Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Coworking Startup School - Phase I: Validate
The Everything Coworking Academy
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
The Flex Academy Coworking Bootcamp - Unlock the full potential of Your Coworking Space With Proven Insights from Industry Experts in This Exclusive Video Series.
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Every coworking space has (hopefully great) coffee, but most spaces don't have a coffee business in their coworking space. This concept is becoming more popular as coworking spaces focus more on hospitality and integrating a food and beverage offering.
Jace is a Coworking Startup School™ alumnus so I got to be a part of his coworking journey and in this conversation, we get into the details and go behind-the-scenes on his coworking + coffee shop business model.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
- Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
- Coworking Startup School - Phase I: Validate
- Community Manager University
- The Everything Coworking Academy
- Follow Us on YouTube
We originally aired this episode in 2022…and it has more relevance today than ever.
Pre-pandemic, we tried to avoid 10-day passes and custom plans. We wanted full-time memberships and operational simplicity. Well…today’s coworking space user has changed our tune.
In this episode, we talk about:
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Looking at the 10 day pass as a “healthy” option for end users that needs to be sold in volume
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Designing access packages for teams - how to give them the access they need and getting the recurring revenue and predictability that your business needs.
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Testing meeting room access plans that build loyalty and recurring revenue
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Leveraging meeting room demand
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
-
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Scott Tillitt has a strong “why” around coworking. A PR/Communication Consultant by day, he also ran a not-for-profit supporting Localism and sees coworking as the intersection of community engagement, economic development, and supporting local. As a matter of fact, he’s not very worried about his coffee game because the mile-long main street Beahive is located on has no fewer than six local coffee shops.
Scott is a true coworking OG - he opened his first location in 2009 in Beacon, NY, a little over an hour out of NYC by train. Over the years he was a pioneer in experimenting with multiple locations and creative partnership agreements.
He shared his coworking journey, lessons learned in his fourteen years in business, and he also gave us a little BTS on his Coworking Ambassador program. Scott runs his primary location, but his second and third locations are staffed by responsible members, a very part-time Community Activator, and some Coworking Community Ambassadors.
If you’re trying to figure out how to manage staffing in smaller locations, you’ll get some good nuggets and perspective from Scott.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
The Everything Coworking Academy
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Coworking Startup School - Phase I: Validate
The Everything Coworking Academy
Neighbourgood is about great places to live, stay, work, connect, and experience. They've created a dense ecosystem of neighbourhood hotels, apartments, and workspaces that connect communities across Cape Town...and their mission is to do this around the world.
Murray was one of our very first Coworking Startup School™ students and he's taking coworking and community to the next level! He shares the Neighbourgood story to date and their vision for the future.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Coworking Startup School - Phase I: Validate
The Everything Coworking Academy
Tricia Teague is a multi-passionate entrepreneur.
She moved back to her hometown of Danville, IL after 20 years away and knew she needed to bring coworking to the community.
If you're interested in small-town coworking or leveraging grants to support your space and/or members, this one is for you.
Resources Mentioned in This Podcast
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Coworking Startup School - Phase I: Validate
Are potential members trying to get you to talk about cost per square foot? Shift the conversation to "total cost of occupancy" and compare the total cost of a traditional lease, or even a sublease, to a coworking option.
In this episode:
- We explore the concept of TCO, which goes beyond initial rent costs to consider all expenses associated with office space.
- We break down the TCO for coworking and subleasing, emphasizing the importance of hidden costs, flexibility, and included amenities.
- Learn how to use TCO as a powerful tool in conversations with potential customers, helping them understand the true value of coworking for their businesses.
Resources Mentioned in This Podcast
The Total Cost of Occupancy Blog Post
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Coworking Startup School - Phase I: Validate
In this episode, we explore one operator’s assumption that organic social media is critical to the success of a coworking business.
We talk about:
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Low organic reach (2% - 10%)
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The concept that we advertise on Google to get found by active searchers and we show up on social media to interrupt potential customers that may not even know about coworking
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Outsourcing social media vs. handling it in-house
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Investing in paid ads on either Google or Facebook
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Tracking your lead sources so that you can let the numbers tell you where to focus and what to spend money on!
Resources Mentioned in This Podcast
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
This episode focuses on aligning your coworking space size with your goals. It covers topics such as the importance of understanding your business model, considering different goals for your space, diversifying income sources, and understanding the profitability of small spaces.
