COFFEE.shop culture

Find your private working corner at the local quiet coffee shops, where music is not too loud to be distracting, where backyard or foyer can be turned into a conference room for the phone calls and coffee will keep you productive and focused.

Coffee shop species of freelancers' favorite habitat is a cool looking coffee shop with chill quiet music on the background, temperature around 72 F, reliable internet, outlets by every table, and comfortable chairs. Preferrable extras are refills for coffee, bar desks, a quiet zone for the meeting phone calls big enough to make a slow walking during the call, and working zone with printers. First zones that are usually taken are the ones that have power outlets, after that quiet comfortable couches further away from the noisy and distracting entrance, after that all other space. A coffee shop should be welcoming but not too cozy keeping the professional and productive energy of the space.

Recently I found a blog post by an illustrator describing the live cycle of the coffee shops in her experience. She noticed how her productivity slows down when she gets too familiar with a place and when she starts to get to know people there. When she gets a feeling that her inspiration goes down and productivity slows down, she looks for a new coffee place where no one knows her and she can stay in her bubble of productive energy not being.

There is a new type of coffee shop that in some places in Europe where in order to use it you need to pay per hour, day, or have a membership. Some coffee shops add working stations with printers and fax machines adjusting to this new type of customer. This is a good fix handling freelance customers that stay at the coffee shops for 4–6 hours using electricity and wifi, but not ordering much.

While looking for a comfortable place for work be mindful of the business world around you and you as a part of the entrepreneur community.