If you’re from Sudbury and you work online, you don’t need me to tell you that you’re severely lacking in terms of choice when it comes to getting out of the house and getting a bit of work done. But luckily for you, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible! You just need to know where to look, and how to avoid the local riff-raff.
Sure, you can take your laptop to the local Tim Hortons – but is that enough? If you’re looking for an office, I’m sad to say, you’re quite out of luck. There are a few options available to you, but the cheapest you’ll be getting a personal office for is around $500 a month. It costs around the same in downtown Toronto, to give you a bit of perspective about how outrageous that price is.
Sure, you can shop around and hope for something better, but it’s easier said than done. Most of the buildings here have been designed to serve larger-scale projects and industries, namely the mining companies that Sudbury is so renowned for, and the smaller companies supplying them with equipment and consultation services.
I recommend giving The Workspace a look – they currently have a private office available for rent, and it even comes with a front desk reception! That, as well as coffee and snacks. Why not give them a try? Assuming you’re willing to fork over the hefty personal office fee, that is. Co-working is always an option, and I don’t know bout you, but I’ve never really been able to focus when I’m surrounded by other people talking.
There are a few coffee shops downtown with free wi-fi, but that’s more of a marketing thing than it is the truth. You’ll find yourself being asked to leave, even if you’ve bought something, within 30 minutes. I think this is a bit unfair, so I tend to stick to New Sudbury and the Tim Hortons there, as well as the library. I would avoid the Library downtown, near Sudbury Secondary – some of the worst people I have ever met in my life tend to congregate in that area.
No matter where you choose to go, you’ll quickly find every single area in this town lacking when it comes to an outlet to charge your laptop – you’ll need something with a large battery, a portable keyboard, a power bank, and your phone if you want to get any amount of meaningful work done without going back and forth between your home and the ‘office’.