Highlights:
- Considerations regarding the cost and profitability of small coworking spaces.
- Learning from Brian Watson and his experience with smaller, automated locations.-
- Different goals for creating a coworking space, such as fostering community or generating profit.
- The need to align your business model and strategy with your desired goals.
- The importance of understanding real estate costs, pricing, staffing, and unexpected expenses.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Brian Watson episode on automating small coworking spaces
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Jen Luby is the founder and CEO of Dayhouse Coworking in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago.
Jen's story might sound familiar....one day, while trying to do deep creative work with a three year old interrupting her every 45 seconds, she thought there must be a better way. Enter Dayhouse. Dayhouse was designed to serve members like Jen who needed a professional, but family-friendly place to get work done.
Jen and her team have experimented with various kid-friendly models and landed on a version where there's an enclosed, kid-friendly area in the space that is often used by therapists who work with kids and gets booked for school-day-off activities and day camps.
Here are some questions that I ask Jen:
Who is your ideal customer? What do they want out of your coworking space?
How do your values align with what your Ideal Customer wants as well as the type of business that you want to run?
What does being family-friendly look like for you? What have you experimented with?
What has worked/not worked?
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
I like to call myself a chronic DIY’er. This mindset has its place…that place is not in staining three decks with spindle railings…nor does it belong in creating a coworking business that could bankrupt you in mistakes made before you even open your doors.
Let’s talk about what can go well and what can derail us when we attempt to DIY a significant project.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
In this episode, we talk about why WeWork failed (the simplified version) and why WeWork’s failure isn’t correlated to the ability of an independent operator to be profitable and successful.
We cover:
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The short version of the rise and fall of WeWork
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WeWork’s historical focus on growth over unit economics.
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How independent operators and asset owners can focus on unit economics, local market knowledge and sustainable growth to create and grow a profitable business
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
How I Did This: Expanded to Multiple Locations
Lemonade stand plans on Pinterest
Our lemonade stand! We had to transport it to the park where we could access foot traffic :)
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
“And for us since day one, we realized that even though we have competitors in the sense of office space. We're really competing against people in their homes. If we can't bring people out of their houses and into a better experience at GP, then people aren't going to churn, right?”
Tim Hasse, the founder of General Provision, gives us the inside look into a space that identifies as a “work club,” not as an office or even a coworking space.
His intuition long before COVID was to create an experience that wasn’t just about work. “The mantra very early was that anybody could come in and outbuild us, but they'll never be able to outservice us. And that's the, the culture that still lives on, you know, nine years later.”
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
This is a bonus episode and it will be most relevant to those of you that are still thinking about or working on opening a coworking space.
On this episode I share the new format that we're testing for the Coworking Startup School with the goal to get you more clear and confident on the first few steps of our 12-Step Profitable Coworking Framework because these matter the most...and this is where the most operators make the biggest, most expensive mistakes.
Get the details on our live cohort - registration closes Friday, September 1st.
On this episode, Dror Poleg delves into the transformative shift in how we perceive and design office spaces. Gone are the days when developers had a clear roadmap for constructing workplaces. Today, with the rise of remote work and the shift of considering 'home' as the baseline, the game is changing. Poleg discusses the uncertainties leaders face, especially as emerging AI technologies stand to reshape the work dynamic even further.
A central idea presented is the concept of the office of the future. Not confined by a physical location, it’s envisioned as a network. Instead of static places, the focus is on enabling employees to access what they need, whenever and wherever. Poleg presents the idea that while offices will continue to exist, they’ll differ in design, accessibility, and financial agreements. He emphasizes the importance of adaptability in future designs, suggesting the ability for spaces to be easily reconfigured, moving beyond furniture adjustments to transforming entire wall structures.
The episode also highlights regional distinctions in office dynamics, underscoring differences between places like Austin, Texas, and San Francisco. In a rapidly changing world, Poleg suggests we may not settle on a standardized answer about workspaces for decades to come.
Dive in to explore the future of office spaces, understand the contrasts of macro vs. micro views, and see how work environments are perpetually evolving.
Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
Michelle Ottey is the Managing Director of CIC in Philadelphia.
The facility hosts 140,000 square feet of workspace, lab space, and more.
