John, we are creating a new space in the Dallas/Fort Worth area which will open in about 30 days. Our first goal is to build "community". This model is break even and hope to be profitable in year 2. Our model is based on taking 12 months to get enough users to break even. We have room for 15 people to sit and work at three levels, table, desk, and semi-private cube. all spaces are arranged so everyone can see each other, no confinement and the big table for 10 users is in the middle of the space. We are hoping to get at least 25 members with several in the "virtual" segment e.g. those who can come in, use the coffee service, meet clients in the meeting room, have an address, mailbox, but only use space when available. With this small of a space we will break even at 15 users. This first facility will be to test the market and see how it works and what we need to change. I have a second facility designed which will accomodate up to 40 users in 5 different levels which at 75% occupancy will be profitable and I can make a living on it. The larger size will have issues in building community amongst so many users and will take more staff or "social directors". Hope this helps. Trent smartoffice.pro
On Mar 18, 8:24 pm, jmproffitt <[email protected]> wrote: > As we're evaluating whether/how to start a coworking office in the > Anchorage area, it strikes me that there's a spectrum of possible > approaches. > > On the one hand, there's the sort of "retail" coworking space where > people simply rent desks by the day, week, month, etc. The space is > helpful to those participating simply by being there. Camaraderie is a > welcome byproduct, but not a primary goal. This business approach is a > pure for-profit play that must make money for the owner(s) to remain > viable. > > At the other end of the spectrum is the break-even "community" > coworking space where the objective is to support independent digital > workers and even foster community amongst them. It might even be an > advocacy space that promotes the businesses that participate in the > coworking venture. In this case, the coworking space might make money, > but that's a byproduct of the venture rather than the primary goal. > > And then there's a spectrum of variations in between these two models. > > A few questions... > > [1] Does that description sound about right to you? > > [2] Is one model more "sustainable" than the other, or is it too early > to tell? Put another way, is the for-profit model more sustainable > because the profit motive draws in enough cash to keep going (and > offers the owner incentive to keep it going), or is the not-for-profit > model more sustainable because the participants are mutually committed > to a shared success? > > [3] Has anyone out there created a coworking space that you would say > has split the two models down the middle, making SOME money but also > actively providing support for participating coworkers by playing > connector / booster? > > --John > jmproffitt [at] gmail [dot] com > @jmproffitt --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
