A quarter of entrepreneurs prefer coffee shops to their office

27% of the UK’s small business owners have said they prefer to work in coffee shops over their usual office space, according to new research from Direct Line.

Coffee shops were the top choice for remote entrepreneurs, followed by restaurants (14%), bars (11%) and parks (8%). Another 19% had worked at airports while waiting for a flight and 18% had worked on public transport.

The flexibility of being able to operate from multiple locations was cited as the top benefit of remote working (35%), as well as having a better work-life balance (32%), increased productivity (17%) and lower operational and transport costs (16%).

However, 35% of small business owners said limited WiFi access was a downside, with more distractions (24%) struggling to find a power source (23%) and missing interaction with colleagues (14%) also revealed to be negatives of remote working. 11% of respondents were worried clients and colleagues may think less of them for not being at the office.

Jane Guaschi, business manager at Direct Line for Business, commented: “Many small business owners aspire to work in creative and engaging work spaces and the wealth of WiFi hot spots now available allows them to turn a high street coffee shop into a mobile business hub.

“The research shows there are clear benefits of working remotely, greater flexibility and a better work life balance are some of the advantages of mobile working, which is why more and more small businesses are embracing it to help drive productivity and reduce operational overheads.”