hi Mike... The Bourse looks a great space, so I'm sorry to hear that you are struggling to gain members.
I am giving my professional expertise by working on marketing to increase membership at my coworking space - http://www.moseleyexchange.com we have approx 50 members now and are looking to increase that to about 60. Things that work seem to be: - word of mouth referrals, via members, facebook, Twitter, blog, etc - local PR in the area we seek to recruit members from - better e-newsletter to members and interested parties (I will send that to you) - getting people to try the facility at no cost = free fridays with coffee and cake, art shows, workshops, Pecha Kucha, "Jelly" days, etc - we have re-focused away from "the space" towards "the community" - who are the members, what are their interests, etc? - we are now starting on focusing on the success that members have had since joining - entrepreneurial examples - joining the international coworking visa programme - bartering free time in exchange for acting as a host, marketing and PR activity to help get things established (a space with people in - like restaurants - is more appealing than an empty space. The other thing is being continually creative - if one thing doesn't work try something else quickly! Hope this helps James Rock http://www.cultivar.co.uk On Feb 13, 11:22 pm, Michael <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everyone, I've been lurking on this discussion list for a few > months now but wanted to introduce myself. I'm Mike, and I cowork at a > coworking space called The Bourse in New Haven. The space is beautiful > and enormous, and I've been working closely with the owners to help > create an online presence and buzz around it. We just opened late > December of last year. Check out our website athttp://www.boursenewhaven.com > > While New Haven is a huge startup city, it's still a comparatively > small city population, and we're "competing" (I use quotes for a lack > of a better term, we really want everyone to succeed) amongst a really > well-run and established coworking space called The Grove that is > literally just down the street, as well the many startup incubator > spaces in the area and great coffeeshops/free wi-fi areas. > > The owners have tried to distinguish The Bourse amongst the > "competition" by offering a little more anonymity and less rigorous > vetting to become a member (no interviews to get in, no forced > workshop sessions and teambuilding for members). By no means do we > want a total lack of community or collaboration, but we'd rather have > it happen naturally for those who want it. > > After 3 months, we still have practically no members. And I will admit > that the owners did break a cardinal coworking rule in setting up the > space before organizing a core group of members. They were blessed to > own a multi-story historic commerical building, and converted an > unused floor of their building into The Bourse. Now, they're > struggling to find people who are willing to take a chance and work in > a very large and quiet/empty space until we hit a critical mass. We're > marketing as best as we can, both online and in person, trying to > partner with chamber of commerce, Yale, and other organizations that > make sense, and we've brought someone on board to organize and hold > monthly "bootcamp" workshops and events to just get people in the > door. > > The discussions that have gone on this list have been extremely > helpful to us as we trial by fire. I so want this space to be > successful, as do the owners obviously, but they definitely suffer > from lack of resources (they run and manage other businesses in their > building) and the STRONG desire to be profitable. > > To all the space owners out there, what were critical factors for you > in reaching your "breakeven" number of members? What else can we do to > attract a core group of members. How have you dealt with other > coworking spaces that may be closeby? > > Mike K. Nguyenhttp://www.mknonline.com > [email protected] -- 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.
