I think community and profit are two different and perpendicular dimensions, not part of the same continuum. Imagine a graph with Importance of Community on the vertical and Importance of Profit on the horizontal. Places that have wifi hotspots as an inducement for people to come to their regular business (e.g. Starbucks) would be in the lower right quadrant, high profit and low community. A local jelly group or the people here would be in the upper left, low profit but high community. City wifi programs (not in it to make any money, not in it to bring a community together, yet still providing enabling services) would fall into the lower left quadrant. The question, then is whether you can get into the upper right where both profit and community are important.
I don't know if you can get there providing only coworking space (it kind of sounds like not) but maybe if you provide some other goods or services that can provide a symbiotic relationship with the coworking. For instance, a coffeeshop/coworking space can work together; people used to the coffeeshop-with-wifi model can be attracted to the community and comaraderie of your coworking, and your coworkers can provide a ready pool of customers for coffee and snacks. By the same token, I think your web/social media business could complement your coworking community since some of your coworkers may be independent businesses that might need web design services, etc. Someone else pointed me to Cubes & Crayons who have coworking plus daycare services for work-at-home parents. Or coworking could combine with a Mail Boxes Etc.-type business that provides these independent businesses with mail and shipping services. I think the key to being a profitable coworking entity is to think about what other goods and services the coworking community is in the market for and find a way to fill one or more of those demands. If you can find one that appeals to the general public as well, the two aspects of your business ideally will reinforce each other, or at least one could subsidize the other. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
