Anakowi, Wow what a read, thank you for that! But don't worry, it looks like so many people here have given some great advice.
Addressing the bigger company, I have heard once or twice the notion of starting to charge more for teams over a certain size? I don't know if anyone here has any experience with this? This is something I will shortly look at as a local company have sold their office and took up 5 part time memberships with us. Like you, we are very small and have a great community however would hate to experience the problems you have faced and I think addressing this issue from the off helps, but like Angel said - change your terms and conditions whenever you want - learn and grow from these experiences. The beauty of having small cowork spaces like yours and ours is that we really get to enforce a Lean Startup (great book by the way) approach. Desk Cowork has evolved massively in our first 4 months alone. If they don't like this and conflict with solo members, boot them. Get out there, meet new people. People who I would never have thought would be good member prospects have signed up and joined our community, so don't rule anyone out. We even have ecologists and scientists who wanted to be part of our community. What I'm saying is, you will fill their space :) even if you have to offer discounts to get people in to try the space. At the beginning I ran these offers (at various times): - 20% off first three months (made this for selected industries we were lacking) - Second month FREE (meaning you get a financial commitment from someone as opposed to giving a first month free which would be rather dumb) - Always offering free cowork days to people to let them experience the place - Trade desk space and memberships for peoples services - this is great as you lower your costs, get more exposure, and if you have the space at the moment anyway then the place looks busier and more vibrant for new prospects coming through the door. The other day someone actually wanted to know when the busiest time to come is as they enjoy that more! Good Luck! Matt On Friday, May 27, 2016 at 4:12:07 AM UTC+1, Anakowi Paul wrote: > > Hi Jessica, > > I have "experience" having done exactly that but I'm not sure I can give > you ANY good advice. I've really hit the wall this week and questioning my > level of naivety in this venture. > > I apologise if this post comes across as a whinge but I'm struggling to > understand where I've gone wrong. > > My space is comfortable in a roomy and well appointed sense but TINY when > it comes to catering for a viable revolving door community of workers. We > have a max. 8 fixed desks plus we can accommodate another 8 in the > group-table, coffee-table lounge areas. Town population probably 3-4k > people, high unemployment but a lot of early-adopters of innovation. It is > not your typical office space being an old renovated hall. The space > includes a residential apartment... so the lounge area has a large > home-office ambience – an atmosphere that will suit some but not others. > > We've been operating for a little over six months now... and haven't grown > much. I've needed to adapt my ideas and tighten up the rules a bit (not > easy with those who've joined early) – but so necessary. Maybe this is the > hardest part when you don't have a stream of people lining up for a desk... > because it's the people who set and shape the culture of the community. > > Regional populations in Australia are very small - so marketing is not > easy. However I saw a need (not necessarily a demand) for affordable and > social working options. While I've been prepared to operate at a loss for > 12 months, with the idea of pricing products very competitively and > attractively, I hadn't factored in the heavy lifting involved in site > maintenance. Rules around "cleaning up after yourself" don't relieve me of > the janitor role. > > Pricing correctly (and sticking to it) is proving to be an issue. In > particular because I have a group of people from a single organisation who > are dominating – in the sense of "owning" the space, and over time becoming > less mindful of others (solo workers). They have asked for and I have given > the group concessions on their argument that they deserve discount for > volume. That was the beginning of more demands and I'm beginning to feel > quite manipulated. They now want 24/7 access without an increased rate > adding that they would probably look for their own office space. I > responded simply with the obvious – it's a coworking space, there is no > "lease", people come and go as needed. > > Two days later I was greeted with a bunch of flowers! and an offer to take > over the whole space. I said I would think it over. > > The feeling of manipulation is clouding my ability to think strategically. > Yes, I am taking it personally. It confronts my original vision. I'm > leaning towards a decision to increase my monthly rate (to better cover > maintenance) and to revoke the "discount" with the suggestion they find > their own office. I will take the punt that other coworkers will > materialise. Do I stick to my vision or do I acquiesce? > > I realise that part of my problem stems from starting out "soft". I didn't > develop and deliver the Terms and Conditions from the outset. Don't make > that mistake. And I wasn't clear in myself about the nature of offering a > coworking facility. Do customers have a right to expect coworking to be a > fully serviced option where they don't have to worry about taking out the > garbage? > > I would really appreciate a no-punches-pulled reality check from more > experienced coworking vendors. > -- 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.
