Urban Workspaces: Recent Topics

Urban Workspaces: Recent Topics http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ Urban Workspaces: Recent Topics en Sat, 19 May 2012 22:43:37 +0000 Marc on "Space per person" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=13#post-28 Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:45:42 +0000 Marc 28@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ One of the important variables in the financial model is how many people we plan on putting in the space. Too many people, and its uncomfortable and members won't feel their getting value for money. Too few and the place feels empty and we need to charge too much to make the model work. There are several discussions on just this topic in the coworking google group. With so many new coworking spaces on the drawing board (almost all in the US) this is something many people need to know. Here is a <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/search?hl=en&group=coworking&q=square+feet+people&qt_g=Search+this+group">search of threads in the group.</a> You'll see that 100 square feet (9.3 square metres for the all of us in the rest of the world) is what many have found works. At least one is as high as 160 square feet per person, but planning to lower that to 130. Based on the space I am looking at, which is a rather large 400 quare metres, that implies about 25 to 40 people (at 160 down to 100 square feet each). My model, at the time of this post, is allowing for about 24 people in the office on a normal day (12 permanents at their desks and 12 casuals at shared tables). This means either (a) the space will be very luxurious, justifying a decent price per person; or (b) we can put more people in. So another piece falls into place... I'd hate to have found out that we could only fit 20 people in and needed 30 to make it work! Marc on "Flexibility in membership pricing" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=12#post-27 Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:08:23 +0000 Marc 27@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ I've been thinking about how to set membership pricing so that there interests of all stakeholders are met: <ul> <li>it should be cheap enough that members regard it as a bargain and new members don't see pricing as a major obstacle; </li> <li>it shouldn't be so cheap that we have a two year wait list to get in; </li> <li>investors need to be compensated for the risk they are taking, so there needs to an economic return for them; </li> <li>etc. </li> </ul> I've been thinking that, at least for the first year, we will have to have some level of flexibility... but we cannot do that in a way that frustrates members. Here is my current thinking: <ul> <li>Rates are ininitally set below where we think they ultimately should be in order to get people in as quickly as possible, and also to thank them for joining early and compensating them for any teething problems we have during the early days (although hopefully that'san overly conservative reason for wanting to give them a good deal!); </li> <li>We could tell everyone what our plans are for rates so they know what increases are likely and therefore plan for that, or we could put a cap on them... eg. "full time desk will not cost more than $X per month during the next 12 months", meaning no one goes to the effort of moving their business into the space without some certainty on the maximum cost. </li> <li>I think all members should pay the same as others on the same level - ie. if we're having trouble filling the place, we don't offer special deals to new members that existing members don't have access to... you should never treat new clients better than existing clients, even though many businesses do! </li> <li>That means, if we decide to reduce the rates then all members get the new reduced rate </li> <li>Any member that wants to pay in advance for more than one month can lock in their rate for a period of time. So if someone pays in advance for a full year, any increases do not get passed on to them until they are next due to pay. However, any decreases ARE passed on via a refund... again, you can't penalise people for doing something that is beneficial to you such as paying in advance for more time. </li> </ul> I think this suits both sides - the members are treated fairly, know the maximum they may have to pay and have the ability to lock in a rate by paying in advance for more time. The owners get the flexibility to change rates within the limits they set without being accused of chaning the rules on anyone or treating new clients better than existing/loyal clients. Any thoughts or ideas to add? Marc on "Provision of services" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=11#post-26 Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:05:54 +0000 Marc 26@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ One of the largest costs involved in running the workspace is likely to be paying for services to keep the place operating. Relying on one or two people to volunteer substantial time to get the place going may work for a while, but that is not a sustainable business model and could see the place face problems if those people cannot continue. My thought is that we should offer the ability to provide as many services as possible to members. For example, keeping the internet connection running and making sure members can log-in will be an important task. Hopefully we will have an IT expert amongst the membership who can do that for us in exchange for a greatly reduced monthly fee, if not a free desk. I have added a section to the business model to take this into account. It allows us to estimate the hours involved with each service and apply an hourly rate, and then see how this affects the bottom line. My assumption is that the rate that will apply to internal service providers will be lower than market, but more than just a nominal amount... meaning there will be an element of giving involved by those who take on these roles... but that's what coworking is about, isn't it? Marc on "An idea about marketing" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=10#post-25 Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:43:50 +0000 Marc 25@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ Obviously one of the keys will be getting people (the right people) into the space in a relatively short period so that costs are being covered sooner rather than later. My thought has always been that the best form of marketing will be members telling others about how great an experience they are having. Referral marketing is far stronger than any other form of marketing because it is "real" for lack of a better word. So rather than spending money on promotions and advertising, my thought was to allocate a marketing budget but pay it to existing members who find new members. Here's a summary of my idea: - All new members, upon joining, must nominate an existing member that brought them to the space. If they responded to some form of ad (say, a mention in an online forum) then whoever was responsible for