If you prefer another format just reply and I’ll change it. Thanks for the great image.

It’s fair to say that a good number of coworking spaces are being run more as hobbies than businesses, thanks to an abundance of newly minted independent workers as well as depressed real estate prices.

Disclosure: I run two coworking spaces in Minnesota. If new freelancers and cheap rent were all that we had going for us, we’d be in trouble. We definitely view ourselves as a business. We pay market rates so that we can be in the right space and we charge a premium for our memberships because we believe they deliver value. As a result, we don’t have too many economic refugees as members. Rather, we have people who are committed entrepreneurs, veteran freelancers with many years in the game, as well as corporate nomads who have “jobs” but have the freedom to work where they choose.

If this last segment keeps growing (fueled perhaps by more companies embracing telecommuting as they compress their real estate holdings) then the demand for coworking may not necessarily be dampened by an economic upturn.

But will there be a classic upturn with return to business and hiring and officing as usual? That is a big question mark in my mind.

—Jonny Goldstein