Hi all. I think we were in danger of doing too much research if anything, but we're so keen to have the best start, even though we know that things may well change as the members show/tell us what usage they want. Right now, after meeting/asking almost 100 prospective members, and looking around at prices all over the web (we have a Google spreadsheet with loads on it, and a ton more on our Podio system), we think the following works best
Associate membership- 25 hours in the front room, which is a coffee shop style area, and which is designed for drop ins, quick email checks, grabbing a coffee, or anyone who isn't quite sure about becoming a proper member of the community. This is our pool of future full members, as they see members go in and out of the main hub, and want to upgrade to be part of the wider and bigger community Community (2 days a week, day time only, access to the 2 main coworking areas, kitchen/diner, breakout room, training room, private soundproof phone booths/ complimentary small meeting rooms, bike lockup, showers, priority event invites etc etc) Community+ (As above, 3 days a week + 24 hour access, so you can stay late if you have been in during the day) Full time own desk (we only have 12 of these, in a dedicated room, includes all stuff above as well) Plus some founder memberships, student memberships, and day passes (plus some discounts for people like return to work mums, older people coming back into the workplace) This approach has been received really strongly by the community (not one single person has moaned about the pricing, which has surprised us, there's always a few), and we've had a lot of comments that we've intelligently reflected the difference between people who want to drop in now and again (users), and those who want to be part of building a community, and how by having a pool of users, and making sure we tempt them into upgrading, then we will have a constant source of new blood coming into the hub. We have RFID swipe card access all over the building, and we're currently talking to some potential members about help with building a system to link the access control to the billing/membership software. For the associate members, we're not going to get them to swipe in and out (too annoying), but their membership will be linked to the fibre connection, so they will be effect be buying a bunch of web hours (there's very little mobile reception in the hub so we think that'll be quite an effective way of controlling usage. However, we will see what happens when we open, and I'm sure we'll change over time Tom On Thursday, November 1, 2012 3:48:02 PM UTC, John Wilker wrote: > > At Uncubed we started with the lots of options idea and have been boiling > it down to the basic use cases we see. It's 2-3 days a week. 5 days, and > Full time perm desk. We have a corporate plan but that's negotiated based > on need a lot of the time. > > We do the exact same thing Craig does RE: printing. It's no charge, but if > you print War and Peace we'll bust your knee caps :) Most of our members > haven't ever printed a single thing. the rest print a few pages a month > typically. > > > > John Wilker > Founder, 360|Conferences | Partner, Uncubed > (720) 381-2370 > twitter: jwilker <http://twitter.com/jwilker> > johnwilker.com | 360|MacDev <http://360macdev.com> | > 360|Stack<http://360stack.com>| > 360|iDev <http://360idev.com> > > On Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 9:22 AM, Craig Baute - Creative Density > Coworking wrote: > > Melissa, > > I'm repeating much of the stuff that Alex said. > > I think you have too many pricing options. Many coworking spaces go two > ways with their pricing - unlimited use or tiered pricing. Creative Density > and many others use a tiered pricing system and it generally breaks down to > 1 day/week, 3 days/week, and unlimited use. > > As for printing, I've opened two spaces and tried both printing charge > options. In Toronto we went with pay per charge and it just felt > like nickel and diming and most people printed less than 5 pages per month. > In Denver I've made printing free and just give the disclaimer that people > shouldn't print a book. It's much simpler to explain and matches my goal of > putting fewer barriers between the space and the members because I want > Creative Density to be there workspace and not constantly feel like a > business transaction. Overall, printing costs less than $1 per member per > month. > > Congratulations on moving forward with your new space. > > Craig > Creative Density > Denver, CO > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > > > > > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