How do you stay focused on member experience and community building in 140,000 square feet…well…the Treat Trolleys stocking Klondike bars are a good start 🙂
But seriously, CIC Philadelphia is an incredible ecosystem that supports your “typical” solopreneur, as well as startups looking to commercialize life science technology.
They also have a strong focus on DEI and one of their OKRs is to help their member companies build a culture of inclusiveness.
This episode is a great case study on the diversity of shared space users and business models.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
Marina McCoy closed her own sustainability consulting practice and brick and mortar businesses to take the role of Community Manager at Hula coworking and hasn’t looked back. Hula is just that kind of place.
Located on the shores of Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT, Hula was created to give entrepreneurs and remote workers a reason to stay in Burlington. The complex is 150,000 square feet with 20,000 of it dedicated to “air desks” and dedicated desks” and the rest private offices and large suites.
When asked to rank order the value of their membership, they put community first and a place to work third.
Hula has a four-year waiting list for their private offices and five hundred air desk members.
WHAT? Yes. Have a listen for all of the details.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
If you are offering a mail service to either physical or virtual members, there are updates to the CMRA requirements that you must comply with.
This episode covers the updates.
The new rules apply to anyone providing mail service to physical and/or virtual members.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Article from Allwork on the changes
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
With 25% commercial office vacancy rates in major markets in the US, we may assume that landlords will sell US on being their tenant and throw ample tenant improvement dollars and months of free rent our way....but that is not the case.
Landlords are more risk-averse than ever, and they likely perceive you and your startup business to be risky.
If you want to increase the chances of winning an ideal location for your coworking business, you'll want to be prepared to sell the landlord on your business model, and you as the owner of the business.
In this episode, we walk through the steps to take to do that.
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
Shannon and Emiliano Lerda founded a cowarehousing space in Omaha, Nebraska. In less than a year, they have 58 business members, 70% of which are women or minority-owned. Elevator serves small to medium-sized businesses, e-commerce companies, and makers through co-warehousing & community.
Shannon and Emiliano dive into their version of the cowarehousing business model, their real estate model, fundraising, their tech stack, their business journey, lessons learned, and more.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
In this episode, explore the end-to-end process of selling a coworking space. We dive into when to sell, preparing your space, valuing your business, identifying potential buyers, and negotiating the deal. Whether you're considering selling due to personal life changes, retirement, or a shift in business interests, this episode is designed to prepare you for each stage of the process.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Business Made Simple Podcast on Selling your Business
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
This podcast episode is Part II of a two-part series. If you missed Part I, go back to episode 307!
Brian Watson is the founder of Alt Space.
Alt Space has 7 locations, no employees, and hundreds of happy customers...
In Part II of this series on automation, I talk with Brian about how automation makes sub- 5,000 sq/ft coworking financially sustainable while increasing reliability and consistency for customers.
He walks through the four customer types that the Alt Space automation program ideally serves.
He describes how the automation frees up the human ambassador or Community Manager to focus on hospitality, community building, etc.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Book a Demo: https://altspacecowork.com/early-access
Brian and Everything Coworking’s first episode on Youtube: Making Small Coworking Spaces Sustainable Through On-Site Automation
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
This episode has two parts - this is Part I of two.
Brian Watson has been iterating an approach to "ambassador" staffed coworking. He centralizies and automates as much of the sales process, operations, marketing, etc. as possible and lets his on-site ambassador focus on meaningful human interactions.
The template for a coworking business model includes a full-time Community Manager.
But we know that Community Managers spend a lot of time on things that aren't...community-related. In our conversation, we talk about the systems and technology Brian is putting in place to create alternative staffing models.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Book a Demo: https://altspacecowork.com/early-access
Brian and Everything Coworking’s first episode on Youtube: Making Small Coworking Spaces Sustainable Through On-Site Automation
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
In this episode, we feature a special guest: a female coworking space owner who has created a coworking space specifically for women. Join us as we explore her journey, discussing the motivations behind her space, the unique offerings it provides, and the challenges she has faced. Gain valuable insights into the benefits of coworking for professional and entrepreneurial women, and discover how this dedicated space fosters a supportive and empowering environment.
Whether you're a coworking space operator, an entrepreneur, or simply interested in the coworking phenomenon, this episode offers a glimpse into the experiences and successes of a woman who is making her mark in the industry. Tune in for an insightful conversation about the evolving landscape of coworking and the impact it has on women in the workforce.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
The Everything Coworking Academy
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective