New research has shown that many of Australia’s new startup businesses — particularly online stores — favour the environment of their local coffee shop or other ‘third place’ (a place for doing business aside from the home or office).
The younger a business owner is, the more likely he or she is to do business in these so-called third places. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, 52% of Baby Boomers feel that doing business in a coffee shop is unprofessional while 45% of Gen X professionals agreed. Only 38% of Generation Y professionals shared this view.
But while the future of business seems to be going the way of working in cafes, there are some drawbacks, including:
- concerns around the privacy of conversations and documents;
- security of belongings;
- noisy customers, and;
- being perceived as unprofessional.