Our desks are one per person, but our membership model is designed in such a way that the space is just a clubhouse for a larger community than uses the space - we provide more value than just rentable desks so people enjoy memberships that help them get involved and stay involved in a larger community of activity.
Again - it's a clubhouse for a community. The model is meant from day one to support more people than just the people that use desks every day. That means we have a mix of anchors (valuable for finances as well as culture) but also churn, which is just as important if not more important than having anchors for culture and diversity. If people wanted to go into an office full of the same people every day, there are other options for that. We have ~30 full time memberships at any give time and ~25 (soon to be ~35) flexible desks mixed in the workspace for the rest of the members. The rest of the members are utilizing one of the flexible memberships based on how often the expect to be at the office. Anywhere from 3 days a week, 6 days a month, and our "once or twice a month" basic membership. We've found that the basic membership is extremely popular for people who can't work from Indy Hall every day. We've got lawyers, accountants, even a doctor who takes what would normally be an administrative day as an Indy Hall workday. They take a day's worth of work that they otherwise don't look forward to and by making it the day they come to Indy Hall, it helps motivate them through their work and get more done. Obviously, YMMV, but we pay close attention to utilization patterns and have found that it's pretty easy to retain a flex membership count between 2-3x your flex desk count without people finding themselves without a place to work. We've been in our ~5000 square foot space for just shy of 2 years and in the last 6 months have found it increasingly busy. As we approach the "danger zone" of someone not being able to get a desk when walking in off the street without a reservation, we'll probably put new memberships on hold (with a waiting list) for 30 days or so to let things shake out. That's worked well for us in the past. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 1:57 PM, Jerome Chang <[email protected]>wrote: > 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]. > 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. 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