I've seen this approached a few different ways. Sometimes people go after an anchor *company* thinking that a large sum of money from a single source will help stabilize things. In practice, this tends to do more damage than good and presents a big liability to the community when the coworking space relies on a single company (or any single significant source) of revenue.
But I don't think that's what you're asking here - you're asking about anchor *individuals*. This is absolutely key! Think of anchor members as the people in your community who lead by example. They may prepay membership, but they're invested in other ways as well. Instead of thinking about demographics (work from home vs freelancers vs startup entrepreneurs), think about looking for people who share a similar long-term goal as you. This comes from sharing the "why" behind your coworking space. I wrote this post about Indy Hall's why <http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2012/04/the-virtues-of-indy-hall/> LONG after we opened, but it's based on the same kinds of conversations I was having with people before we opened. The people in our community who I think of as anchor members are the ones who are on the look out for problems, and instead of complaining, help solve them. The people in our community who I think of as anchor members are the ones who notice new people, introduce themselves, and make them feel welcome (so it's not all dependent on our staff). The people in our community who I think of as anchor members are the first ones to pitch in when somebody asks for help. People who pre-pay are great (we're doing a big membership prepayment drive right now, our biggest ever, and I'll be writing more about that soon). But if you think about the opening of your coworking space more like a barn raising <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising> and less like opening an office, or starting a service business, you'll end up with a far more productive and sustainable result. If you haven't seen it before, check out Simon Sinek's "Start with Why" <http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en> (he has a book by the same title, but the 18 minute talk has most of what you need) and a few other posts I've collected on mobilizing community members: - http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2008/12/a-roadmap-for-community-organization-and-mobilization-harvey-milk/ - http://nilofermerchant.com/2012/04/04/what-replaces-marketing/ - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/07/all-we-need-is-250-votes.html -Alex ------------------ *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com Listen to the podcast: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/podcast On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 10:26 AM, Jennifer Kready < [email protected]> wrote: > It was suggested that I might find anchor members who, could they be early > adopters?, who have both financial investment (a long term membership buy) > but also networking/influence in bringing new members (and keep current > members) to the space. This gentleman suggested going the HR route and > finding private employee work at home types, but I don't feel those members > will advocate for coworking; instead act primarily as a funding stream. Is > that bad thing though? > > Is there such thing as an anchor member? What do they look like and how do > they act in your space? > > Thank you - Jen > > -- > 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/d/optout. > -- 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/d/optout.
