A number of people have said (in various discussions) that coworking is about the people. Without the people, a coworking space is just a space. What eludes me is, what has people so amped to to get into a space, if you don't have anyone (or enough) people to fill it? Hear me out, here :-)
I can only speak from the example of Independents Hall since that is the project that I was a part of, but I can tell you this: the success we have had with filling the space and having enough *paying* members to cover our costs has been DIRECTLY attributed to a diligently cultivated, loyal community that *did not exist* until we started creating mechanisms for it to exist in. Information sessions are wonderful. Get the word out there. But I have to wonder what the conversion of the attendees of those sessions is, into full time (or even recurring) paying members of a space. Instead, consider spending more time creating events and opportunities for the community to evolve. Between Junto, our own version of Jelly, purely social pub nights, group attendance of OTHER meetup groups...it took 6 months or so but we had a group of 20-25 people who I got to see at LEAST once a week at one event or another. Of those people, 15 of them quickly signed up for a membership plan as soon as I announced that we were going to be signing a lease...sure it was ~1 week between their check signing and our lease signing, but it made it a very clearly solid decision and investment on MY part, since it was my cash that was paying the security deposit on the space we rent. This growth never died off and, sure, we've only been open for a month and a half, and we've only been in this space for 2 months (almost to the day), but we've had people working inside Independents Hall _every_single_day_, rather than rushing in, getting a space, and having it sit idle. Now, Daniel mentioned asking a group of 50(!wow thats awesome!) for commitments before a lease. I don't know how long you've been building that group of 50, but if all you've held is an information session (or even multiple information sessions), I'm not inclined to think that any of those 50 people have a reason to trust you with a check. Not that you aren't trustworthy, by no means is that what I'm implying, but it's an accountability kind of thing. You have 50 *bodies*, but how many of those 50 know each other really well, and how many do you go out to the pub with once a week? If they don't know you as anyone but a "desk landlord" (again, not implying thats what you intend to be, so please don't take it that way), I don't think I'd sign a check over to you, either. One more large benefit to having a community before a space: size estimation. Early on, I was REALLY amped on this sweet, sweet space only a few blocks from where we actually ended up. This space was nearly twice the size of IndyHall, and comfortably twice the price (if not more). That was going to be a LOT of overhead, even with people, and at the time we didn't have the community that I've spoken of. After months of figuring the size of the regular attendance of our work and social events, it became much easier to estimate growth, as well, and get an appropriate sized space...one about half of the size we were originally considering trying to fill. Remember, this is all based on our experiences and our experiences alone, which all I can say is that they have been widely positive. A lot of what I talked about in this email is part of some documentation that Geoff, Bart, and myself plan to do on the coworking wiki. I think a timeline of event, growth, and decision making that got us to open our doors with enough tenents to cover the majority of our rent would be beneficial to new spaces that are roadmapping their process, too. If anyone can think of other direct questions like the one that Tony posed in this thread, perhaps we should start a wiki page (or namespace) about startup procedures, and different spaces can document how they achieved a particular goal? It would be really neat to see what different tactics are used (successfully and not) to achieve the same goal given different situations, scenarios, cultures, and communities. Great discussion opportunities here! -Alex 10/11/07, Fernando Maclen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > The "information-night-a-couple-of-weeks-before" is great. Many people > encourage me to do that. > > Also if you can, invite someone in the media area that could publish > something on a blog, newspaper, radio or even TV. > If you do that, you'll need a website, and on the website you can also > capture interested members that can apply for early membership > reservations. > > On Oct 11, 12:43 am, dbradby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Tony, > > > > While I am still in the process of setting up a space (in Melbourne, > > Aus) I can give you some insights into our progress and the advice I > > have received here previously. > > > > We have currently signed a (multi-year) lease without having any > > members provide any commitment. In the early stages this seemed like a > > risky thing to do, but all my communications with interested people > > (which is so far getting near 50!) confirmed that no one wanted to > > commit to anything without physically seeing the space. Initially I > > was frustrated that I would have to be the one who makes the long term > > commitment on the lease while everyone else held back and waited. But > > when I was honest with myself I knew I would feel the same way. The > > reason we can make that long term commitment was that we had control > > over the location and layout of the space, where potential members > > didn't. > > > > What we did do (on a suggestion from someone in the group) was run an > > information night a few weeks back and got everyone together who has > > expressed interest. This worked very well as it allowed us to gauge > > each person's interest individually and face to face. It also allowed > > the potential members to get all the info they have been after from > > me, ask questions and provide us with feedback about their specific > > requirements. I would encourage you to do the same, maybe not even > > something so formal but instead meet down at the pub? > > > > Yes you do need to take a bit of a leap of faith to do it this way, > > but we felt happy based on the feedback from the info night that we > > would certainly have enough people to sustain a space once we > > officially opened the doors. Good luck! > > > > Daniel Bradbywww.jtribe.com.au/openhub > > > > On Oct 11, 11:06 am, "Tony Bacigalupo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > wrote: > > > > > Hello all, > > > > > I'm looking into what it would take to self-fund a new permanent > coworking > > > space in NYC. > > > > > To space owners who have gone through this already, I know some of you > have > > > already had members lined up before you committed to a space. Did you > ask > > > those members to commit to membership in writing with a deposit or > anything > > > before signing your lease? > > > > > I know of several people who are interested in joining, but I would > want to > > > have some kind of dependable, quantifiable measure of interest before > > > committing to a lease. > > > > > What have your experiences been in this capacity? > > > > > Thanks! > > > Tony > > > > > -- ----- -- ----- Alex Hillman web.developer.innovation.consultant vocal: 484.597.6256 digital: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | skype: dangerouslyawesome visual: www.weknowhtml.com | www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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