Hello everybody,
My name is Ichsan. I'm a freelance architect in Bandung, Indonesia. I've been
lurking in this mail list for more than 3 months before finally decided to set
up our own coworking space early July. Yes, that's almost 1 1/5 months ago; I
just want to see how it's going before sharing the news (after all, I don't
want to spoil all your excitement and optimism if our space end up
prematurely). You can see the latest photos of our space here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32321...@n04/sets/72157622026078160/ or visit
www.workpod.wordpress.com (sorry, it's in our native language, Bahasa
Indonesia).
Being the first coworking space in the city (dare to say in the country, too)
things wasn't easy at first. We have optimistically projected to get 20
members in the first month, because almost every people from our initially
targeted market (one-man-freelancer) says that this is a great idea, and
they'll check the space immediately after the official opening. Well, they
didn't. And so, our first month was very-very slow: aside from our 6 founder
members (mostly architect. Perhaps things are a little different here), only 3
new low-level members were registered in the first week.
It took another week to realize that only our innermost circle of friends can
tolerate the ad-hoc ('add-as-it-grow') approach. It's an entirely different
concept of 'working in the cafe' here in this side of the world : most of
freelancers in our city consider it as a lifestyle (even McDonald's is
considered as a delicacy here). Being in a coffee shop is an opportunity to
'seen-and to-be-seen', as well as to parade their latest gadgets in the table.
So we've decided to change the appearance, and redefined our targeted market.
We've refined our space by adding two custom-built large worktables, installing
a 42" LCD TV and a large artwork on the main wall. But the most important thing
was redefining the market. Instead of aiming at one-man-freelancers that will
eventually registered as low-level members, we've shifted the target to the
so-called 'group freelancers' and small-scale-enterprises that regularly need
a quite representative meeting place but couldn't afford an office. We've even
planned to include small offices (with 'reduce overhead' jargon) as our target
in the future.
Another important thing was the change in marketing approach. Instead of
waiting things to happen, we've finally decided to go out and introduce the
concept of coworking. Each of our founder members was required to bring at
least 1 potential visitor everyday in average. They were also encouraged to
actively engaged in various special-interest groups now easily accessed thanks
to Facebook (This thing is a reeeaaaaally big help. I couldn't say enough).
Lomo photography groups. Analog/film photography groups (yes, it alive and
kicking). Downhill bikers group. Linux group. Sunday painters group. Anything
that needs regular showoff moments can use our space. We even organize regular
workshops on almost anything that can leverage a freelancer's skill and broaden
their network.
Things are started to picking up since. Within last 2 weeks we have 6
low-level members, 3 middle level members, and several potential high-level
members to come. We really hope that this will continue for next month (we need
at least 6 high-level members to sustain), and we're very thankful for all your
suggestions and ideas. We'll keep you posted.
By the way, most of our members are quite interested in the coworking visa
concept. Any progress on this one?
(Pardon my English. The concept of embedding past, present and future in any
language is alien to me. After all, our concept of time is cyclic, not linear
as yours ;-) ).
Best Regards,
Ichsan
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