Citizen Space (San Francisco est. November 2006) Do you break even?
Mostly...that is the goal. Sometimes we do, sometimes we fall short. If you go beyond break even, is it by much? If and when we go beyond breaking even, it's only by 1/2 month ahead. This makes saving for a rainy day (2009 had many of them) a little tight. Is there anyone who is experiencing growth even with the recession? We grew our space this year because of the demand (in January/February), but in the summer, we had a bit of an exodus because multiple residents were looking to cut costs. What are your membership plans? $300/month - lite (you get a key, but no 'desk' - just come in and work whenever) $425/month - full (you get a key + desk where you can keep your stuff and call your home. Access 24/7) FREE (requested donations) - drop-ins (only when people are around - no after hours or weekends) http://citizenspace.us/pricing/ Does being profitable have to do with charging for extra services? We make extra $$ from events...helps out a bit, especially during low membership times. Most of all, is this a business that one should approach with a mind frame of making money or with one of community, or both? Community...making $$ is a bonus, but if you do it for the community, you won't be disheartened those months when you are paying out of pocket to keep the space open (which I've done for a while now). Tara On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 2:55 PM, Kelly Brown < [email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Cam, > BTW - can't get much more of an authority on coworking than Alex. > > But figured I'd share some of our learning as well as we just > completed our 1st year in Akron and are preparing to open a 2nd > location in a nearby city (Cuyahoga Falls). > > >>Do you break even? > *Just about* - I expect we'll be at our break even point in > December. > We learned a lot in the first year and both our location, market & > pricing model is slightly different than Philly. > > Akron isn't a top 10 city -- not even close :) > We're definitely a small city with midwest sensibility for space & > work environement. > > We found our members are less accustomed to the shared corporate > environment than larger cities. In our experience, we found most > people in our area are *first* taken aback at the concept of sharing a > work area, office or even a table with someone else. Some come in > with the idea they are going to get an executive suite. Many > immediately embrace it. But still - we found most of our members > wanted private areas they could reserve & sneak away to for phone > calls, meetings, etc. > > We changed suites within the same buildling and went from 3600 sq feet > to 2200 -- it gave us more private space for people to break away from > the bustle of the main work area and certainly cut down on our > expenses. > > We also raised prices recently which helped a lot. We were greatly > under priced at first and that was a mistake. We didn't see any price > resistance. > > >>Is there anyone who is experiencing growth even with the recession? > We are experiencing growth. We gain 2-3 new members each month -- and > haven't seen much attrition. We're currently at 35 members. > > We're preparing to launch a second location as well. Our local > community has been VERY supportive -- and we've tried to be very > involved on that front. That has given us a good reputation so > neighboring cities have been reaching out asking for us to open > locations in their area as well. > > We're committed to starting this one off at break even and have > entered an agreement with the building owner re: revenue sharing to > ensure that. If we get 6 members to commit to the launch - we'll move > forward. Then every member will benefit because they can use either > space -- extending our value. > > > >>What are your membership plans? > http://www.officespacecoworking.com/membership-pricing/ > > >>Does being profitable have to do with charging for extra services? > Not yet. We expect to offer additional services soon -- secretarial, > book keeping, simple lead generation etc. These are the services most > of our members are needing and we've already helped a couple get some > things off the ground. > > > >>Most of all, is this a business that one should approach with a mind > frame of making money or with one of > community, or both? > > Both -- can't do one without the other. As Alex points out you can't > enjoy the benefits of the community unless that community can > financially sustain itself. We try to be honest with that -- we have > to make money or we won't exist. People respect that -- we all need > to earn a living. > > Best of luck! > Kelly Brown > Office Space Coworking > http://www.officespacecoworking.com > > > > > -- tara 'missrogue' hunt Book: The Whuffie Factor (http://www.thewhuffiefactor.com) Blog: HorsePigCow: Marketing Uncommon (http://horsepigcow.com) Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missrogue phone: 514-679-2951 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
