Four out of five Brits spent at least three and a half hours working from a coffee shop every week, according to research from discount voucher website MyVoucherCodes. A third have closed a business deal in a coffee shop, valued at an average of £1,732 each.

It’s not just confined to the self-employed or start-ups. 67% of respondents said their place of work supported the idea of working from a coffee shop. One in three people have attended a job interview there. The average working session in a coffee shop lasts for 93 minutes.

This is good news for coffee shop owners, with the average worker spending up to £10 on food/drink for each working session. The average Brit spends over £2,160 a year working from a coffee shop, 8% of their salary, and this climbs to nearly £2,600 for the self-employed worker.

For freelancers and the self-employed, coffee shops are more economical than serviced offices but will lack other perks. US group ‘We Work’ now has twenty sets of ‘coworking’ offices around London, starting at £660 for a private office. The group also offers ‘hot’ and ‘dedicated’ desks. Elsewhere, a serviced office for four, based in Chalk Farm, is £2,800 per month through Nomad Space.

These will offer more than simply a desk, including regularly scheduled office hours with venture capitalists or other industry professionals, and tequila tasting happy hours. They will also offer high speed wifi, meeting rooms and video conferencing facilities, not all of which are available at the local Starbucks. More to the point, you won’t have to make every cup of coffee last three hours.