Hi Barbara, Thanks for your detailed responses!
Completely agree with your first 2 pointers. I will be offering days per month and not putting a restriction on which days members can choose to come in. I've also been playing around with different layouts and I think the best way to utilise the space in the middle of the room is to have 3 stations which can accommodate 5 people each. This gives each member 1200cm X 60cm of desk space which is quite comfortable. I'm also thinking about putting a couple of couches in that space to the right of the first office. Most of the feedback I've been receiving is to allow a broad range of people to utilise the space. I tend to think this is a good idea now too. Why limit the market indeed, especially if other people from different industries will make the place more vibrant. I was thinking along the lines of a multi function printer/scanner/copier as well for the office. Good to know Sharp offer a solution which can assigned members. That's very helpful to know. Thank you. Cheers again for your reply it's been very helpful! On Thursday, July 25, 2013 10:57:07 AM UTC+10, Barbara Sprenger wrote: > > Sean, > As always, Jerome's comments are great. I've interspersed a few ideas > below, too. > > Barbara > > On Saturday, July 20, 2013 3:50:25 AM UTC-7, Sean Qian wrote: >> >> HI All, >> >> My name's Sean and I'm planning on starting a co-working space for my >> colleagues and I in a few months. We're all newly registered migration >> agents and are hoping to get our own businesses up and running. We've been >> meeting at least once a month, usually at a restaurant, to talk over cases >> and to catch up but I figure we'd be a lot more productive working together >> a few days a week. >> >> Through a family connection I've managed to secure a premises on Collins >> Street, which is one of Melbourne CBD's (Central Business District ie Down >> town) premier street locations at a very reasonable rental rate. I've also >> negotiated a free period which I'm sure will come in handy. >> >> The office is approx 90m2, has a large open area, 2 decent sizes office >> rooms, a kitchenette and a small office which can be used as a private room >> or phone call room. I've uploaded a quick floorplan I drew for those >> interested. >> In this space, you'll be doing conventional cowork -- nice open plan >> layout with just a few breakout/team room spaces. >> I've been doing a lot of research about the movement and am so eager to >> meet all sorts of different people through the process of having a space, >> but I've got a few beginner questions which I'm hoping can be discussed and >> answered here. >> >> 1. So far, I think I'm going to have 3 membership packages - an all >> access pass, 3 days a week, and the casual 1 day a week. How can I keep a >> track of who comes in and when? Is the only solution to purchase/create >> some kind of management software like Nexudus or Cobot? I'd like to not >> have to sit at the front desk all the time. >> We found that "days per week" made people feel like they didn't have >> enough flexibility. We changed it to "days per month", and used "up to..." >> . I like both Nexudus and Cobot. Our software, however, uses an RFID access >> card tied to the web app to track usage. >> > > >> 2. Let's say the office has 85m2 of usable workstation space after the >> kitchenette is taken out, how should I calculate how many members I can >> there at any one time, and how many members I can have there overall? (Sorry >> I'm talking English instead of metric) Figure 50 - 100 s.f. per person that >> can be in the space at any one time. You can sell 3 x that calculation, >> roughly, for memberships, since you won't have very many people in full >> time. >> >> 3. Should I concentrate my advertising/marketing towards other migration >> agents or similar professionals or be more broad? We believe in being >> more broad -- why limit the market? We feel the thread between people is >> that they've chosen to live (or work in) a particular area. There will also >> be a certain type of person who likes your environment. In our spaces, our >> members range from startups to financial consultants to writers to teachers >> to counselors to grad students to web developers...I better stop... >> >> 4. What are some must have things? Photocopier/Printer? Couches? Water >> tank? I will supply a small fridge, microwave. coffee machine, kettle, tea >> and coffee beans. We like the Sharp MX series >> printer/copier/fax/scanner. Easy to use. And we can program in codes for >> each person. Then we enter the usage at the end of each month for billing. >> Pretty simple. Fast, reliable broadband with failover is the main thing you >> need! We also have a VoIP phone system. So we can add a new person on the >> fly, change plans, etc. Really flexible, but you need a good one. >> > > Let me know if we can help in any other way! > Barbara > >> >> Any feedback on the above would be greatly appreciated. I hope to have >> our co-working space up and running soon! >> >> Cheers, >> >> Sean >> > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
