On 21 Jan 2010, at 01:26, Mike Weiss wrote: > Do you think that there is a minimum city population or density > required to make a space successful? I notice that most spaces are in > really dense cities, or cities larger than 50,000 people.
No, but there is a cultural issue to deal with. There are small co-working spaces I know of in the UK with 4-5 people in villages with 10k population. It's about how many people in your area are digital nomads? Self-employed, freelancers or micro-businesses who would benefit from sharing a space? Some of the most inspiring spaces I saw when researching were a group of 4-5 friends who just rented a house together to spend their days working (mostly writers) away from home. > Do you think competition should be a big concern? See it less as competition, more as opportunity to collaborate. Strength in numbers. If your goal is to get market share, you'll fail. If your goal is to help as many people be as awesome as they can be, you'll be fine - that includes giving "competitors" a hug. > There are a lot of empty buildings and offices in my area, and I worry that > someone with more investment money could undercut me for a long enough period > of > time to drown me. When we researched Fly The Coop we asked people what kind of space they wanted. We predicted: - Professional/business-like - Good transport links, but decent car-parking - Plenty of meeting rooms What they asked for over-whelmingly was a bohemian-style with cheap rents, near train stations, somewhere to stash their bicycles and a desk. The exact opposite of what we thought. So, go and research your audience, and then provide something they'll really love. Somebody with more investment will have a different audience in mind. FTC has a hot-desking and "flexible working solutions" space around the corner from us, corporate owned, furniture that must have cost a fortune, etc. - none of our members particularly love it, but plenty of other people must do. See? Room for everybody, just talk to *your* customers. > Do most spaces have hired help to oversee the space during lunch/ > meetings, or do they just trust residents to keep an eye on the place > while out? We're member-owned, so if they trash it or not, they already own it! :-) > Have any space owners held meetups prior to full commitment to gauge > community interests? Did the interest turn into actual residents? It took us years to get our space sorted. There were a lot of reasons for that. The final stage where we hit "go" and signed up members and prepped the space was less than 3 months though. We were quick. > Hopefully I'll be in a good position to open up shop in the coming > year, and I can prove it to be a viable business opportunity. Good luck! -- Paul Robinson http://vagueware.com :: [email protected] :: +44 (0) 7740 465746 Vagueware Limited is registered in England/Wales, number 05700421 Registered Office: 3 Tivoli Place, Ilkley, W. Yorkshire, LS29 8SU Correspondence: 13 Crossland Road, Manchester, M21 9DU -- 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.
