 Hello everyone, this is Robert Gephart, and today I want to talk to you about where you should be working. You're a freelancer, and if you're a freelancer, it means that you don't have to go to your office 9 to 5, and that you're pretty much free to work from wherever you want, as long as you can get your job done, right? And so I just wanted to go over the main places that you can get your job done, and main places that I've tried or I've seen and give you my take on them. So let's get started right away. First of all, the first place you can work from is your home, and that's where most freelancers end up working from, because it's very comfortable. My commute time is literally about four seconds, depending on, you know, if I stop to look at myself in the mirror or not, and you know, obviously it's very convenient, and I can set it up just the way I want it. I can, you know, have whatever I want, get rid of whatever I don't want, and it's very comfortable, and mainly there's no morning commute, which most people appreciate. So yeah, so the first place is usually at home, and this is where I usually work from, especially since moving here to Charlotte, I've been working from home. By home, by the way, it doesn't just have to mean this office, which I've set up like I like, but I can work from the kitchen over there. I can work from the terrace, even though these days it's getting hot pretty early, but I can work, you know, anywhere I want at home. My apartment also happens to have a business center downtown, or downtown downstairs, so I can work out of there. There's also a terrace that's very nice. I have this whole lounge area, and I could work out of there, but like I said, it gets pretty hot pretty quickly, so I don't really do that much. So that's the first place home, wherever you feel more comfortable. For me, it's wherever I get the most work done. I've set up my office, so I have very few distractions, and I make it as easy as possible to get work done, and as hard as possible to get distracted, and that's how I like it. So that's why I do most of my work here. Also, I just moved here recently, and so, you know, still getting the lay of the land, but it's working well for me here. That's the first place. The second place to work is a co-working space. Now notice I say co-working space and not office. There's a reason for this. These are two different things. An office is, so an office is a place you get a room, kind of like an apartment. You get a room, you rent it out, and then you, you know, you set up the electricity, you set up the Wi-Fi, the phone, you buy your own printer, photocopier, your phone, your desk, your chair, your this, your that, whatever, and you outfit it. And then, yeah, you sit there and clients can come see you or whatever. You have a place to work. In this day and age, it's pretty outdated unless you're part of a big company that has one already, or if you're meeting clients every single day, you need a storefront to do so, then, then yeah, you can have one. But otherwise, if you're freelance translating, if, and you're doing a lot of your business online, you kind of don't need an office per se. And so most people I know, I don't think I know anyone who's a freelance translator who has their own office, unless it's, you know, handed down from them. It's like a family office or something they work out of. So rather than an office, I mean a co-working space. So what's a co-working space? A co-working space is where you get together with a lot of other freelancers, entrepreneurs, stuff like that. And there's a space where you can all work together. Every city has this. You search your city plus co-working space, something will pop up. And I know this because even where I lived before in Lugano, I had a great co-working space. And just as an example, where I live now, Charlotte, there's a place close by that offers co-working space and they have different levels. So for, I think it was $99 a month, you get access to one of the desks in the common area so you can work and other, you know, entrepreneurs and other people are working there too. You get access to the conference room if you need it. Other rooms where you can have one-on-one meetings. You can also then rent out there the whole place for an event one time a month, I think. And yeah, you know, obviously you get access to their Wi-Fi, to their, I think they have a coffee machine or I don't know. And then obviously to their lighting and their air conditioning and stuff like that for $99 a month. It's not a bad deal, you know, because if you do it, like if I do it, I save on my lighting and their conditioning, which I'm paying for here. So that already helps out, plus you get to be with other people who are also entrepreneurs and you get to have an exchange of ideas and all that, which is great for networking as well. There are also other deals, like so the one that I said that was $99 a month. For more per month, you can get your own private office in the same area or you can get an office that's shared just, you know, amongst a couple people, etc, etc. Every co-working space has its own deal. So definitely check it out. If it seems like something you might be interested for your area, look up co-working space and see what pops up. So you have home, you have co-working space and what else do you have? Well, a very obvious one that a lot of people go to is a coffee shop. You'll have a Starbucks or a caribou coffee or your independent coffee shop or whatever down the road and you can go work out of there. Basically, all you need to make sure is that they have Wi-Fi. You have a couple of these coffee shops, kind of hipster ones that don't want Wi-Fi now, which is fine. Actually, maybe you don't need Wi-Fi for your job. In which case, yeah, it's nice to have people who aren't skyping each other or whatever right next to you. And you'll always definitely find space in these places that don't have Wi-Fi. That can be a problem. You know, the Starbucks will be full of people. But yeah, either way, you can work. If you want to get out of the house, you want to go somewhere else, you can definitely go to any coffee shop and work out of there. I do that quite often. I've been to all the coffee shops around here. And those are great also for meeting people. In fact, in a couple hours and two hours, I'm going to have a meeting in one of the coffee shops downtown. And it's very easy for me because I don't have my own office yet or anything. I could meet at the business center here. I haven't signed up for the co-working space yet. But after that, I could meet there. But it's very easy to just say, hey, let's meet in so-and-so coffee shop and we'll talk. So coffee shops are great for getting work done and for talking. For coffee shops, by the way, I kind of prefer not to go to Starbucks just because Starbucks tends to be louder. More people go there and a lot of people go there having loud conversations or they're talking on their phone or whatever. And I find in general, obviously it depends, but many times these independent coffee shops tend to be more quiet and have people hunkering down, getting their work done. And so it makes it easier for me to work, which brings me to the next place that you can get work done. And this is a place that actually many people don't think about and or leave out and I don't think they should. And that's your local library. Chances are you have a public library close to you. Chances are it's free to