I think the trick is to shift from thinking of yourself as a coworking space and towards thinking of yourself as an organization that supports members of the new workforce in a variety of ways.
A lot of otherwise terrific and passionate organizers are being held back by the illusion that they're in the business of managing space. It's something I'm working to shift with my clients and friends. Look at the difference between mentalities: *Coworking space* - *Success metric:* Get enough members to cover costs and turn a profit. Then maintain status quo. Then fall into a rut. Then struggle. (Can you tell I'm not a fan?) - *Alignment with government and any other entities:* Minimal *Organization to support the new workforce* - *Success metric:* Number of people thriving working for themselves and building businesses - *Alignment with government and other entities:* Total! If you think of the coworking space as the home base of an operation that has a mission that transcends the facility, you're on a track that I expect would be easier to garner more substantial collaboration from government and various other organizations. People can be members of that without needing to rent space. Your community can live in places, online and offline, other than the facilities you manage. You're diversified, less exposed to landlords, and always focused on the mission. And you can avoid the coworking rut :-) Am I on the right track? Tony *---* *New Work Cities <http://nwc.co/consulting> - Helping people build better coworking cultures.* *Open Coworking <http://opencoworking.org/> - Championing the global coworking movement.* *Latest projects: Impact Coworking Program <http://nwc.co/3/impact-coworking-program> and the Ultimate Coworking Toolkit <http://nwc.co/toolkit>* *New: Support the free resources of coworking.org <http://coworking.org> for only $9/mo. Learn more! <http://opencoworking.org/news/support-open-coworking/>* [image: Inline image 8] <http://tonybacigalupo.com/>[image: http://twitter.com/tonybgoode] <http://twitter.com/tonybgoode>[image: http://facebook.com/tonybacigalupo] <http://facebook.com/tonybacigalupo>[image: http://linkedin.com/in/tonybacigalupo] <http://linkedin.com/in/tonybacigalupo> On Mon, May 30, 2016 at 4:19 PM, Nicholas Vincent < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > I run Cowork Penticton in BC, Canada and have a very solid relationship > with our community and our municipal government. I'm looking at > strengthening our ties with our Economic Development Office (EDO) and would > like to know if anyone else has worked through a similar challenge as below: > > - Our coworking facility is seen as a valuable community resource and > amongst other things, we feature in the City's marketing and new business > attraction material. It's a great relationship this way, however due to > restrictions on municipal spending that is seen to benefit a for profit > business that is really where the relationship ends. There are many > acknowledged opportunities for working together, however I'm struggling to > find a models that fits the red tape. > > Am I potentially looking at this from the wrong angle? > > Reading a post > <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coworking/jzfFfLDIKg8/D6VJet0CsS8J> from > Derek Neighbors back in 2011 on how a traditional coworking space may be > viewed certainly rings true and I'd love to hear more viewpoints on > structuring a sustainable working relationship with an EDO at a > Municipal Government. > > To be clear, I am *not* talking about asking for funding from our local > government. I am looking to find a way to position coworking such that > partnering with an EDO is financially beneficial and enhances their > information and development value to the City, given the unique environment > that coworking generates. > > Cheers, > Nicholas > Co-Founder - Cowork Penticton > [email protected] > > -- > 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.
