Dear freelancers:
In the spirit of community, generosity, budget sensitivity and a need to spread the word, I’m providing you with the following blog post to use anytime you want.
If you need a way to explain yourself as a Cofficer, this is perfect! If you’re not sure about becoming a Cofficer – perfect. A recruiting tool – you know the drill!
If you’re not a freelancer, but still want to use this piece, please do. Better yet, I’d be happy to repurpose it for your specific readership. I’m quite versatile that way.
The only condition is that you let me know where it’s been used so that I can spread the word even further.
Without further ado, let the freebie begin.`
A secret international community you may or may not be a member of?
We’re all freelancers here. So I can write candidly. If you’re not one yet, but you have plans to head in that direction, try to keep this post on the down-low. We don’t want everyone to know this little common secret we share. Or maybe we do. We’ll see…
The secret community I’m talking about is an international phenomenon that you may or may not be a member of. There’s no annual fee – except the cost of “consumption”. We won’t make you sign a pledge or have you do ridiculous acts of hazing embarrassment as they do in college fraternities or football teams.
There’s no secret handshake or hi-sign (yet); perhaps a simple knowing glance when you see another member, who likely joined in a similar fashion to you. They struggled with the decision to join too. But they finally joined because they were welcomed with open arms and warm mugs – we encourage you to do the same when others express an interest in joining.
Curious yet?
In case you’re hearing this for the first time, see if you can relate to this:
As a home office working freelancer, you’ve tried everything in your power to make a go of it. The problem is, it’s too quiet. You’re generally pretty disciplined with your work – after all, you do have deadlines to meet. But that TV is too tempting, the fridge is full, the cat won’t stay off your keyboard and, more often than you probably notice, your roommate (or spouse or kids or all of them), can’t seem to quietly wrap their heads around respecting the workspace nook you’ve roped off for yourself. You need to get out; you need to see people, maybe make some connections out there. Where do you go?
You pack up your laptop and everything else you need for work, and head out to the closest, most convenient coffee shop, set yourself down at a table, plug in your laptop and get down to it.
This is the global phenomenon known as The Coffice.
“Coffice” is a conjunction of the words “coffee” and “office”; a term to describe the local coffee shop that is utilized as a place for performing daily work-related tasks; a location for non-office (or occasional office) dwelling workers to create nontraditional work environments in which to conduct their business.
As freelancers who frequent the Coffice, you are known as Cofficers. You are part of this elite community of professionals (and some students) that is growing by leaps and bounds across the world, but is largely misunderstood by the masses.
Non-Cofficer colleagues, family members and friends don’t realize that, like getting off the elevator in a downtown high-rise, Coffice devotees are on a first-name basis with all the people who work at their regular spots – the Coffice staff – including the managers and many of the other Cofficers there. They’d be shocked at the amount of networking actually done at The Coffice – and the business opportunities brought by that networking.
Veteran Cofficers have nearly perfected their Coffice experience. They shrug off and occasionally chuckle at the bewildered, sometimes judgmental glances from caffeine-starved customers buying their lattes before rushing downtown to full-time cubicles and glassed-in corner offices.
The managers, VPs, Directors and C-suite key holders dubiously staring at the sea of laptops have no idea what Cofficers are about. They’re clueless as to the level of thought and strategy that goes into choosing a Coffice location. They’d be amazed at how much work goes into packing briefcases and laptop bags with the Cofficer’s tools.
If Cofficers actually sat down with all of these people and explained how the Coffice infrastructure is harnessed, to our professional advantage – sometimes with robotic precision – laptop sales would boom, wifi use would explode and maybe…just maybe…stress management programs, seminars and self-help books would become near obsolete. Maybe.
In lieu of miracles happening, we Cofficers – freelance and otherwise – continue doing what we happily do from day to day. This is the near secret existence of the Cofficer.
Please welcome the tentative freelancer and make it known to everyone else that the Coffice community continues to grow as fast as your business!
Congratulations. Welcome to The Coffice!
