Thinking about opening a co-working space? Read this first.
If you are considering starting a coworking space, the job ahead of you can be intimidating: by increasing the funds to determining the company model to figuring out how to stick out amidst growing competition, there is no shortage of challenges. This guide will provide you with some crucial things to bear in mind as you size up your job. Follow the advice here, and you will be off to a wonderful start!
With thousands of new working, spaces are opening each year, it is clear there is no lack of demand for new sorts of shared spaces. Building a booming coworking space, however, is no easy task. To get there, you ought to lay a solid foundation from the start and chat to a commercial real estate agent.
Collect interest early
Before you are even committed to your job, you can hold preliminary interest meetings to have a sense of who is out there and what their needs are. At this time, it’s quite simple to modify your plans, so take in as much information as possible!
As soon as you start paying rent on an area, you will be responsible for the commercial office lease for the duration of the contract. Eliminate as much stress from yourself as possible by taking the time to discover and entice individuals who will become members after you start.
Organise pop-up-coworking events, or find people who’ll work with you to achieve that. When choosing a room, look for smaller spaces–if you fill up the space fast, you can use it to justify raising support for a bigger area.
Build on the success of all your incremental attempts, from informal gatherings to more formal attention meetings and regular pop-up-coworking events and outside.
Select and pursue a sustainable business model
There are lots of recognised sustainable business models for coworking spaces today, so you should not have to wing it.
This might be the most popular alternative. Personal office spaces have been proven profit centres. Offering them in a place that also is home to a vibrant community of colleagues makes them that much more enticing!
Planning to host a strong calendar of events provides double advantages: it provides you with another revenue stream while also providing a natural pipeline of new, prospective members coming to your area.
You have plenty of choices here: You can create your own programs or function with outside content providers. You can charge for programming, or find sponsors to cover the costs. You can concentrate on technical, design, and entrepreneurship skills, or make an open-ended offering. You can focus on evenings and weekends, or have regular programming during the week.
Coworking + Consultancy
There are two big benefits to this approach. For one, you are spreading out risk between two companies –provided that one is doing well, it can compensate for slow times in another.
Second, the coworking space could offer a wonderful pipeline of talent and jobs to the consultancy, while the consultancy can provide excellent work opportunities for your members. Everyone wins!
If you do not have a consultancy yourself, you may partner with an existing one that may be seeking to update its space.
Some choices: web development company, design company, advertising or marketing company, small product firm.
Coworking within an under-utilised space
A more recent trend in coworking is one where spaces which often sit vacant are repurposed into coworking space during business hours.
To keep costs down and find a lightweight offering off the floor fast, consider partnering with a local church or restaurant!
The positive economic effect of a successful coworking space on its community is extraordinary. Think about aligning your job with the goals set by the respective departments and groups in town, where there might be unique opportunities to access funds, publicity, and distance.
If you don’t opt for one of these paths, then bear in mind you will eventually have to deal with the problem of sustainability–or you could expect to finally close.
Recruit plenty of help
Don’t attempt to do everything yourself! If you have other people bought into the idea, empower and encourage them to help you handle the countless things you will need to do.
Invite these collaborators to help create event programming, provide feedback on your brand, floor plans, furniture, and choice of place, get help building your website and materials, anything that may be delegated!
The more people see your space is the result of a collective effort, the more enticing it’ll be!
Coworking spaces are unique because they break down the barriers to linking between individuals of different backgrounds and areas.
Use a personable, positive and individual voice on your correspondence and your interactions. Show people what it is like to work together in a way that is more collaborative and mutually respectful than that which some of these might be accustomed to.
Organise fun parties
Organise happy hours, parties of major landmarks, dinner parties, BBQs, game nights, whatever may spark joy among individuals who’ll make your community unique.
These moments are those that people will remember and tell others about. By implementing these suggestions and the overall mindset behind them, you will be building not only a wonderful shared workspace but a really transformative and memorable community. That community will supply you and people who are a part of it considerably increased productivity, happiness, and friendship for many years to come.
