The BOOQED team has worked with some amazing coworking spaces over the years, so we wanted to share a bit more about what makes them so special!
Next up in our host feature series is Spaceship, a Singapore based startup that is redefining the coworking, warehouse and storage industry.
The coworking sector in Singapore is booming. More and more entrepreneurs and companies are moving away from the traditional option of leasing an office and making the switch to working in a shared space.
But let’s say you own or are working in an e-commerce company that requires a warehouse or storage space to store and fulfill orders. More likely than not, you’ll need to pay for a warehouse with the necessary equipment and amenities to operate your business as well as an office or coworking space to handle admin. Plus, it’s not guaranteed you’d find a warehouse and office right next to each other, which could result in you spending more time travelling between the two locations than getting the actual work done. What a hassle!
Spaceship Singapore aims to be the ultimate platform for startups – supporting the needs of e-commerce businesses by centralizing their office, warehousing and fulfilment center in one location to create a cost-effective, centralised and convenient all-in-one service for small and medium-sized businesses to store products, operate, fulfil orders and ship products to their customers.
When designing each Spaceship location, the focus is entirely on the users – the way they operate and fulfil orders, the type of storage space they will need, and the type of operating facilities and equipment.
In addition to your typical private offices and dedicated workspaces, Spaceship also offers standalone storage units that are fitted out with racks to store physical inventory, shared operating facilities and operating equipment to enable users to easily manage their logistics activities and save cost in the process.
These include:
Spaceship’s space was designed to prioritize functionality and the logistics flow of goods - from receiving and inbounding to storage, picking and shipping - over aesthetics. In fact, the design team avoided unnecessary cost items during the renovation process to keep the setup costs low, and through this, pass on the cost savings to users.
It’s safe to say that there is truly no other coworking space like Spaceship.
Like most shared coworking spaces, Spaceship suffered from impacted revenues and increased costs during over the past year. Faced with the challenge of ensuring safe distancing measures were followed, Spaceship’s team blocked out seats between workstations, and increased efforts to sanitise common areas and keep the facility clean.
But although the COVID-19 pandemic created a lot of uncertainty, with many businesses having to find ways to save cost, reduce overheads and conserve cash, Spaceship found that many users actually benefited from their flexible model as opposed to a traditional fixed long-term lease.
The pandemic also led to the accelerated adoption of e-commerce. With the lockdowns and social distancing measures in place for months on end, people shifted the majority of their shopping online. Rather than stick with traditional brick and mortar stores, companies increasingly realised they needed to start selling online in order to reach their customers – and came to Spaceship.
In turn, Spaceship worked on creating a flexible scalable model for its users so they could scale their space requirements up or down, allowing them to reduce commitments and save costs. Its on-site logistics support service and network of delivery partners also meant that users felt supported in their journey to move their business online.
The pandemic has showed us that flexibility is crucial if businesses want to thrive. But is it enough to slap together a few desks and call it a coworking space? Definitely not!
According to Spaceship, a successful coworking environment serves the needs of its users. And that includes having the right type of workspace and shared facilities based on the businesses at the coworking space. The community team of a coworking space should also have sufficient domain knowledge in certain aspects of the user’s business so that the user can gain additional support, beyond the space itself.
That’s why their community and operations team are trained to learn how an online-business owner operates end-to-end, from selling through online marketplaces all the way to order fulfillment and last-mile deliveries.
Spaceship also dedicates part of its healthy growth to its partnership with BOOQED. Through BOOQED’s platform, businesses are able to discover coworking spaces like Spaceship and learn more about how their space differs from the traditional office model and even the typical coworking model.
Looking for the ultimate shared workspace that will meet all your needs? We’ve got you covered. BOOQED works with hundreds of coworking spaces in Hong Kong, Singapore and China, each with their own unique amenities, so you can find the right workspace for you! Just download the app (available on Android and iOS) to get started.