that post will be nominated person; - For as long as the referring member (or investor) and the new member both remain associated with the group then some amount (say 5% to 10%?) of the new members fees will go to the referring member via a reduction in their own fees... or if the referring member is an investor but not a tenant then as a cash payment on top of their regular dividend. One obvious question is do we need to do this? Wouldn't happy members tell other people about the place even without getting paid? Of course they would, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve some form of reward anyway... just because it's the right thing to do! (Just because there is lots of work I enjoy so much I would do it for free, doesn't mean I don't want to get paid for it if I'm adding value for someone else!). Given investors benefit from having members actively looking for new members and helping keep the space near capacity, those referring members deserve some real thanks via a tangible share of the benefit (ie. profit) being derived by the investors. Another benefit is that it gives members a chance to do something to reduce their membership fees. If a member is really keen on staying but finds cash is tight, they can allocate some time to finding new members (provide we aren't full!), and if they can find a few they could substantially reduce their monthly fee. There are lots of small details to work out, such as what happens if a new member names two members as the reason they found the place? (My initial thought is to just ask them to name one and then let them sort it out between themselves as to whether they want to share some of the reward via a payment between themselves.) We'd also have to make sure members aren't looking for just anyone to join... maybe we do this by only commencing these payments after the new member has lasted 2 or 3 months without leaving or being asked to leave? Those sort of details can be worked out later once we have a few founding members and/or investors confirmed and who will obviously have input into these decisions. In the meantime, what do you think of the general idea of allocating 5% or 10% of revenue to payments to existing members who find new members for the space? Remember... I'm sure we don't NEED to do that, but that doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do! Marc on "profit vs. non-profit" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=9#post-24 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:42:03 +0000 Marc 24@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ I've been scanning the Coworking Google Group and found an interesting thread about running coworking spaces as profit making businesses relative to non-profit enterprises. Given the idea behind coworking is very much about collaboration some people assume that a non-profit or cooperative structure might be preferred (and I started that way, too). However, there are many locations set up for profit, and many comments in this thread give reasons why it can make more sense to run the workspaces as a profit making business. Here is a link to the article: <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_thread/thread/ca5130731536e3a2">Coworking as a business vs non-profit</a> Feel free to add your own thoughts here. Marc. Marc on "Policies vs. Trust" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=8#post-23 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:30:40 +0000 Marc 23@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ When I talk to people about my plans for a coworking space I often get questions such as "will you charge to use the photocopier?" or "how will you allocate bandwidth?". My answer has always been along the lines of "the community will decide what works best and those who don't fit in will be encouraged to change their habits". (Those who know more about the coworking movement will know this is how things tend to work, but it is a concept that is a bit foreign to people working in large corporates... a reason many of us left corporates, but that's a whole other topic!). My view is that most people can, and like to, be trusted. In the book I'm currently reading, The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey, there is a quote from Gordon Forward, former President and CEO of Chaparral Steel: "We don't have policies. What we started with essentially were some very basic ideas. First, we decided that such things as trust and honesty were going to play a big role in what we were doing. We felt that a lot of the procedures in many organizations were designed to catch the 3 percent who were trying to cheat in one way or another. We decideed to design our rules for the 97 percent we can trust. The others would stand out like sore thumbs, we figured, and they'd eventually leave. That's exactly what happened." My thoughts are pretty much that... run the place for those we can trust, do our best to fill the place with those people, and the very occasional person that doesn't fit in will hopefully change their habits or leave. (But if they don't we'll have a last resort option such as a committee to review such issues - but hopefully that's never required). More recently I've modified this idea, and instead of just letting people do what they want (which might make those who need to make occasional heavy use of services like the printer feel guilty) is to create some facility whereby members can pay for usage they consider more than "average". For example, a simple box next to the printer/photocopier (together with information on the cost of such items) would allow them to drop a few dollars in the box when they feel they should. My guess is that more often than not we'll get too much money paid by members rather than not enough, and we can use that money to subsidise food and drink for our events, or buy fruit for the workspace. Marc on "Networking" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=6#post-8 Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:44:37 +0000 Marc 8@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ The idea of providing a workspace for micro-businesses is only the start of the idea. The goal is to make this place a hub (which is why there is more than one coworking location with the word "hub" in their name) for small business people. How can we do this? Here are a few ideas to get started: <ul> <li>Friday afternoon drinks, where all members are encouraged to invite one or two contacts to come and meet other members and expand their networks </li> <li>all members would get a number of guest passes which could be given to friends so they can come and try the place out for size we could run events such as guest speaker nights (eg. speakers on business related topics, or from community organisation, etc)</li> <li> </li> <li>we could host <a href="http://http://jellynyc.pbwiki.com/">Jelly</a> sessions once a month</li> <li>events held in conjunction with other coworking locations around Melbourne</li> </ul> <a></a> ... and I'm sure there are plenty more ideas we could come up with. The goal is to create