Enter co-working. Co-working is working independently with the added of advantage of possible synergy that can take place when you put innovative and talented people together in the same room. These people share one big office space with perks not available at the coffee joint or at home, such as conference rooms and opportunities for networking and socializing. Co-working sites generally charge daily and monthly rental rates per workstation.

This new trend in working started in 2005 in San Francisco where an inventor and open-source software developer coined the term “co-working.” BarCamp, another trend in the era of Web 2.0, also lent inspiration to the current co-working model. BarCamps are user-generated conferences, organized around a shared interest, where participants bounce ideas off one another. Wouldn’t it be great if going to the office was like going to BarCamp everyday?

From San Francisco, the work model came to Shanghai as an increasing number of intrepid entrepreneurs and independents look to do their own thing rather than pursue careers with large multinationals and state-owned enterprises. According to official figures in the annual employment report, since 2002 the number of freelancers in Shanghai doubled to 564,900 by the end of 2007, representing over 6% of the overall workforce.

Both 88 Spaces and Xindanwei offer the amenities available in traditional office settings, such as workstations with ergonomic chairs and ample table space, conference rooms, pantries stocked with coffee and tea, printers, copiers and fax machines. The rates are 100 RMB per day and 2,000 RMB per month. Commemorating its launch in late June 2009, 88 Spaces is offering a Founder’s membership rate of 10,000 RMB for half a year. The sites will also host monthly events for members and their friends as part of their community-building and networking initiatives. With exciting sites like 88 Spaces and Xindanwei setting up shop, the future looks bright for Shanghai’s entrepreneurs.

Xindanwei. Photograph by Luo Hao.

We at BloggerInsight recently moved to our new home 88 Spaces, an awesome co-working space in the heart of downtown Shanghai. Since our inception over a year ago, we’ve been based out of our homes, coffee shops and the web2asia startup incubator. Fully incubated now, we’ve got the chutzphah to set up camp at 88 Spaces where we are thrilled by the prospect of joining a community of likeminded techies, geeks, creatives and entrepreneurs.

Contributed by Mike Fung, Ying Xue

WFOE for Sale! (07/21/08)

Wholly foreign owned entity for sale in Shanghai!
Business scope: Restaurant with attached licenses for
Alcoholic Beverages, Dairy Products, Snacks, Coffee, etc.
Location in Puxi available if required, otherwise licenses can be transfered to different location of your choice.

This is a great opportunity to save time and money!
F&B licenses are difficult to get and require a lot of time.
By buying this WFOE you buy as well the attached licenses which enables you to open your restaurant or coffeeshop significantly faster.
The registered capital of 140.000USD has been fully verified.
Send us an email to know more about this great opportunity!
contact us at wfoesales@gmail.com …

Now, anyone who has looked into the legal requirements for starting a legitimate and legal business in China knows that there are quite a few requirements and quite a few formalities, none of which seems to be easy to execute with any measure of confidence. Not only is the official information difficult to follow, you’re inevitably fearful of someone ripping you off somewhere or something biting you in the ass when you least expect it.

Therefore, the prospect of being able to by a WFOE off the shelf with all the requisite legalities and licenses handled for you does indeed sound like an incredible convenience, especially if you’re a scrappy entreprenurial foreigner looking to open in a land where you may not speak the language. Ah, all the dreams of showing the locals how to set up a proper, comfortable, dining environment (with ice on demand) that isn’t made up of rickety tables and chairs, grimy floors, and surly service come swirling into one’s head.

Now, I’m not particularly put at ease with an e-mail contact like “wfoesales@gmail.com” nor do I want to pass judgements just yet. All I want to do is give some business-owners or lawyers in China the opportunity to chime in on what they think about this, how legit it might be, and their advice for would-be foreigners looking to give it a go in China.

UPDATE: Found another listing, this time with phone numbers:

Foreign owned restaurant company for sale

Fully foreign owned company for restaurant operation for sale. Includes full set of permits and fully licensed for immediate use. If interested, please call: 150 2162 2008, 135 6457 2083.

Note: This post is only intended to provide would-be business-starters some additional information or cautions. It is not designed to provide proper legal advice from a legally China-licensed attorney. Please do your own due-diligence. It is your own butt you’d be protecting.

Each year, 20-50 million metric tonnes of “electronic waste” (eWaste) are discarded by businesses and consumers worldwide. An eWaste recycling company in Guangzhou, China wants to source large quantities of eWaste (old computers, electronics, household appliances, etc.) from outside China to be shipped over to China for processing and recycling.

They’re looking for people who are familiar with and/or reside in their respective home countries that can help them locate and purchase such stockpiles of electronic waste from municipal, regional, national, public, or private electronic waste collection centers, junkyards, etc.

Your level of involvement depends on you.

Upon finding such stockpiles, you would initially be responsible for gathering and communicating information to ascertain and negotiate the value of the waste with the company. You can then choose to either invest in purchasing the waste yourself from the source and resell it to the company for a profit OR you can negotiate a finder’s fee and the company will send their own people out to deal directly with the source.

The company currently purchases its waste from a Chinese waste importer and would prefer to import the waste themselves directly from abroad.

Should you be interested and would like to be put in touch with the company’s representative, please contact me directly here.

UPDATE: Due to falling scrap prices, the Guangzhou company mentioned here is no longer operating and therefore no longer offers this opportunity. Thank you to everyone who e-mailed me (and continues to e-mail me) with their interest.