I opened the first co-working space in Denison, Texas, January 18, of this year. Very few people had even heard of the concept before. We are about hour north of Dallas, Texas, so I was a little surprised by how few people were familiar with co-working.
I started with prayer, lots and lots of prayer! Then I kept talking and explaining to anyone who would listen. Come up with a good way to explain what a co-working space is…”A co-working space is the antidote to having to work from a noisy café/coffee shop.” I also signed up with the Small Business Development Center of Texas at our local community college. I was matched with a local business woman who helped me with my business plan, thinking out loud process, research on what office rent was going for in my area and so many other things. It was helpful having someone to be accountable to. I found out that I spent too much money on my website. If I had kept asking around I would have made a better decision. Lesson Learned. I am on Main Street so I participate in all the Main Street Activities wither or not they have a direct impact on my business. Mostly they do not because I am not retail, but it is great exposure. Just last week I had a member join who had come by during a festival in March that I was helping with and had a quick tour. Two local chambers of commerce host a weekly pop up. The members meet at 8am at a local hotel with coffee and pastry, you put $1 & your business card in the bowl and when your card is drawn you get 30 sec to stand up and talk about your business. If your chamber doesn’t have something like that it would be a good program to host at your co-working space. Wendy Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Trevor Townsend Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2018 1:18 PM To: Coworking Subject: Re: [Coworking] Re: Hello! BNIs are a great option, and I'm joining the one in my area here in Aylmer, Quebec. Best, Trevor On 13 September 2018 at 12:49, Katrina Dye <[email protected]> wrote: Thank you Paula!! On Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 10:14 AM <[email protected]> wrote: I opened the first co-working space in the Tampa suburbs, and ran into the same challenge. You have to teach the communities about coworking before you can start talking to them about the value it'll add to their life!!! I joined a Business Network International group (BNI). It was a way I could multiply my voice by 45 people. Look online for a chapter in your area. If you don't find one, let me know and I'll get you to the right people to help you. Paula Blair SOAR Co-Working Tampa, FL On Friday, September 7, 2018 at 8:15:46 AM UTC-4, Katrina Dye wrote: Excited to put my ideas into action and pioneer the first ever Co-working space in Alexandria, LA. We are perfectly located and there is nothing here like this today which I think is a big advantage. The challenge in this area is finding my market when I have been working from home for so long! I've met with the Economic Development Center, Chamber of Commerce, and Small Business Development Center and I've received GREAT feedback. I turned to social media exposing my vision and am fearful the local business folks I've shared my idea with jump to it before I can get it off the ground. Any recommendations? As soon as I start talking about it, they seem clueless, follow up conversations become something more like, "I was also thinking of this" I don't want to rush the process! How can I grow my interest, and identify my market without losing valuable time. Great spaces, but the rent is ridiculous! Anxiously, terrified! Katrina :) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/coworking/wKf1wQRqAMA/unsubscribe. To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- 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. -- Trevor Townsend Aylmer, Quebec CANADA -- 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. -- 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.