something that is much more than just four walls and a roof to work under. It should be a community where the value everyone gets out of it (ideas, contacts, clients, etc) far outweighs the cost of being a member. The decision to become a member should be easy, and we should have a wait list of people wanting to join so their businesses can benefit in the same way. If you have any more ideas for how to build the network around this workspace and community, add them here. Marc. Marc on "Members "charter"" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=7#post-9 Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:25:59 +0000 Marc 9@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ Most coworking locations are open to almost anyone, providing they pay the fees and behave well. While I like the idea, I can also see benefit in being a little selective, at least in terms of permenent members. I like the idea of having potential members complete an application form which includes having to provide business references (or preferably have a recommendation from an existing member) as well as a couple of paragraphs describing what they can bring to the workspace. If we can fill the space with people that can offer something in terms of ideas, services, etc, that benefit all other members, I believe that we will quickly build a community that has people lining up to be a part of... rather than consistently having to work to keep the space filled. This is not about being exclusive by any means, but just making sure that the group is made up of likeminded people that are all intent on helping each other and the broader community, as well as doing well for themselves. Related to this I would like to see all members sign on to "charter"... similar to a code of conduct, but more about the positives (what we should be doing) rather than the negatives (what we can't do). So, for example, I think we should include things like: <ul> <li>conduct business with a high degree of integrity and business ethics</li> <li>always seek out "win-win" outcomes when dealing with clients and suppliers</li> <li>look for ways to contribute to the broader community</li> <li>etc</li> </ul> <a> </a> I will add to this list over time, but I think that if we can do some of these things then becoming a part of the community will be as big, if not a bigger, reason for people to want to join the workspace as just needing a place to work. What do you think? Marc. Marc on "Introduce yourself" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=2#post-2 Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:43:19 +0000 Marc 2@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ I'll start the ball rolling... I'm Marc Harrison, and am the person behind this website. I am a small business adviser and can be found at <a href="http://harrisonbc.com" rel="nofollow">http://harrisonbc.com</a> Let's get this happening! Marc. Marc on "Financial model" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=4#post-6 Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:22:25 +0000 Marc 6@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ I have embedded a spreadsheet on the "membership & business model" tab which outlines some early thoughts on a financial for the workspace. It needs a lot of work, but the financial model is the core of the business case that we'll need to go ahead with this idea. If you have any thoughts on any point - from the categories of member and rates through to the monthly expenses of running the workspace or the cost of furnishing the place, add your thoughts here. As more input is provided, through this forum and through friends outside of here, I hope to have something that will allow us to start making some decisions about how to proceed with a good understanding of the costs involved and the potential return for investors. Marc. Marc on "Coworking in Melbourne" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=5#post-7 Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:31:49 +0000 Marc 7@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ I'm not the only one to have this idea in our fine town. Here are links to a couple of other organisations that we would like to work with (as opposed to compete with, as there's plenty of room for all of us!). <a href="http://www.openhub.com.au/welcome">The Open Hub</a> - a coworking space in Queen Street, Melbourne. <a href="https://jellynyc.pbwiki.com/JellyInMelbourne">Jelly, Melbourne</a> - Not a space as such, but a group that gets together every second Friday to cowork. I haven't been to meet them yet, but plan to. <a href="http://www.donkeywheel.org/">Donkey Wheel (site not currently live)</a> - a great organisation that I was recently introduced to. They are a philanthropic organisation that recently bought a huge building in Bourke Street and have lots of interesting ideas for the space, including a coworking area based primarily around non-profit and community organisations. They can be contacted at: [info at donkeywheel dot org] Marc on "Coworking links" http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/topic.php?id=3#post-3 Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:41:02 +0000 Marc 3@http://www.urbanworkspaces.com/forum/ If you have links to any sites that discuss coworking, post them here. I will update this first post with links as they are added. Marc. The Coworking Movement <a href="http://blog.coworking.info/">Coworking Blog</a> <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/coworking">Coworking Google Group</a> <a href="http://coworking.pbwiki.com/">Coworking Wiki</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=coworking">Search Twitter for "coworking"</a> Coworking In The News <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/04/07/coworking/index.html">CNN - Next phase of working from home: leaving home</a> <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/21/smbusiness/coworking.fsb/">CNN Money - Office nomads unite in 'coworking' spaces</a> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2007/sb20070226_761145.htm">Business Week - Where the Coffee Shop Meets the Cubicle</a> <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/02/19/MN7CV2JFE.DTL">SFGate - Shared work spaces a wave of the future</a> Blog Posts <a href="http://www.businesspundit.com/coworking-vs-the-coffee-shop-who-wins/">Business Pundit - Coworking vs. the Coffee Shop: Who Wins?</a> <a href="http://www.marketingmelodie.com/index.php/2009/01/coworking-your-way-to-success/">Marketing Melodie - Coworking Your Way to Success"</a> <a href="http://http://mediabullseye.com/mb/2009/01/in-a-down-economy-startups-ris.html">Media Bullseye - In A Down Economy, Startups Rise From Coworking</a> Interesting Coworking Locations <a href="http://www.officenomads.com/">Office Nomads</a> <a href="http://citizenspace.us/">Citizen Space</a> <a href="http://the-hub.net/">The Hub</a> <a href="http://www.thenetworkhub.ca/">The Network Hub</a> <a href="http://hatfactory.net/">The Hat Factory</a> Other Stuff <a href="http://www.officedesigngallery.com/">Office Design Gallery</a>