As the digital economy becomes more mainstream, the next generation is entering the workforce at a time of profound economic, social and technological change. What combustion engine did to the transportation industry and beyond after 1890s, the influence of internet and upcoming artificial intelligence will do more to the business and human world in general past 2020.

officeLOCALE Coworking Space and Business Center wants to help the new youth and business Start ups adapt to the new way of doing business in the 2020s — and beyond. Firstly, officeLOCALE has been committed to help young businesses incubate and prepare for a new world of work since 2002. Secondly, it has a very optimistic vision of humans trading value for benefit in the coming future.

A few years back, a couple of best selling books, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew Mcafee, and The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future, by Martin Ford, gave a foresighted perspective on the way automation and artificial intelligence will affect humankind in the very near future. They offered some good alternatives from policy standpoint. However, as a small business, officeLOCALE has experienced and adapted to that exponential change brought by digital technology in its business routine operations and offerings; from its digital printing and shredding services to its private mailbox rental, notary services, shipping and mailing solutions.

Offering not just hourly office space for conference room use or day office use in a prestigious corporate building, but a monthly virtual office membership at officeLOCALE allows small business start ups to forgo fixed costs of having a business front. For as low as $45 a month, remote workers and businesses can now have a base, a “Ground Control” for their mobility. All correspondence including letters and packages is scanned to remote mobile devices to acknowledge acceptance and storage. Day office and limited conference room use allow members to meet their clients at a neutral and professional site. All costs of business become variable and optional, like whether someone uses live receptionist services to have their phones answered or whether they want a check deposited in their bank account.

Too many small businesses and start ups fail because they cannot sustain high fixed costs. Internet has changed that and equalized the plane of offering retail goods and services. One doesn’t have to be fixed in one place to offer a good or service. They can offer it from anywhere on the planet, yet trust in another is fixed when they have a foundation somewhere where they can be verified. Its even better for business when two parties meet each other, at least the first time to create that trust and impression – to get that “gut feeling” for each other.

officeLOCALE offers a free networking mixer every month on its meetup site calendar. Whether a member wants to be a speaker to create an event or some other speaker wants an audience, the networking event allows small business owners and office members to meet each other locally and build trust and relationship. Scarcity creates value, and so does relationships. The age of automation need not be a threat. In the new age everyday is a creative routine to customize a good or service instead of a mundane grind. If we apply our relationships — to be creative, critical and collaborative — it will result in adapting to change, just like we have adapted to using a combustion engine to transport ourselves instead of using people and animals to do the same.

For more information on becoming an officeBOX member at officeLOCALE – Call 805.777.8866 or visit www.officelocale.com.