go there. Chances are they have Wi-Fi as well. So chances are you could go there, work in a place that's air-conditioned or whatever has lighting and has Wi-Fi and is quiet. My definition, libraries are quiet pretty much because you have a librarian shushing everyone. And so it's very good to get work done. I here in Charlotte, I have been to the public library a couple times and I've worked out of there. And pretty much every place I go to, I get to know the library quite well and end up going there. The other added advantage is that you don't have to buy, you know, your $7 coffee or whatever that you have to get in a coffee shop when you go there. So libraries can be very good as well. And so make sure you look up a library that's close by, that's convenient to you and see if that's an option for you because a lot of people don't do that. And I think that's a mistake. Also whenever you're traveling, because a lot of freelancers work while they're on the road, search the local library. That's usually a great place to go to. I mean, you'll usually find a coffee shop as well, but libraries are all over the place too. So definitely look into those and use those. And then in terms of other places to work from that I like, I, that I found myself working in that I do enjoy. One is hotel lounges or hotel lobbies. I found myself several times going there, maybe just temporarily, but I end up parking there, right? Because they have all the space they usually have Wi-Fi and they'll have a bar or coffee shop right there. So if I want a coffee or something, I can get it, but many times you don't even have to get it. You kind of just walk in, pretend like you're a guest or something and just set up there and work. I guess if you end up doing that every day, they might start getting a bit suspicious, but no one cares. Even the people who work there. Anyway, I've never done it every day. I have done it on occasion. And many times while I'm there, I'll still get a coffee or something to drink. And so, and I'll just hang out there and get work done. And those are very usually very good and pretty quiet and they're a good place to get work done. If you have a hotel close to you, a decent hotel that has Wi-Fi, then yeah, definitely look it up and see if that could be an option for you to work from as well. Another place that I like that might be rare is, well, yeah, basically it's airports. Airport lounges or just airports. I mean, airport lounges usually have to go in through security, but just the airport is usually a really good place to work. I've found myself many times when I'm picking someone up for the airport or dropping them off. Like I'll have my wife, I'll drop her off at the airport. I end up parking there and staying there for a couple of hours and getting work done. You know, because you have Wi-Fi in the airport and I can just sit down, I find a comfortable place and I can get work done. Now, if you're in the airport, now I think I've mentioned this before because a lot of people like to go to lounges. I don't like going to lounges because you usually find, I don't know, all sorts of people there and you can't necessarily get work done unless they have a special business section. If you are past security in the airport, you can usually find an empty gate. Every airport, I think, needs to have at least one empty gate. So if you can find that, you can work out of there. That's usually fine. Another place I like is they usually have a worship center for people to go pray or a prayer room. And in the entrance to that area, there's usually a place to sit down. If you want peace and quiet, that's a great place to work as well. But if you're just going and you're not taking a flight, this before security, you can just park yourself right in front of the whatever it is. You know, the entrance or to go through security or whatever. Any place there's a table or a coffee shop and get your work done. And I've done this on various occasions, even in Lugano, which is a small town that I'm from, has a very small airport, but I have just parked there and got my work done and it worked well. So if you do have an airport close by, that could be an option. Along those lines, maybe train stations and something could work as well, most of the train stations I know are a bit more chaotic than airports though, so you'll have to see. Basically, what I'm driving at is to get work done, all you need pretty much is Wi-Fi, a desk, and quiet. So if you can find Wi-Fi, a desk, or something around the right size to put a computer on, and relative peace and quiet around, you're good to go. And that's pretty much it. I also prefer a place indoors, especially here, because I'm living in a pretty hot part of the world, and so I prefer it if it is indoors and I don't have the sun beating down on me. And that's pretty much it. I should end this by naming one place where you definitely should not be working, even though a lot of people for some reason think it's the ideal place or the coveted place to work, and that's the beach. You always see these pictures or like these emojis or I don't know whatever of people working on the beach, you know, having your feet up and having your pina colada or whatever here and your laptop and you're on the beach. And that's, for all those of you who've tried it, you know, but I mean, it's completely stupid. You can't get any work done. First of all, there's too much of a glare to see anything. Your computer gets super, super hot. You're going to get sand all over it. You can't leave your computer to go to the beach or anything because people are going to steal it. If you have a drink next to it, you might spill it or something. I mean, who knows. And you're going to look really weird too. Anyway, so I don't know why people have this obsession of wanting to work from the beach, don't work from the beach. If you are at the beach, park yourself at a hotel right next to the beach. Actually, I did that just recently. And, you know, if you're, you can be in the hotel looking at the beach and get work done from their lounge and using their Wi-Fi. And it's very relaxing as well. But don't go on the beach to work because, I mean, why would you? Anyway, so I hope you found this useful in terms of places to work. You know, so hopefully it won't get mundane you won't be just stuck in the same place day after day work and you're a freelancer. So take advantage of it, right? And, you know, if you're able to work in a different place, you don't have to go to the same office, the same cubicle every day. Get out there and work from different places and find new places in your town. And let me know if you know of other places that I haven't mentioned where you can get work done or if you found different places in your town where you can get work done or you like to get work done because I'm always curious to hear about it. When I first started working for myself, I ended up going and exploring all these different, you know, hotels, coffee shops, areas where I could get work done, see what worked, what didn't. And it was pretty interesting. So let me know if you know of any others. Otherwise, I will see you in the next video. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you found this useful. And if you click on the little bell next to subscribe, then you will get a notification every time I have a new video out so you can see it right away and you don't miss them. And otherwise, I will see you in the next video. Thanks. Bye.