I'm so glad, Sean! The Sharp can be put on a lease -- in fact it's advisable. It becomes a monthly cost/profit center, and you just turn it over to a new one in 5 years -- or get a great deal on keeping it. We get them able to take ledger size for architects/drafters/accountants on bypass. Not used a lot, but it doesn't cost much and good selling feature.
Be sure you have power down the 5 person tables to plug in laptops/other devices. (We sometimes use 22" wide tables and attach them with a power strip down the middle if you don't have purpose made ones.) Barbara Sprenger [email protected] On Jul 25, 2013, at 7:11 AM, Sean Qian wrote: > 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 a topic in the Google > Groups "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/coworking/yQTlu6qD1HU/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- 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.
