Why coworking in Frome is taking off

Working from home can be great. There’s no commute, you get more flexibility, and you can make lunch in your own kitchen. On a good day, you can get loads done.

But it does have its downsides. Sometimes you realise you have barely left the house all day. Sometimes the washing, cleaning or whatever else is around suddenly becomes much more interesting than the thing you are meant to be doing. Maybe the kids are both a delight and a distraction. And sometimes you just get a bit fed up with working on your own.

That might be part of why coworking spaces in Frome seem to be growing.

There are more people here working remotely, whether that means working for a company based somewhere else, splitting their week between home and an office, freelancing, running a small business or trying to get something of their own off the ground.

A lot of those people do not need their own office. But they do sometimes need somewhere other than home.

At the Edventure Hub, we see that all the time. Some people come in once a week just to get out of the house and focus. Others use the Hub as their main place to work. Plenty sit somewhere in between.

If you want to give it a go, have a free day pass at Edventure.

Somewhere between home and the office

Coworking can be talked about as an alternative to working from home, but I don’t think that is quite right. For a lot of people, the useful bit is being able to do both.

Maybe you work remotely full-time and want somewhere else to work once or twice a week. Maybe your employer only expects you in the office occasionally. Maybe you have a load of video calls and don’t want to do them from the kitchen. Or maybe you just fancy being around other people for the day.

It does not have to mean swapping home working for another office. It can just give you another option.

And that is something we have tried to build the Hub around. You do not have to be here every day for it to be useful.

Getting out of the house helps

This is probably one of the most obvious reasons people use coworking spaces. Sometimes you just need to leave the house.

Working from home can make the edges of the day a bit blurry. You finish work, close the laptop, and you are still sitting in the same room. Going somewhere else to work creates a bit of separation. You arrive, do your work and then go home.

For some people, being somewhere where everyone else is also getting on with things makes it easier to concentrate too. Not because coworking spaces are magically productive, but because a split between home and work can be good for the mind.

And when you leave a coworking space for the day, you can mentally leave work too – which many struggle to do when work and home all happen in the same place. (ever checked your email in the evening out of habit?)

There is also something to be said for simply seeing other people. Even if you spend most of the day focused on your own work, having a quick chat in the kitchen or eating lunch with someone can make the day feel quite different from working alone at home.

That is a big part of the Hub. You can get your head down and work, but you are not cut off from everyone else while you do it.

Frome is quite well suited to it

Frome, Somerset, has a really broad mix of people working in different ways. There are people working remotely for organisations based elsewhere, hybrid workers, freelancers, artists, designers, coaches, small businesses, community organisations and people building things of their own.

That mix already exists here. The Hub gives some of those people a place to bump into each other.

Most of the time, that is nothing dramatic. Someone says hello while making tea. You have lunch with somebody you know. You end up chatting to the person sitting next to you about what they are working on.

Sometimes those conversations lead somewhere useful. Someone knows the person you have been trying to find, has dealt with the same problem before, or ends up becoming someone you work with later on.

But they do not have to lead anywhere. There is also something nice about simply knowing a few people locally and having some familiar faces around during the working week.

That can be especially valuable if the rest of your team is scattered around the country; or you work for yourself.

One of the things I like about the Hub is the mix. You might have someone working remotely for a national organisation sitting near a designer, a coach, somebody running a local business or someone working on a community project.

Get a free day pass at the Edventure Hub coworking space, Frome.

Cafés only get you so far

Frome has plenty of proper lovely cafés, and sometimes they are perfect for a couple of hours with a laptop. But they are not really designed to be offices.

If you need to make calls, use a bigger screen, meet somebody or work for most of the day, a proper workspace starts to make more sense. And there is something quite nice about being somewhere where nobody minds if you sit at the same desk for six hours, without timing when you should buy the next coffee to make sitting there legit.

At the Hub, there are screens at the desks, fast Wi-Fi, meeting rooms and places to take calls, as well as a kitchen, tea and coffee and somewhere to sit away from your desk for a bit.

The Hub is meant to feel informal

The Edventure Hub has been a coworking space in Frome for over 10 years, and over that time it has developed its own kind of atmosphere.

It is certainly not a polished corporate office – though it’s all you need to enjoy a working day out of the house.

You can chat if you want to, or put your headphones on and work. There are lunches, occasional socials and chances to spend time together, but there is no expectation that everybody has to network or join in.

You do not need to be an entrepreneur either.

Some members run businesses or work for themselves. Others have completely normal salaried jobs and just happen to work remotely. You can be working on a new idea, or simply need a good place to do the job you already have.

Because people come back regularly, you naturally start to recognise faces and build some friendships locally.

You do not need to be there all week

One thing that sometimes gets missed with coworking is that you do not have to use it every day. For lots of people, that would be unnecessary.

You might work from home most of the week and come into the Hub for one day. You might use it when you have lots of calls. Or you might simply come in when the walls at home are starting to close in a bit.

That is why we have tried to keep the Hub flexible, with smaller memberships, options for people who use it more often, dedicated desks and day passes.

That flexibility is useful whether you work for yourself or for somebody else. You do not need to be running a business, starting a project or looking to network.

You can just need a good place to do your job.

Is coworking right for everyone?

No.

Some people love working from home and have a great setup there.
If that works for you, there may be no reason to change it.

But if you find yourself getting distracted, feeling a bit isolated from seeing others, wanting to see more people locally or simply needing a change of scene sometimes, coworking can be useful.

And I think that is probably the main reason it is growing in Frome. There are more people working flexibly, and more of us are realising that working remotely does not have to mean working from the same room at home every day.

A few common questions about coworking in Frome

Is coworking good for remote workers?

For many people, yes. It gives you somewhere to focus, see other people and separate work from home without giving up the flexibility of remote working.

Do I have to be self-employed to use a coworking space?

Not at all. The Hub is used by freelancers and business owners, but also by people in regular jobs who work remotely or have hybrid working arrangements.

Do I have to use a coworking space every day?

No. Plenty of people use the Hub for one or two days a week, or just a few hours at a time.

Why use a coworking space instead of a café?

A coworking space is designed for working. You have proper desks, reliable Wi-Fi, somewhere to make calls, access to meeting rooms and the freedom to stay for a full working day.

Can I try the Edventure Hub before joining?

Yes.

If any of this sounds familiar, the best way to work out whether the Hub suits you is to actually spend a day here.

Come in for a free trial day, bring your laptop, work as you normally would, meet a few people and get a feel for the space.

No hard sell and no need to decide anything on the day.

Just come and see whether working from the Edventure Hub makes your week a bit better.