All of these comments have been spot on; however I'd like to offer another perspective (as a coworker).
For some background, I'm working on Loosecubes, a website meant to connect independents and travelers to the right coworking spaces and desk shares, and to facilitate connections between spaces and the people working in them. We have a basic prototype out and are working hard on the second phase (thanks to the many of you who've been beta testers and provided feedback!). So in some ways, I am not the typical coworker; however, in many ways I am (if there is such a thing). In the last two weeks, working at New Work City, I have: - sat next to a publicist for startups who gave me some incredibly valuable advice for about a half hour - had a successful facebook application builder review our wireframes and offer feedback - been introduced to a NY Times tech reporter and numerous bloggers - had my blackberry fixed by a handset expert who was able to talk me off the ledge after mine exploded All this for the price of a basic part time membership! If coworking spaces are able to communicate these types of experiences to people - using community members to do so - any business person is going to come to the same conclusion I have: the economic benefit to my business is 10x what I pay to come to New Work City. If you added up the cost to me (as a understaffed startup entrepreneur) to track down a publicist, developer, reporters, and tech support on an ad hoc basis (not to mention the cost and time of engaging these services or spending time to meet with them and develop trusting relationships outside the workplace), it would be astronomical. In fact, I probably just wouldn't do it, and my business would suffer because of it. I think if people are considering business centers, staying home, or not willing to pay for memberships, it's because we're not 1) building communities that collaborate or 2) our members are not communicating clearly to the outside world the incredible economic opportunity coworking creates for them. Maybe the next wave of adopters needs to be recruited on economic, not strictly personal/lifestyle terms. (Just my two cents!) Campbell McKellar www.loosecubes.com beta invite code: lovemonday ps. I know what Tony has created at NWC is incredibly special AND incredibly difficult to do, so please take my comments with a grain of salt! On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:06 PM, mark gilbreath <[email protected]>wrote: > Marilee > > You've gotten some great feedback on the barriers to growth for the > human/"community" aspects of coworking. Let me add a couple of thoughts > regarding the physical and operational aspects. After all, coworking > facilities are real places with real expenses, offering a real product to > customers from whom we expect/need to be compensated. And, in many cases we > owners/operators have ambitions for our coworking operations to be our > primary livelihood. So while there may not be any barriers to growth of > the human community, there are real practical challenges and barriers to the > business operations. > > *We should expect increasing competition in the marketplace.* The barrier > to entry to open a cowork facility is relatively low. It is unavoidable > that some communities will eventually be "overbuilt". We should expect the > serviced office/executive suites industry (Regus et al) to wake up... at > some point... and view coworking venues as competition. We should expect > competition from new players in the commercial real estate world who are > scrambling to figure out what to do with a massive over supply of high > quality office space. > > *We need to be able to operate our facilities at a profit, however modest*. > Facilities that are running at a loss or at just breakeven will not be > able to sustain themselves against competition or unforeseen changes in the > market. We need to to have sufficient profit margin to maintain our spaces, > invest in generating awareness to attract new users as we experience > turnover from our founding/first generation members, pay our staff and > overhead etc. > > Yes the community - the people, left to freely interact and self organize > ARE the culture, the heart and soul of our cowork facilities - *however > the spaces we create and the administrative processes we establish for this > interaction are the backbone. *How we design these spaces and the > business model we apply, has an enormous influence on member productivity > and have a substantial impact on our cost of operations. *To survive and > grow as a movement* in a competitive marketplace we need to look for the > same level of refinement and optimization that other real estate driven > businesses have discovered. Look to successful hotels and coffee shops for > inspiration. These companies are constantly looking for marginal gains in > all aspects of their operations to survive and grow. This may sound like > "going corporate" to some of us - but whether we remain individual > independent operators with a single great facility or aspire to grow to have > multiple locations in a region (as many of you do and or hope to!) scaling > will demand paying attention to the myriad of small physical and operational > details....efficient utilization of space, effective marketing, simplified > administration etc. > > Mark > > On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 4:50 PM, marileebowlescarey < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> What do people think are the key barriers to growth in coworking? >> >> Marilee >> >> -- >> 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. >> >> > > > -- > Mark Gilbreath > > PO Box 2830 > Ketchum, ID 83340 > > mobile 208-720-8107 > skype mfgilbreath > twitter markgilbreath > > -- > 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]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
