Last month Staples announced the launch of Staples Studio — a new concept in co-working spaces for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and commuters — which just opened in three Massachusetts Staples stores. Designed to foster an environment where businesses can focus on creating, collaborating, and connecting in shared workspaces and private or shared offices, the new Studios also offer perks like unlimited coffee, tea, and meeting room use. (Source: Business Wire)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: It seems like everyone’s jumping on the co-working bandwagon and why not? With the proliferation of freelancers, contractors, work-from-home employees and remote workers there are plenty of places where individuals (and businesses) can set themselves up and rely on all the cloud based technologies that makes this possible. Maybe this is a solution for your firm, too. Staples has an enormous small-business customer base, and seems as a natural company to make this model work. Plus, if these co-working spaces succeed, it may help their brick-and-mortar stores stick around.