Susan, we have three co-founders at Xindanwei, since last July we set up this coworking space in downtown shanghai, we have been working voluntarily without any payment. I don't know how others have been doing with their space, but two of us have been working completely full-time since the first day, and the third person too has spent 50% of his time.
Starting this month, we have hired a full-time space manager to work behind the desk and handle all the coordination works for events and daily activities. So three of us could get our hands free to focus on the new marketing and expansion strategies of coworking concept in the entire Shanghai. We pay the space manager some basic salary plus the bonus for each purchase. We also started to claim some small amount of salary(small enough to sustain the cash flow) for the hours we spend on Xindanwei. The reasons are: 1. We consider our Xindanwei as a social enterprises, not a charity work. An enterprise must be run like an enterprise. The expenses vs income plan and report must be complete(human resource cost are the highest one in the entire expense sheet), so you won't be fooled by the low amount of monthly cost of running of coworking space, meanwhile, you must give yourself pressure to sustain the breakeven and set up sales objectives. 2. In our case, our landlord will have a percentage from the total amount of profit, so our cost must be counted in in the expenses. 3. Our experience: People take more responsibility and take their work more seriously when they get paid, even for a small fraction of their work. 4. Last but not least, three co-founders must also be able to supervise each other for their contribution, payment is one of the methods. Cheers, Yan 2010/3/23 Jacob Sayles <[email protected]> > Susan I don't collect salaries at Office Nomads currently. We started this > both having part time jobs supporting us and now we have left those and are > doing this full time. That's obviously not a sustainable solution so we are > looking at our options. We'll know a lot more in a year. What I know now > is that this one space does not have enough overhead to tack on two more > salaries, and never will. We pay Alexandra to work behind the desk part > time, my sister Kara to handle the books, and Grego to clean up every other > week. That said, after two years we have made some great connections and > have found ourselves deep within a tight community of amazing people. We've > also learned a heck of a lot about how to start and run coworking spaces. > We have already started expanding our gaze and just today launched > coworkingseattle.org to help foster the local coworking movement... > although that's not a money making venture either. Instead it's the first > step to building a broader community because as we've seen many times over, > start with the community, and then see where you can go with it. > > Stay tuned. > > Jacob > > --- > Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation > http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 > > > On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Tara Hunt <[email protected]> wrote: > >> The owners of Citizen Space, including myself, have never taken a salary, >> but we've used some of the overage to pay for a part time space manager so >> that we can focus on our own businesses. >> >> Tara >> >> >> On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 3:30 PM, [email protected] < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> If you run a space, I would like to know if you take a salary? >>> For myself, I am looking at the having a small percentage of the >>> membership fees turn over to a salary for myself, and with those fees >>> I plan to development a handful of businesses. The salary will be >>> seed money, not a get rich program, so I can build a better community >>> - internally and externally. >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> Jodi Dean, Founder >>> OurSpace Fort Wayne >>> www.ourspacefw.com >>> >>> -- >>> 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]<coworking%[email protected]> >>> . >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> tara 'missrogue' hunt >> >> Company: Shwowp (http://www.shwowp.com) >> 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]<coworking%[email protected]> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. >> > > -- > 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]<coworking%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > -- Liu Yan 刘妍 CEO/Co-founder Xindanwei 新单位 4C,Bld 4, Dingxi Rd 727, Shanghai,CHINA 中国上海定西路727号四栋4C (+86) 135 2429 5509 @theliuyan @xindanwei http://xindanwei.com -- 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.
