I quite like this plan Alex. I've heard it before, but somehow, perhaps due to your larger 5000sf size, I'm glad to hear this works well.
By the way, are your desks set up to fit 1 or 2 people per desk? Jack, at BLANKSPACES, we've opted to pay for this overhead because we didn't know how to manage the liability of anyone else to be responsible for the space. Also, that kind of "customer service" was just always built in to our concept. Besides, when I planned this in 2007, there wasn't exactly many resources for researching who did what, like it is now with such active discussions on this thread alone. As a result, however, we've established a level of experience that I think is slightly unique (or at least rare) among coworking facilities. I guess you could say it's kind of corporate, which I do admit relative to the typical coworking set-up, but it's also attracted a customer type and even potential investors that is commensurate with this "serviced experience." Jerome ______________ BLANKSPACES "work FOR yourself, not BY yourself" www.blankspaces.com 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.330.9505 (office) On Feb 20, 2011, at 7:23 AM, Alex Hillman wrote: > A little more background on our 2 former office managers and their stories: > > http://www.indyhall.org/blog/2009/08/06/how-indyhall-got-the-best-office-manager-without-hiring-an-office-manager/ > http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/11/a-story-of-discovering-potential/ > > -Alex > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 10:22 AM, Alex Hillman <[email protected]> > wrote: > First and foremost, it depends on the expectations of your members. But a > little about how we've handled things: > > We've been able to build ourselves in a way where there's a very strong "DIY > (do it yourself)" ethos to Indy Hall - if you see something that needs doing, > don't expect it to be done for you (it might be, but don't expect it). On the > same token, if there's something you want or need, ask, and if there's a way > we can help YOU accomplish it (not have it accomplished for you), we're in. > The result of this is: > > a) much lower overhead > b) much more interesting things are done (not just the things we can dream > up, but the things from the whole community) > c) spilling beyond Indy Hall's daily operations, a much stronger sense of > giving is embedded in our community. > d) people have much stronger sense of attachment to Indy Hall, since there's > a good chance that there's something in the room that they contributed to in > some way. our retention rates are ridiculously high because of that last one. > > With that mentality in mind, we've been able to operate with one part time > person as the space administrator - being the friendly face at the door, > providing tours, being a consistant point of contact if/when something is > wrong, handling billing/invoicing, etc. Overall, though, even at our size > (~5000 square feet, 50+ desks, 130+ members, 5-10 dropins a day) its a part > time job. > > Because of that, we've taken a fundamentally unique approach to that role in > the fact that because the role is part time, we' specifically look for people > that want to be at Indy Hall - but have other things to work on. It gives > them the opportunity to use the perspective gained at the front desk of Indy > Hall to figure something out for themselves. > > We've had an art school grad become a software product manager/support lead. > We've had a psychology major become a video game designer. And our latest > addition, a program manager for the American Composer's Forum, is finding > himself while helping run our desk part time. Each time, within ~12-18 > months, that person's approach to their own professional course has changed > dramatically. > > We're looking for ways to extend this model into our own variation on an > "internship of self discovery", but in the mean time, have found that it's > the best way to create thick value for the space and the member handling the > space. > > -Alex > > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > > On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Jack <[email protected]> wrote: > We are going through the process of opening a space in Prescott > (Launch Pad Prescott at http://launchpadprescott.wordpress.com/). We > are trying to decide if we need to hire someone to act as the Space > Manager/concierge and wanted input from other space owners on how they > have handled that. > Thanks > > -- > 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. > > > > > -- > 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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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