I don't know if my information would be of use to you but I do thank you for starting this topic. I opened a "business center"/internet cafe' back in November of 2012. I had previously worked in retail as an operations manager and saw a need for this through many inquiries received at my work. Most of us know that internet cafe's were pretty much antiquity by the year 2000 but in the city I lived in, it was something new even in 2012. In October of 2013, I decided to transition into a coworking space to be part of the times. Here it is a year later and I'm still struggling. Despite my attempts to get people into my space by sponsoring meet up space, host a variety of classes, etc., it seems people here don't get the concept. In the couple of years I've been running this business, I've come across only four people who know what "coworking" is! I've had to "flavor" a lot of my social media posts with educational bits: what is coworking? how coworking works, etc. When I explain the concept, the light bulb goes off in their heads and they get it. It seems they're just not familiar with the word "coworking". I'm curious to know if anyone else has run into this dilemma.
On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:14:37 PM UTC-6, Alex Hillman wrote: > > I'm sure I'm not the only person on this group who has google alerts set > up for the words "coworking" and, sigh, "co-working". > > Between the number of new space announcements that show up in those > alerts, Deskmag's reporting on coworking growth trends, and many amazing > success stories that we've all been privy to seeing unfold, there's no > doubt in any of our minds that coworking isn't disappearing any time soon. > > But speckled in the success stories are sadder ones. Coworking spaces who > struggled and failed. > > Another one hit my Google Reader tonight, in St Louis. Hence this email > and this project being spurred right now. > > On one hand, the *business of coworking *is susceptible to all of the > rules of starting a new business - there's going to be a failure rate. Not > every business is meant to be. The rate at which I hear about closings is > increasing, but it's hard to tell if it's growing in or out of proportion > of openings. > > Between coworking spaces that struggle to keep the lights on and coworking > spaces that have closed (for good or bad reasons), there's patterns in > closures that I personally find very interesting, far more interesting in > "new hotness variations" on the coworking models. > > The pattern-watcher that I am, I see *some *things, but I need more > information to start building a hypothesis that can be proven or disproven. > > I can't do this alone. If you've started and closed a coworking space, > been a member of a coworking space that struggled and failed, or are simply > a passionate observer who saw an unfortunate closing, please take a few > minutes to help fill out this survey: > > https://indyhall.wufoo.com/forms/coworking-space-closings/ > > This information is personal and potentially sensitive. I don't expect all > of the replies to include names or all of the details. Many people on this > list have shared their personal stories before, and we should all be > thankful for that. > > The best solution I could come up with is to choose how anonymous you > would like to be. > > *1) The name and email address fields are optional and will ONLY be used > to reconnect with the submitter for more information.* > *2) The final required question asks for your consent to share the data > you enter, beside the optional name/email fields which are anonymous by > default. In case you have an alternate preference, you can specify it in > "other".* > > There's researchers on the list, so if there's other fields that you think > I should include (or better ways to collect the same data), I'm all ears. > > *Even if you're not aware of closings you can share about, I need help > getting the word out about this project. *I'm hoping for some assistance > from Steve King & Team Deskmag since I know this stuff is already on their > radar. If there's anyone else already studying this (all of the quiet grad > students on this list, I'm looking at you), I'd love to share work > reciprocally. > > My goal is to organize this information and share some hypothesis that we > all study together and share back again, overall helping the ecosystem not > just learn from successes but also avoid repeating historic failure > patterns. > > My hope is to be buried under a mountain of responses and have to recruit > some of you to help me dig myself out :) > > Thanks y'all. > > -Alex > > > -- > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > build amazing communities: masterclass.indyhall.org > > -- 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 coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
