Looking for a workspace

lennyantonelli

This is a bit of a long shot, but I’m a writer/journalist who’s looking for a desk or office space somewhere in the city or not too far outside.

I’m getting pretty fed up of working from home, mainly because I rent and share so don’t have the luxury of being able to reconfigure a room as a proper home office.

If I was to rent a conventional office it’d pretty much be doubling my overall rent, which I can’t afford, so that’s out of the question.

When I lived in Dublin, I rented a space in an artists studio for €100 a month, which is closer to my budget. I’ve contacted a few studios in Galway but no luck yet.

I’ve investigated both the Westside Resource Centre (only rent office space to charities) and Ballybane Enterprise Centre (only to enterprises, naturally enough). I know 091 Labs do a coworking day but I really need somewhere I can go all day, every day.

I’ve tried the whole working from cafes/libraries thing but it doesn’t really work to be honest, for various reasons — cafes gets expensive, I have to spent a lot of time on the phone etc.

Anyway, just running through all the things I've considered, and wondering if anyone else knows of any places that would be worth trying, or has any ideas?

I figure (perhaps wrongly!) that someone out there must have a desk or other space lying empty that they’d be willing to let me use for fairly cheap rent.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

flynnlives

Ballybane Enterprise Centre do rent out desk space. They have a communal office room and you can rent the desk/space.
there is a good few sole traders in there.
The guy up there is sound. You should call out there. I got the impression they werent strict on the enterprise thingy.
if your a journo aint that not an enterprise!

lennyantonelli

Cheers, I'll drop them a line! :-)

Enterprising journalist.

Mrs OBumble

As a self-employed person surely you're an enterprise?

Ok, so maybe you're sole-trading rather than registered as a business, so that might rule out BBEC. But I doublt that it would worry the otther serviced-office companies around (Level One, Grey Office Park, Sirius Business Centre, Tara Rock 7 ... mmm, that list if from 3-ish years ago, not sure what's changed in the sector since then ... there will be places though.)

They may want you to committ to a minimum term, though, and because they're serviced that may be more than you want.

Have you looked at any of the office buildings around that just rent out individual offices, without services? Artists are very sweet and all, but if you want a work envt then a business person might be better to rent from.

flynnlives

lennyantonelli wrote: »

Cheers, I'll drop them a line! :-)

Enterprising journalist.

I went there and the guy running it showed me around. He was dead on. There was quite a few sole traders there. It is in demand tho so if your offered a desk you should take it quickly.

lennyantonelli

Cheers. Just called Ballybane Enterprise Centre, really sound guy as you said, and it sounds fantastic. At €150 a month + VAT though I think it might be outside my price range. Now I realise that's super cheap for a served facility, but I still don't think can afford it, hence why I was leaning towards slightly alternative arrangements (ie the artists studios thing). They do have two spaces free at the moment though for anyone interested.

Mrs O B, I did look at some of those serviced offices but again, they're outside my price range unfortunately!

folbotcar

I noticed in pasing that the Galway Technology centre in Mervue Business park were advertising office space. A quick check of their website sees offers of hot desking and all that. Worth a check out.

http://www.gtc.ie/start-ups/shared-office-space-galway

Thargor

Walk around and find yourself a nice quite corner of NUIG or GMIT, nobody will ask any questions Ive done it myself.