[Coworking] remote worker research for economic development & workforce

[Liz Trice]

As part of my research on using coworking as an economic development tool, 
I'm curious to learn if any states are actively pursuing remote work as a 
workforce development strategy. In my thinking, every remote worker already 
living in a town represents a potential career path that a local could 
pursue.
Any leads? 

Liz Trice
PelotonLabs
Portland, Maine
USA

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Re: [Coworking] Re: partnership agreement (BEAHIVE is expanding)

[Liz Trice]

I'm not sure who should eventually own the space. Ideally we can find and train 
someone who will act like an owner and be successful, but if they aren't 
successful we would want to be able to buy it back and try with someone else. I 
want advice on how to set up the ownership structure with that in mind. 
This project is taking place in a depressed rural market with access to great 
recreation resources as an economic development strategy so it's not something 
that would be attractive from a strict  business perspective,  so we would be 
looking for someone with a commitment to the local community and desire and 
ability to stick with it, and we're willing to raise some money to support 
that. 
For the landlord it's a long term investment in the growth of the town economy. 
 I should be clear that I actually have a few different projects here, some are 
in more depressed small towns and some are in town's that are closer to the 
centers of commerce. The more rural towns have access to more grant money.

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[Coworking] Re: partnership agreement (BEAHIVE is expanding)

[Liz Trice]

I'm looking for examples of partnership agreements. 

I currently run one space, and I've been approached by multiple landlords 
who would like to put spaces in their buildings, typically a historic 
building in a small walkable downtown that is still inexpensive. 

The idea is to create an ownership structure where the landlord puts in 
some capital, I put in consulting time to help set up the new business, and 
then find someone to hire and train to manage and eventually own the space. 
Has anyone seen or done some version of this?

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[Coworking] Re: I hate a morgue feel (need a space with life)

[Liz Trice]

We spent about $2k for a controller and maybe 12 speakers for our 2,000 sf 
first floor open space, and put maybe 3 in our upstairs quiet zone. 
Later we went back and added one in every bathroom, phone room, and 
conference room, and some of the offices. Each speaker was maybe $100 in 
the second round of purchases. 
We added them to the small rooms because the door of a phone room or 
bathroom ends up screening out the white noise, but not the conversation, 
leading people to believe (mistakenly) that their private conversations and 
bathroom noise is heard outside by others (which it's not).
Psychology is everything!  

On Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 12:04:40 PM UTC-5, AK wrote:
>
> As we embark further on our plans to create a coworking space. I have to 
> explain something. One of my hopes is energy within.  I sure don't want 
> someplace where there is only library quiet.  Am I out of line?  I enjoy 
> banter and a feel where people enjoy where they are and with whom they are 
> around.
>
> So...how quiet is a coworking space expecting to be?  I am not professing 
> it to be a loud frat house...but do people frown on others who engage in 
> lively conversation within the open space?
>
> In your mind--what is the perfect decorum?
>

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[Coworking] Re: Are you the Founder of a rural or tiny coworking space?

[Liz Trice]

I'm looking to collect best practices in cowering as an economic 
development tool in rural/ small towns; can anyone recommend spaces to look 
at as models?
I'm particularly interested if the space has an active partnership with 
Main Street, economic dev't, or entrepreneurship programs. 


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[Coworking] Re: I hate a morgue feel (need a space with life)

[Liz Trice]

A few thoughts:
1. A good sound masking system will create a level of white noise so that 
any individual voices don't stand out. If it's too quiet, people are scared 
to talk. 
We used: https://speechprivacysystems.com
2. It's nice to have a few people who are at least available to socialize. 
That might be underemployed freelancers and/or your front desk people. Even 
if most people just come in, say hello, and go to a a private nook to work, 
they'll appreciate the human connection and an opportunity to come back and 
chat when they want to. 
3. It's nice to indicate social places and times. So, our front couches and 
kitchen are always a social place, and we have a snacktime every afternoon 
that is always a social time. That helps direct people who only have some 
small amount of time to be social to the times and places where other 
people will be available. Otherwise, there's the risk that every time you 
take a break no-one else is available. 

PelotonLabs 

On Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 12:04:40 PM UTC-5, AK wrote:
>
> As we embark further on our plans to create a coworking space. I have to 
> explain something. One of my hopes is energy within.  I sure don't want 
> someplace where there is only library quiet.  Am I out of line?  I enjoy 
> banter and a feel where people enjoy where they are and with whom they are 
> around.
>
> So...how quiet is a coworking space expecting to be?  I am not professing 
> it to be a loud frat house...but do people frown on others who engage in 
> lively conversation within the open space?
>
> In your mind--what is the perfect decorum?
>

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[Coworking] Re: Small town spaces

[Liz Trice]

I'm working on collecting data and hosting a conference for the 30 
coworking spaces in Maine, most of them in small towns. I'm especially 
interested in case studies of coworking spaces that have partnerships with 
economic development. 

