I like that spot. 
NJERI GATHONI, 23 
I am a product marketer, which essentially means that I am engaged online for work. I am also a mental health blogger who focuses on writing and giving young people a platform to share their stories and inspire others to go through the same issues. 
I worked from my house, which made it quite difficult to network and meet people needing my services. This limited my work greatly, and it was also very distracting. 
While it was cheaper working in the house, I needed to meet other people, engage and distract myself. I wanted to have a social life. I would occasionally use a cyber to break the monotony of working in the expensive house. 
However, while I was browsing through Facebook, I learned about a co-working space in Nyeri Town, and I decided to check it out. It was professional, work-friendly, high-speed internet, faster than what I have in my house, quiet, and it was a good fit for me. 
I have been using the space at least twice a week and it has given me space to be more productive in my work, focus, and achieve my daily goals. 
I have also been able to socialise and meet new people in my work line and others in different fields. We talk, socialise and learn from each other and network. It is a good experience for me, affordable and gives me what I need. 
I use the space when I am meeting my clients or some customers. Sometimes I get to meet youths who want to talk about their issues, which is my physical location. I can refer them to the space, and they will be received professionally.
MAINA NDEGWA, 24
I am a social media influencer and content creator that involves coming upon with unique content, including coming up with unique and new content to entertain my followers. Having studied journalism, I also write stories for people to read and captioning of photos for entertainment. I was used to working from my bedroom because my work did not require me to move a lot, but I needed a bigger space when I started expanding. 
I had clients I needed to meet, and I could not do it in the house, and without an office, I had to find a place to do it. 
I then remembered about co-working spaces. I had used one more than a year ago when I was still a student in Nairobi, but it was purely for students. 
Now that I was home, I saw an advertisement for one in Nyeri town, and I decided to check it out. There was adequate space for my meetings, it was quiet, serene and the environment was very work-friendly. 
I then realised that it gave me a chance to network and meet people who share the same work field. 
I liked it, and I decided to start going there. Now I have a physical location where I can refer my clients and handle them very well by the management. 
It is very professional and shows my clients that I am a serious businessperson, and it makes it appealing to many of them, even those who do not exactly understand it. 
I can use the board room or just rent a private office to engage my clients. I can also use the lounge, which is comfortable, and my clients can get their refreshments. 
The co-working space is affordable for me because unlike a private office where I have to pay for electricity, internet, water, and rent, I only pay Sh500 in a day and am not worried about any bills at the end of the month. 
I also get to focus better because knowing that you have paid for a service tends to do their best to get the value for their money. I also have an environment that allows space to be creative and create my content.