IF there was some way to dance for joy on the Internet, I'd be doing it. Short of making a video, just assume I'm doing it.
Thanks Alex! On Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at 4:42:13 PM UTC-5, Alex Hillman wrote: > > A common mistake is thinking that lots of "upgrade" options turns into > more money. I hope to break that opinion for you today :) > > In fact, lots of upgrade options creates a paralyzing collection of > options and a fear of being nickled and dimed. People hesitate to join > because they're confused by how they're going to budget for all of the > things they MIGHT need...even if they don't actually need them yet. > > And limiting access by the hour means record keeping for you, record > keeping for them, and worrying about "staying longer and going over". > Especially when your hourly limits don't coincide with hours in an > 'average' work day, people feel like you're a phone company keeping track > of their minutes instead of a cozy place to go and get productive when they > need it. > > *So with that in mind, in my experience, you'd be able to make more money > with LESS options...but better ones. * > > When we launched, we had three membership levels, all inclusive: > > - Basic membership. $25/month (now $30/month). Includes one drop-in day > per month. Additional days $15/day a la carte. > - Lite membership. $175/month (now $200/month). Includes 3 days a week, or > 12 days a month. > - Full time membership, $275/month (now $300/month). Your own desk where > you can leave your stuff. No extra charges. > > And about 3 years in, our book keeper pointed out that we had a lot of > basic members coming in roughly 6 times a month. We could create a 6 > day/month membership and save everyone a bunch of book keeping on the extra > $15/day drop in rates. So we did that and added: > > - Six-pack membership: $100/month (now $120/month). Includes six drop-in > days a month. Additional $15/day. (note that there's no actual > savings...just less paperwork). > > *Six-pack membership quickly became our second most popular membership. Go > figure. :)* > > The lower levels are often overlooked because the assumption is "more > money from bigger memberships, right?" > > Except...a LOT of people just need to get out of the house or office once > a week or once a month. Far more than need a dedicated space. And for > people who don't NEED to commute, there's not a lot of incentive to work > from the same place every day. Finally, not every kind of work makes sense > in a coworking space. Having strong and easy to choose flex options makes > coworking attractive to more people, including the ones who only come in > once or twice a month. > > All levels of membership are valuable, but basic membership and six pack > membership make coworking feel less like "an office I use" and more like "a > place where I can go when I need a change of scenery" which we've found > resonates with a LOT more people. > > The other benefit of having basic and six pack memberships is that over > 1/3rd of our revenue comes from people who *almost never use a desk. * > > We've done the math and if we charged for some of the things we include in > all memberships (member conf room usage, printing, etc) it'd come out to a > small fraction of that same amount of revenue. And best of all, we get to > tell all of our members, "don't worry, that's included in your membership." > > That makes them feel *awesome*. > > Last thing we added was in 2014 as an experiment. The source of the > experiment was that we noticed two trends: > > 1 - more people were saying "I'll join Indy Hall when I quit my job/need a > place to work" > 2 - more people who joined Indy Hall later cancelling, saying "I'm not > using it enough" > > Both of these were relatively new patterns. Prior to that, people happily > joined with Basic membership just to be a card-carrying member. But as > coworking mainstreamed, more people started to see coworking as "something > I'll buy when I need an office, but better". This also explained our new > cancellation reason. "I'm not using it enough" signaled that they viewed it > as a thing to consume vs a thing to belong to. > > That's a problem we can fix. > > So we added a new membership, the *Community Membership. $20/month or > $200/year prepaid. NO coworking days included. * > > Just online community (we use a power-combo of GroupBuzz > <http://groupbuzz.io> and Slack <http://slack.com>, as I've mentioned in > other posts) which are amazingly vibrant, plus they can come to our free > events without feeling like a freeloader. > > And we made it our FLAGSHIP membership > <http://www.indyhall.org/membership>. All of our coworking memberships > came with community membership included. There wasn't a way to join Indy > Hall without having a community membership. > > Crazy? Well, the language and positioning worked amazingly. > > We started to see a reversal in BOTH trends I mentioned above: > > For the people who said "I'll join Indy Hall when..." we had a way of > saying "there's a way to start getting to know community members now...a > lot of them were in the same position as you, before they left their jobs > or found one that let them choose where they work. They can probably help > you!" > > And here's my favorite: now we have people who email us to reluctantly > cancel their membership because they're moving away, or took a new job, but > they know that they'll miss the community. So we can offer them the > Community membership for $20/month (or $200/year prepaid). And they're > THRILLED. We just turned someone who was about to leave into a member for > life, no matter where they go they can stay connected. Bam. > > The beautiful thing about this membership is it allows us to create value > for one kind of member, and it *improves our long term member retention* and > *overall member lifetime value* (which is easy to overlook in favor of > "getting more members"). *Of course it's good to get more members, but > it's even better to keep a larger % of the members you already have :) * > > Last thought on pricing - it's a big mistake to anchor your pricing to > other options, even in the same city. *Anchor prices to the VALUE that > people get. * > > Your members are professionals. I'd be willing to bet that many of them > earn more per day than you charge per month. Think about that! > > Here's something that we've done ourselves and we've heard others do > successfully: ask your CURRENT paying members if they feel like they get > more or less value than they pay out of their membership. If you're doing > even a halfway decent job, most paying members will say that they're > getting a steal of a deal. *Which means...you're not charging enough. * > > When we raised our rates, we did it with 6 months notice and offered a > grandfather option for prepaying, which people found MORE than generous. I > included a note saying that if someone felt that the price increase would > impact their ability to be a member, to come talk to me and we'd figure out > a solution. > > When we announced the price increase, the #1 thing we heard was "It's > about time!" And only 1 person (out of nearly 200) came to me to say > anything about the price increase being a potential burden - but that she > was still happy to pay it because we'd been so considerate of the potential > situation. > > 11,000 square feet is a lot of space, but more importantly, you can do a > bit of work now to start making sure that people see the value in your > community BEFORE and AFTER they need the space...and streamline everything > from sales to billing along the way. > > Hope this helps you get past the trough you're in! > > -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 Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 5:02 PM, Aloma Loren <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> >> I just posted about corporate membership structures but I'm curious about >> pricing and basic individual membership structures as well. >> >> Currently our prices appear to be well below most of what I've seen by >> researching online but we are still the highest priced coworking space in >> our city (Eugene, Oregon). >> >> We are struggling with making things pencil out and so I'm exploring >> options to bring in some more revenue. >> I'm curious what options other spaces offer, how you structure pricing, >> what extra add ons you offer, etc. >> >> Here is what we have right now: >> >> Part time flex desk $85/month includes 4 hours per month of conference >> room time >> Full time flex desk $125/month includes 6 hours per month of conference >> room time >> >> Private offices start at $450 and include 8 hours conference room time >> per month. >> >> Add ons include: >> >> Desk and chair for private office $100 annual >> Suite number for mailing purposes $10/month >> Reserved locker $5/month >> Parking pass $15/month >> Additional private office member $15/month >> >> We have a steady influx of new members and have almost filled the private >> offices we have. We have just over 50 members. We have three conference >> rooms, a lunch room, printer, free coffee... We have over 11,000 square >> feet right down town. >> >> We have a great mix of freelancer/solo entrepreneurs and small companies >> in our space. >> >> >> www.eugenemindworks.com >> >> >> -- >> 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] <javascript:>. >> 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.
