Rachel, I absolutely love your idea as I am thinking exactly the same way. I had a vision 5 years ago that pulled together the coffee shop, a small spa, a small wine bar, a walking path/limited exercise equipment, and green or live plants throughout, with comfortable seating and work space throughout.
I truly believe the co-working facilities are going to grow into communities within communities; like you and i are invisioning. For example my gym in Overlandpark kansas (30,000 or so sq feet) has a spa, a sun deck, a pool, a cafe, and comfortable seating throughout, however people leave basically after their 40 - 60 minute workout..for the most part. If I had the opporunity to work out, shower and then head into the co- working space on site, I would be in heaven. I think the Starbucks, gym business, book stores, to capture this type of community and social network are going to have to go this direction. In fact they will want to. My vision started from hanging out in the United Airlines Red carpet room, comfortable leather furniture, business persons of all sorts, energy all over the place, snack foods, etc OH and the ability to get work done. Like you I also see the value in 24x7 membership and in fact if done right I do believe this could also be an incredible money making venture. The space would include individual seating that you reserve and log into, To log in for the day you would log into the community website, register your space (you can also order food/beverages, copies, reserve a board room, 15 minutes massage etc. see who else is on site) and get news and information of upcoming events, new members etc (this PORTAL if you will could also be another revenue stream not unlike Face book etc) There would be other spaces like cubes for microbusiness type work, maybe even themed living rooms for friends (like my wife and her bunko girls) to get together, shelves of books for break time reading, a small theather for private movies, presentations etc. Like you I also see this space for anybody that just needs sometime away, to take a breather, and center themselves. Cool stuff. Would be great to converse further Dawson On Jul 10, 10:35 pm, Rachel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > While I agree that the idea of a "cafe-like" space with workspace is > part of an ideal, I've thrown in additional perks that I myself would > like to see - things that would pull me away from my home office and > help me add balance to my work day. In answer to the question, "Is > this a hotel or a workspace" the answer is: it's a hybrid. I've > modeled parts of my business plan off a boutique hotel because it > comes closest to helping me describe the services I want to offer here > in Austin. > > As for the pool... I've had a pool off and on for years, and find > that the ability to take a quick swim clears my mind in between > conference calls. I'm release manager and operations lead for a > strategic web site for IBM, and need any small breaks I can get to > prevent the stress from rising to an untenable level by the end of the > day. Same goes for the steam room, and for my ideas about yoga and > gardening. Everybody needs a break now and then, even if we work-at- > homer's don't take them as often as we should... > > So far (and I'm saying this without having run it past a CPA yet), the > numbers work out well so long as the facility has adequate space - > these aren't services you can offer a small group at any kind of > reasonable cost. In fact, I want to offer space to folks who need a > permanent solution - as well as to those who simply need a few hours > away from their normal digs. Because of that, my price list runs from > hourly (minimum of $5 hourly with free coffee during peak hours) to > membership levels. > > I think this will appeal to a large number of potential customers, but > my start up costs will admittedly be very high. Hope this doesn't fly > to far out of the realm of the model you've been working towards... > > Rachel --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
