Like most small businesses, Charlotte's independent coworking spaces were hit hard by Covid-19.
John Vieregg, managing partner at CoCoTiv Coworking, said having to shut down early on in the pandemic posed a challenge for coworking spaces, and still does five months later.
"Obviously with the initial shut down, coworking members had to go work from home," he said, "Even when those restrictions loosened up to allow members to come back, I think it was a struggle to get them back through our doors unless they had the security of a private office."
Vieregg said he and representatives from nine other independent coworking spaces in Charlotte and surrounding areas began meeting back in April to talk through ways to survive the pandemic.
The group currently includes Advent, CoCoTiv, C3 Lab, Hygge Coworking, The Mill Coworking, Packard Place Public House and Tabbris, all in Charlotte; Loom in Fort Mill, HB5 Cowork in Concord and The Hurt Hub in Davidson.
Vieregg said the group decided to work on garnering support from the local workforce and launched a "Work Local" marketing campaign, similar to "Shop Local" or "Eat Local" initiatives. He said the campaign is meant to help the smaller, independent coworking spaces compete with national coworking businesses like WeWork or Industrious.
"We’re all individuals who live here and support our local economy, and that’s obviously what we’re trying to bring to the table," he said. "We’re really now just trying to get that word out... Employers and remote workers should know of the different options because where one prospective [coworking space] might make perfect sense for me here in the city, it might not work for someone in Lake Norman or Fort Mill."
Vieregg said each of the 10 coworking spaces have begun focusing on the people and businesses in their own communities.
"One of the things we’re all doing individually, other than trying to get the concept and brand of 'Work Local' out, is to work within our own region or neighborhoods," he said. "We’re taking this message and trying to get more localized within our own communities."
CoCoTiv, for example, has reached out to apartment complexes in their neighborhood to offer rates on space for a shorter-term that include half-day, full-day, weekly or monthly rentals.
One trend Vieregg said he's noticed recently, is an uptick in larger companies renting out space for their employees as satellite offices instead of opening their own offices back up.
"Our operations were never really geared toward enterprise businesses like WeWork or Industrius, but just within the last two months we've had a proposal go out to a Global 500 company that reached out needing 30 desks," he said. "I think we're going to see more and more of that."
Vieregg said CoCoTiv, like many other coworking spaces in Charlotte, has lost some members because of Covid. But it hasn't been all bad.
"What we may have lost in some of our private offices, we've gained back with larger offices coming in and spreading out," he said. "I think if you were to ask any of the others, you'd find it's kind of a recurring theme."