On Monday, October 8, 2018 at 12:16:51 PM UTC-4, Jamie Tyrell wrote:
>
> Hi:
>
> I am from Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.  I am conducting a feasibility study 
> on co-working/collab spaces and to see if this would work in my City.  I am 
> looking for resources and consideration on what to include in my study.  
> This can be in the form of experiences, other feasibility studies and other 
> spaces that work in small cities.  Population is 50K.
>
> Thank you in advance!
>

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Re: [Coworking] To build offices or not?

[Liz Trice]

Yes, build offices. People with flex desks have less commitment; they're 
more likely to be in transition and/or have financial issues.  
Think of it this way: would you rather spend time pursuing someone who pays 
$1,000 x 24 months = $24,000 per sale, or $200x 6 months = $1,200 per sale? 
It's roughly the same effort. 
You should have enough private offices to pay all your basic overhead, 
including the minimum you need in terms of staffing. 
Get leases signed to cover all your basic expenses so that then you can 
enjoy playing host to the people in transition, hosting events, and 
building community among your members. 

On Tuesday, July 17, 2018 at 8:35:32 AM UTC-4, nanette...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Wow Joshua, great example! I was hoping to hear the opposite scenario. 
> Thanks for the reality! The landlord for the mall says they won't help with 
> any build out. We'll see what we can negotiate.
>
> On Monday, July 16, 2018 at 11:21:21 PM UTC-4, Joshua Webb wrote:
>>
>> Nanette,
>> The more offices the better. The cost will be worth it. I started off 
>> with much the same thought as you. "A couple rooms will be fine" I thought. 
>> We put about 50k into a space with mostly open space and a few private 
>> rooms. In 6 months we learned 3 things:
>>
>> 1. People with non private space memberships (virtual office / coworking) 
>> dont have as much invested and therefore dont stick as much. People with 
>> private space contracts are much more predictable.
>> 2. People really want a private space and are willing to pay for it.
>> 3. Dont build what you think they want (or what you want them to want) 
>> build what they are asking for.
>>
>>
>> So here is what happened. We had to move to another building with enough 
>> room to build offices. We lost the 50k we put into the first space because 
>> you cant take it with you (floors, network cabling, walls, paint...)
>>
>> But thankfully our landlord saw the potential and worked with us to find 
>> a better solution. 
>> Now we occupy 15k sq ft with 30 offices plus coworking space, and 
>> classroom space. Private office holders account for 85% of our MRR. We 
>> sold almost all of our private spaces in 3 months. Now we are at full 
>> capacity and building out a new location with 80+ offices in a high rise 
>> with our same landlord.  We have become partners now. 
>>
>> I write all this to say I knew what I thought I knew and I had to learn 
>> the hard costly way.  Work out with your landlord to get free rent or have 
>> them pay for the build out. Make it worth their wild and share revenues 
>> till they get their Tenant Improvement money's back. 
>>
>> There are options for you.
>>
>>
>> Joshua Webb
>>
>> Founder at Growthli
>>
>> 844-455-GROW (4769)
>> Https://Growthli.com 
>>
>> © Growthli | A Place To Learn, Grow, & Office™
>>  
>> ATTENTION: The contents of this e-mail message and any attachments are 
>> confidential and are intended solely for addressee. The information may 
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>>
>> On Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 9:58 PM  wrote:
>>
>>> I've read that the trend for members to want private offices. We are 
>>> looking at the cost of up-fitting an open space and it sure would cost less 
>>> if we didn't have to build 5-6 offices. We realize we need to bulild a 
>>> conference room and we have areas where phone rooms can be retrofit but the 
>>> cost of offices really puts the cost out of reach. I realize that a yearly 
>>> contract for an office of 3 or more people is a good bread and butter 
>>> situation. I know Alex Hillmans Indy Hall space is open desk. Would love to 
>>> hear about any others. Can you get yearly memberships on open or dedicated 
>>> desks? We are thinking we can have some movable, screening dividers for 
>>> teams of 3 or more. Would be nice to be able to add offices on an as-needed 
>>> basis. 
>>>
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>>>
>>

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[Coworking] Re: Nexudus pluses and minuses

[Liz Trice]

