Jerlina, Take a look to your nearby neighbor, Berkeley Coworking... it took them a year to fill up, despite starting with all infrastructure in place at the beginning. Derby Creek has had WiFi and paint dry for little more than a month now, and some uncertainty about branding/identity, in a different neighborhood with a different market, with a different product.
Hosting outside events that get free calendar listings and spread through word of mouth is one way to get more folks exposed to the space and aware of its existence. I know this helped Citizen Space and Berkeley Coworking a bunch, and I appreciated being able to bring some of my communities there. When I last visited Berkeley Coworking a week ago, I didn't see any flyers for your space. Given that they've got a waiting list and are 3 minutes away by bicycle, it seems like that would be a great market to target. Perhaps have a special event and invite all the folks there so they can tell folks that they've seen it. It also may be the case that some of them would better enjoy/afford Derby Creek... Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting "poaching," but rather partnering and co-marketing to pursue shared interests in community building. Maybe it is time for an East Bay "Cohousing Crawl" like the one we did in SF a year ago. Your top Google hit for "Derby Creek Coworking" is your blogspot blog, not updated since more than a month ago, with a post that by the second sentence is saying "must" rather than welcoming people and encouraging them with the opportunities. You might look into picking up a few cheap desks to have in place already so people don't get bogged down with "I don't have a desk," "I don't have a truck to get it there," or other potential objections. Or, "oh, I have to email to schedule a visit. But I don't want to make that level of commitment. Or I don't have email when I'm out and suddenly have time. And I don't know how long it will take to get back to me. So I won't bother." And while the second post has a lot of great photos of the space and surrounding environment, there's no PEOPLE in the photos - the space looks entirely empty, static. Or personal stories in other blog entries. And any coworking catalyst will tell you: a successful coworking space is not in the space-rental business. It is in the COMMUNITY CONNECTION business. And if you're not featuring your best "product" (the wonderful people already involved) on your own site, you're not really using the web effectively, let alone all the other tools Tony has mentioned. It's great to see that you're actively using the @derbycreek Twitter account, don't forget to update the account's profile to describe itself and to link to the website (and the website to live-link to the account at http://www.twitter.com/derbycreek , as well as perhaps including a widget with updates). And don't forget to use the #coworking hashtag to show up in more searches. Yum, pastry day today, I may bike on by! So far you have done lots of free marketing using several channels... have you looked into paid options? What's the cost to you per month of having all those spots unfilled? Perhaps spending some of that on advertising in the Berkeley Daily Planet, East Bay Express, Daily Cal, or the Monthly would help. And don't forget Google Ads and FaceBook ads... a small daily budget and the right keyword targeting can get you a lot of exposure. I'm not thinking "coworking" as a primary keyword, but rather more-generic things people are looking for that you can serve: cafes, workspace, quiet place, etc. Yes, it's hard to spend when the ongoing deficit is looming, but if you don't, you'll just keep on spending, the gap growing and getting harder to fill. Maybe do a first-month-free special like Sandbox Suites is doing, or some other "try before you buy" option. Perhaps you need to re-assess rates with the assumption of a certain vacancy rate, the same as any apartment or co-op would do. Maybe give the other members incentive to recruit by having their rates go down when more folks join. Sandbox Suites in SF offers referral fees for members who recruit new members. You might look at your "terms of service," since it comes out of a student housing coop that involves higher demand and greater levels of commitment, it might be too scary for people looking for something lighter, more transient - the rent plus deposit model also cuts into that. It would be worth collecting emails/phone #'s for everybody who comes to the space, and then doing some kind of followup survey to find out why people say they don't join (note that this is not necessarily the real reasons/root cause). In some cases, simply asking "why not" may get people to join, but most of all it gets you valuable data. Look at who has joined and not just get them to tell their friends and colleagues, but look at them and figure out who else would match their profile. Or be complementary in skills, background, connections. Rather than face this as a generic "I gotta fill the seats" challenge, imagine the space as a functioning village, and visualize each of the faces of people there, and their stories about what they do and how they found it... do a little market research to verify your assumptions, figure out the right channels for "microtargeting" to reach each of them, keep flexible as you learn, and go out there and rope 'em in. Raines Cohen, Coworking Coach http://www.CoworkingCoach.com/ On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 7:45 AM, Derby Creek Coworking Coop <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hello! > I opened a coworking space in Oakland nearly 2 months ago and it has > been going ok. I have found it very difficult to find people to fill > my space. I have been advertising on craigslist, have sent emails to > everyone I know and have posted fliers in cafes around town. The space > is small, I'm only looking for 6 people, and I get a few people who > come in every week to check out the space. Unfortunately I thought the > space would fill up immediately so now I am starting to worry that > something is really wrong. Any suggestions? I don't have a lot of > money to work with, so that has limited my advertising capabilities > substantially. Thank you! > > with peace, > Jerlina > http://derbycreek.blogspot.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