We've been using it for over a year and like it.
We have 4,600 SF, 6 private offices, two conference rooms, and about 35 
seats in a small city with three other coworking spaces, all similar sized. 
Nexudus reduced the amount of time we spent on administrative tasks by 
about 15 hours/month, but it took us a year (working on it maybe 4-5 
hours/week) to fully transition to it. We had to change our credit card 
processor, redo our website, do lots of tests. . . things you would have do 
anyway if you were starting a business from scratch. It might be easier if 
you were starting from scratch, but we had already been in business for 5 
years, so we had to change almost all our business systems, and it took 
time. 
Before that we were using Quickbooks to charge people,  Liquidspace for 
conference room rentals, a Wordpress site with a plugin for member 
profiles, and Zoho for contact management. We still have quickbooks for 
bookkeeping, and use a combination of Streak and Nexudus for contact 
management. 
We still don't have the online check-in function working; we bought 
mikrotik routers two years ago and have finally given up after not finding 
a local contractor willing to work with them; we are likely going to unload 
them and switch to Ubiquity routers. 
The two other we considered were Satellite and Cobot.
The customer service for Nexudus has been great. 

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Re: [Coworking] Digest for coworking@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 1 topic

[Liz Trice]

After losing multiple tenants we added an extra layer of sheetrock with
clips that created a small air gap between layers. We also paid to have
sound baffles installed in the hvac system. Google wall construction stc
ratings.

On Aug 22, 2017 4:12 AM,  wrote:

> coworking@googlegroups.com
> 
>  Google
> Groups
> 
> 
> Topic digest
> View all topics
> 
>
>- Sound Isolation <#m_-1412248781598639452_group_thread_0> - 2 Updates
>
> Sound Isolation
> 
> Adolfo Taylhardat : Aug 21 09:21AM -0700
>
> Hi all,
> I would say that one of our major challenges has been sound isolation
> (even
> between private offices) and I am looking for innovative, cost-effective,
> visually pleasant solutions. Any recommendations/suggestions/opinions?
> Adolfo
> Jerome Chang : Aug 21 05:35PM -0700
>
> Hi.
>
> For your offices, do your walls go to the roof or the above floor
> structure? If not, add batten insulation (that pink stuff w/ foil) above
> the ceiling, especially if your ceiling is “ACT”, or acoustical ceiling
> tile.
>
> Keep in mind that sometimes you don’t want to isolate sound as that will
> deaden the sound too much.
> Maybe you want just to shape the reverberation?
>
>
> JEROME CHANG <>
>
> talk to us: (323) 330-9505 <>
> chat w/ us:  <>http://www.BLANKSPACES.com/chat <
> https://lc.chat/now/7173741/>
>
> WEST: Santa Monica <> |  <>1450 2nd St (@Broadway)
> CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)
> EAST: Downtown <> |  <>529 S. Broadway, Ste 4000 (@Pershing Square)
>
> Back to top <#m_-1412248781598639452_digest_top>
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[Coworking] Re: longest lease for coworking place?

[Liz Trice]

Alex,
One thing I've thought about with my own building is getting the community 
- a combination of members and neighbors - to buy the building. I know that 
equity crowdsourcing is legal now. Anyone with experience with this? 

> Liz Trice
PelotonLabs <http://pelotonlabsportland.com>
Portland, Maine

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[Coworking] Re: Connecting Cowork Creators

[Liz Trice]

HI-
I've been participating in Tony Bacigalupo's coworking mastermind groups 
and it's been great! http://nwc.co/
I'm in Portland, Maine, so would be happy to connect directly, too. 

On Friday, November 4, 2016 at 9:27:09 AM UTC-4, 
ch...@thecoworkconsultant.com wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I'm thinking of creating a network/mastermind group for people who OWN or 
> are STARTING coworking spaces (max 12 individuals - for now)...
>
> I've seen a few threads about connecting coworking spaces for members of 
> the coworks...BUT...
>
> What about a network for people who are creating coworking spaces? The 
> model I have in mind will allow us to talk about the pitfalls, systems to 
> implement, and how to build a culture? 
>
> We learn alot from one another and I'm not seeing many resources for those 
> of us who are creating cowoking spaces...besides trial and error (which can 
> be VERY expensive and time consuming - I know:)).
>
> The intention of the group I'm proposing will be to discuss the method 
> I've used to develop and launch coworking spaces and to connect with other 
> cowork CREATORS. Woo hoo!!!:)
>
> Format will be;
>
>- Group call model which I facilitate via screen share. 
>- See and discuss my process. 
>- Collaborate and connect with other people in similar coworking 
>situations.
>- 3 month timeline
>- 1 hour call/screen share every 2 weeks (6 sessions)
>
> Would anyone be interested in something like this?
>
>
> Thanks in advance for any feedback,
>
> Chris
>

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